Not feeling the love tonight

Rating: 4/10 (20 February 2018)

Difficult to deny the worldwide success of this Disney animated musical from which already has sprung a sequel, a theatrical show and now, we hear a live-action remake in the near future. And yet watching it for the first time, I'd be lion sorry, lying if I said I thought it was top drawer Disney. I've liked Elton John's music too for many years too but again didn't feel the songs he contributed (with Tim Rice as his lyricist) were his best work even if it did give his career an unexpected boost at the time.
So what's not to like...well I struggled a little to side with the ruling Mafusa who when asked why it was okay for lions to eat antelopes, lamely proffered the line that lions turn back into grass when they die which then feeds the antelopes as part of the circle of life...that's not my understanding about evolution in the animal kingdom, where I thought survival of the fittest was the raison d'etre.
I know the film is almost 25 years old but I also thought the animation quality wasn't of the highest while the characters repeat stock situations and emotions which Disney still peddles today, i.e. rebellious youngster leaves home before returning to heroically save the day against big bad baddie, in this case Simba's uncle Scar. Oh and of course there are cute side-attractions a-plenty, like the meerkat that thinks it's Groucho Marx, his less-than-sharp wild boar sidekick that definitely isn't a pig and a witch doctor funky gibbon all helping Simba in some way or other. I didn't really think the hyenas who support Scar were especially malevolent either.
Maybe I'm just an old stick-in-the-mud but I just didn't think "The Lion King" lived up to expectations. No worries though or as they say in the film Hakuna Matata.