Waste of time, money grab

Rating: 1/10 (4 August 2019)

TLK is one of my favorite Disney classics, so while I didn't understand the need for a remake, I did look forward to seeing it with the full theatrical experience again. Boy was I wrong.
The core failure of the movie is the inexplicable choice to go fully photo-realistic with the animation. There is zero, and I can't stress this enough, ZERO expression or emotion in the characters' faces. Sure, it's zoologically accurate, but why does that matter when your plot is a conniving lion plotting a political coup with another species?
The voice acting was.....barely passable. Nothing remarkable, especially given the A-list names on the cast. Timon and Pumba were the high flyers here, and even they were a pale shade of the excellent originals. Classic musical numbers were either underwhelming or over-performed (looking at you, Beyoncé).
All of this is made even more obvious by the fact that the movie is nearly a shot-for-shot, line-for-line copy of the original. Timon and Pumba had some clever self-aware lines that poked fun at that fact, but given how closely they mimicked the original, it's remarkable that the final product managed to come out so flat in comparison.
I don't know what this means for Disney's other forthcoming live action re-releases. Aladdin wasn't up to snuff either, but had the energy and character to make up some lost ground. I've not yet seen the Dumbo remake, and want to look forward to Mulan, but if this is where they're setting the bar, I'll wait until they come to Netflix.