You Have To Ask - What Was The Point?

Rating: 3/10 (21 November 2019)

The lion King has a special place in my heart. Apart from Disney ripping it off from a Japanese guy back in the late 80's and making out like it was their own, the film itself, particularly the characterisations, are about the best to be found in any work from this company. There are some spectacular animated scenes, the wildebeest in the gorge for example but you can't get past that excellent voice cast.
So forward fast nearly 25 years and we have this remake, using all the latest technology, fur rendering and photo real CGI. The first thing that hits you is just how good it looks. This is a triumph by any measure, probably the best looking CGI film to have been made to date and when you consider the sheer volume of characters and sets, it boggles the mind even more. The way the animals move is amazing, every nuance perfectly captured. But then they start speaking...
You have to wonder who made the creative decision to not render the faces with expressions. Probably lies with Favreau, who knows but it was a fatal mistake. I mean, are we Disney or are we David Attenborough? Are we 'cartoon' or are we BBC Natural History unit? From the very get go, it was extremely hard to connect with the characters because you couldn't feel any emotion from their expressions. Even with hand drawn cartoons you can garner so much from them that the original film is hands down more emotionally engaging than this, even given that it looks totally real, it's just totally flat in terms of vibe. The mouths moved, the eyes flicked but there was nothing else there, it was just like adding voices to safari images but shot in such as way that it told a story.
Then the characters themselves: Mufasa, obviously couldn't be anyone else, I'm glad they got the big guy back for that role. Simba, well yeah, he pulled it off but the others were pretty grim with the exception of maybe Pumbaa. Scar was absolutely flat. Just think back to Jeremy Irons performance here and it was a performance. He was nasty, full of hate and vitriol, you could hear it behind every word, you could hear the spittle on Irons' lips as he delivered the lines. you could feel the hopeless pathos as he resigned himself to his place in the pride then how venomous he became when he saw a chance to end it and progress. The fella who did the voice in this film may be famous and had a few big roles recently but this part more than any character needed a super strong actor to become Scar and carry it. In my opinion it was absolutely devoid of any malice or any real detectable emotional aspect of the character. Even in the signature song it just felt like the guy was going through the motions, there was nothing to lift it from mediocrity.
I felt sorry for Pumbaa and Timone who weren't able to have those faces that cracked up and made us belly laugh. Again it just felt like watching creatures from the savanna with silly voices recorded over them. Back as a child they had a programme called Animal Magic where they did just that and it's all I could think of as I made my way painfully though this film that I really wanted to like but just couldn't. Beyonce as Nala, well, this just follows a trend of getting famous people in because they are famous not because of their virtues as a voice actor. This turn was also flat as the proverbial pancake.
But you can't take away from the animation and the look of the film which was exemplary in every way. Maybe someone saw some mock ups and decided that realistic animals with expressions and features were a bit silly but not as silly as letting this film fall flat on its face because emotionally, it's an empty shell. Now where's that VHS of the Lion King...