My Review of The Lion King (2019)

 

Written by Jeff Nathanson

Directed by Jon Favreau

Simba: "My father once told me: protect everything the light touches, if I don't fight for it who will?"

Earlier this month, I wrote a long overdue review for the animated movie and with Mufasa: The Lion King coming out this week, it was finally time to actually watch this live action taken on the iconic 1994 movie.

I got to be honest, part of the reason why I held off watching this was down to the fact that it looked so bland and almost colourless from thr trailers. Gone was the vibrancy of the animated movie for this version.

As a movie, it's a bit too dull and muted and especially during scenes where the colour needed to pop. Like most live action adaptations, it largely stuck to what the original movie with a little bit of character expansion here and there.

Once again, Simba (Donald Glover/JD McCrary) was destined to succeed his father, Mufasa (James Earl Jones) and once again, Scar (Chiwetel Ejiofor) enlisted the help of hyenas Shenzi (Florence Kasumba), Kamari (Keegan-Michael Key) and Azizi (Eric Andre) to usurp both Mufasa and Simba as King of Pride Rock.

There's a bit more time spent on seeing Scar's ruling ruin the Pride Lands with both Sarabi (Alfre Woodard) and Nala (Beyonce Knowles-Carter/Shahadi Wright Joseph) determined to put a stop to Scar. Nala did so by actually reuniting with Simba, albeit she wasn't too thrilled with his friendship with both Pumbaa (Seth Rogan) and Timon (Billy Eichner).

As you can tell, the last act played out the same between Simba and Scar with a side battle of sorts between Nala and Shenzi to fill up the time. Add some choice moments with Zazu (John Oliver) and Rafiki (John Kani) throughout the movie and it's just a race to the finish line for this one.

- Some new characters included a guinea fowl, a bushbaby, an elephant shrew, and an impala but they had little to do.

- James Earl Jones was the only actor from the 1994 movie to reprise his role. Scar was a more scraggly but lighter coloured lion compared to his animated counterpart.

- Standout music: Same as the 1994 but not as good if I'm being honest.

- Chronology: An unspecified time in the Pride Lands of Tanzania.

I didn't hate this version of The Lion King but I'd be lying if I said I loved it. Compared to it's animated counterpart, it feels very bland by comparison, more than I thought it would. I was largely underwhelmed by it.

Rating: 6 out of 10