‘The Lion King’ Movie Review: A Visual Achievement, But Is That Enough?

Jon Favreau’s The Lion King is one of the most astonishing visual achievement I’ve ever seen. Let’s just put it out there up front. The movie is all digitally produced (save for a scene or two, which Favreau included as a sort of challenge for viewers, see if they can spot it; he hasn’t yet revealed which scene it is), but it looks legitimately real. Think of the various nature documentaries out there. That’s what it looks like. It’s truly incredible what Favreau and his team were able to achieve. But that can only take the movie so far.

It should be said that while it’s not exactly fair to critique this new rendition against the awesomeness of the original, it’s also impossible not to. Favreau created nearly a shot-for-shot (in some cases, line-for-line) remake. You can’t help but compare specific scenes and quotes to the original source. And that’s where the photorealistic animation falls short. It looks too real. So much of what the 1994 version so good and so fun was the creativity animation allowed. Take a look at this video comparing the two versions of “Hakuna Matata.”

Haven't seen a side by side comparison yet. pic.twitter.com/nWPJV99yNC

— Richard Ziegler (@RichardULZ) July 11, 2019

There’s nothing necessarily “wrong” with the new version. But animators are so limited with what they can have the animals do when it’s supposed to be rooted in reality. And that extends to facial expressions as well. I’ve always known that’s important to conveying emotion, but I never realized just how important until it wasn’t there. Again, the animators and digital team had to keep the animals and their appearance as realistic as possible. Whether they’re simply greeting one another, laughing, crying, getting angry, their mouths and faces always look the exact same.

The Lion King is a heavy, emotional story. Seeing the characters going through those various emotions is key to the audience forming an emotional attachment. If you can’t see (and therefore don’t believe) the characters are genuinely feeling something, it’s harder for you to feel anything for them. The only real connection I felt was due to the huge nostalgia factor. If this was an original movie, I’m not sure how much I would have cared at all.

All that said, this is still The Lion King. With all the problems that come from making a near-identical remake, the good thing is that you know the story and larger themes are going to be great. That, combined with a serviceable voice cast, is enough to make The Lion King a solid, fun movie experience. The musical numbers leave a little to be desired (again, going back to the self-imposed limitations by the animation choice), but they still work.  Except for “Be Prepared.” My goodness did they butcher that one.

But the real highlight is the dynamic of Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa (Seth Rogen). Read any review, and you’ll likely see a special shout out to these two. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that  of all the characters, their roles seemed to differ the most from the 1994 counterparts. The freshness – particularly some new jokes – provided some much-needed electricity to the movie’s flow. Eichner and Rogen were pitch-perfect casting choices and they own the screen every scene they’re in. I don’t know that I’ll be rushing to rewatch this one, but you can bet I’ll be hitting YouTube to just watch their clips.

While maybe not exactly what fans would be hoping for, the familiarity and nostalgia of the original, combined with the excellent visuals and Timon and Pumbaa should be enough to entice anyone into a trip to the theater.

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Matt Hambidge