The Lion King
Plot
A remake of the classic 1994 animated film, The Lion King breathes new life into the story of Simba, a young lion cub who is exiled from his home after the death of his father Mufasa at the hands of his uncle, Scar. As time goes on, Simba must learn to remember who he is so that he may save the ones he loves and claim his rightful place as king.
Review
The Lion King, throughout the years, has remained in my top three all-time favorite animated Disney movies. With Aladdin and The Little Mermaid in second and third. So as you can imagine, this year has been pretty awesome getting to see two of my three favorite animated movies getting a live action remake. And as far as The Lion King goes, it certainly did not disappoint, it wowed. I’ll try and keep this as spoiler-free as I can. But being that this is such a classic and iconic movie, I’m sure most of you probably know the story. Unlike the more recent live action Disney film Dumbo which changed the story significantly, The Lion King stays very true to the original. Which some may see as a bad thing but I loved every bit of it.
The beginning song “Circle of Life” is nearly a shot for shot remake of the animated film. I’m so glad nothing was changed. I still get goosebumps when I hear that song and see all of the animals bowing as Simba is lifted up in the air. Still such a fantastic way to start the film. Oh, and how cool is it that the great James Earl Jones came back to voice Mufasa?! The man has such a powerful and commanding voice and he has not lost a single step here.
No Disney movie would be complete without its music. And like the live action remake Aladdin before it, The Lion King brings the classic tunes back with new voices but (mostly) the same great lyrics. The one change I did notice was with the song “Be Prepared”. Still, a great villainous song, although some of the lyrics were changed a bit. Not a huge complaint but personally, I preferred Jeremy Irons’s version for the original. Mainly because it’s the version I grew up with.
As for the rest of the film, the animation story and voice acting were all top notch. Donald Glover gave a wonderful voice performance as Simba. Almost as good as Matthew Broderick in the original. And although in my opinion, Jeremy Irons will always be Scar, Chiwetel Ejiofor really has the villain voice down. While 95% of the animation was amazing, I was not a huge fan of the way Pumba looked. In my opinion, he was a little on the smaller side. I was expecting something a little more, for lack of a better word, round.
The one thing that was amazing on the big screen was the African scenery, Director Jon Favreau definitely knows how to make you feel like you’re a part of Pride Rock. I loved seeing the huge sweeping African plains and the lush green jungles. And the noticeable color shift and change to the land when Scar takes control adds a great feel to everything.
Overall, this a wonderful film that everyone in the family can enjoy. The little ones might shield their eyes when the hyenas are on screen as they are a little scary looking. If you are in any way a fan of the original, go see this one, you won’t be disappointed.
10/10
A review from my daughter’s perspective:
Hi, my name is Lizzie this is my review of the Lion King. I liked that they were so realistic but hyenas were a little scary. My favorite part was probably when Simba was a baby and he got the red stuff on his head it was so cute. The part where Simba and Nala went and saw the hyenas look so realistic it was scary at that part but it was really cool because it looked really realistic and I just thought that was really cool because it was still animation. My favorite song was probably Can You Feel The Love Tonight.
The voices were a lot different and that’s what I like about it because I like that the voices were different that made all the songs kind of sound different. My second favorite song was probably Hakuna Matata, it was great because the voices were different I like Simba because he sounded a lot different than in the normal one. And that’s my review of The Lion King
0 Comments