The Lion King Review

"Repeat after me....Hakuna Matata"


The Lion King was directed by Jon Favreau and is the latest in a long line of classic Disney remakes in live action form, can you really call this a live action film when the film is completely CGI but hey it is the closet we are going to get to really life talking lions. The film stars the likes of James Earl Jones, Chiwetel Ejiofor, John Oliver, John Kani, Seth Rogan, Billy Eichner, Beyoncé and Donald Glover.

The Classic Lion King film is up there with one of my all-time favourite Disney films so already from the beginning this film had extremely high expectations and also a sense of worry about its release. Would the film stand out compared to its previous version? would it be any good? or would the film damage the reputation of the original version?

Overall, The Lion King is definitely without a doubt a worthy remake to the classic film. Personally, in my opinion this film is more of a way to introduce the characters and story (and hey why not Hakuna Matata) to a new generation and I believe it does a worthy job of doing that. The film itself uses current CGI techniques to create a fully CGI film (I believe there is one real life shot in the entire film) but makes you believe you are watching the latest David  Attenborough documentary, honestly this film is so stunning and it is honestly as if you are watching the animals themselves in their natural habitat, the way the filmmakers have captured the way the animal movements are extremely lifelike and add to the realism in the film.

With the original film being so highly regarded out of all the classic Disney films it is always going to be extremely difficult to top the original film but the new cast do their best and in some cases are close to matching the original performances in some places (others fall short of competing). Jon Favreau brings back James Earl Jones to voice Mufasa which is one of the best decisions in regard to this film as honestly no one can replaces Jones in his portrayal as Mufasa. But it is Seth Rogan and Billy Eichner who portray Timon and Pumba that are just as good as their predecessor in the previous film, bring comedic value and of course a great take on the classic Hakuna Matata.

Whilst this is without a doubt a worthy remake and will be a film loved by family's all over, it certainly does have it's flaws at times. Having the animals look so lifelike at times can be extremely distracting when the characters begin to talk and looks extremely unnatural (of course) and really does take a while to get used (but when you do its not that bad). The film also does add some new elements into the story whether that be a new bit of dialogue, a new scene or a new song, none of these really add anything to the film and in my opinion are just there for a checklist to show the film is different from the classic film, but apart from those new additions this can be seen as essentially a shot for shot remake (which is not necessarily a bad thing when compared to how good the original film was).

Overall The Lion King is a worthy remake with stunning visuals that will leave you jaw dropped but doesn't exactly do anything differently that truly stands out from the original film or go one better than the original Disney film, but don't get me wrong families will love this remake and it definitely worth a watch.

Verdict:

4 out of 5 stars