A huge letdown

Rating: 2/10 (9 December 2019)

I was pretty excited to see this movie; I don't have a problem with the live-action Disney classic remakes and The Lion King was the first movie I ever saw in theaters, so I was really interested to see how they'd translate the story and characters into something realistic. But it was a big, big, big disappointment.
The only things I genuinely enjoyed about this movie were James Earl Jones' reprisal of Mufasa (I actually cried a little when I heard his voice) and the stunning CGI. Everything else fell completely flat. The voice acting -- particularly Beyonce's role as Nala -- was absolutely horrendous. There was no emotion, no feeling, and I felt that she (+ 95% of the other actors) were simply reading the words vs. ACTING the words. Everything was spoken in the same kind of casual whispery tone that really broke the illusion of the movie and story and distracted me from an otherwise beautiful visual experience.
If you can watch this movie for free (ie. through a streaming service) it's worth the watch just for the visuals, but not much else.