Visually splendid, but lacks wonder and excitement.

Rating: 5/10 (20 July 2019)

Two remakes of beloved animated Disney classics in as many months, Jon Favreau's live-action (visually speaking) version of The Lion King conjured up more hype and expectation than Guy Ritchie's Aladdin, but ultimately couldn't live up to it. The film's primary focus seems to be the delivery of photorealistic CGI animals - which it does, gloriously - although this quickly becomes a double-edged sword. Whilst it assists in the more dramatic moments - stampede, climactic pride rock showdown, anytime Mufasa's mane blows in the wind - it severely hampers the comedic elements due to the reality-grounding limits of the visual presentation. Whereas Favreau's 2016 The Jungle Book (and the modern Planet of the Apes trilogy) had a darker tone to suit the scarily lifelike animals, this mouse-house adventure relies on its toe-tapping joviality to offset, and actually strengthen, its serious scenes. Unfortunately then, gone are the amusing cutaways (Timon dancing in a Hawaiian skirt, Simba emerging from the lake with a puffy mane to name a couple) whilst the song-and-dance sequences lose their more overt fantastical strands (no hyenas playing bone xylophones = sad face). There's a relatively strict adherence to the original's plot and visual motifs with only a few minor tweaks and additions, however these fail to add anything meaningful beside the occasional smile-worthy meta-joke. The voice cast are hit-and-miss too, with comparisons to original counterparts hard to look past for some (not needed for the only returning cast member, James Earl Jones, who is of course always amazing as the regal Mufasa). So whilst Donald Glover (adult Simba) brings his child-like panache, Billy Eichner (Timon) amps up the snark and Seth Rogen (Pumbaa) nails the dopey optimism, Chiwetel Ejiofor (Scar) fails to reach Jeremy Irons level of terror and John Oliver (Zazu) lacks Rowen Atkinson's hilarious pomp. Although a jaw-dropping visual feat without doubt, this Lion King lacks wonder, excitement and memorable humour.