A Lifeless, Pretentious Throwback

Rating: 3/10 (24 July 2019)

The biggest problem Disney's live-action remakes have encountered centers around the personification of real-life animals. In animation, the artist has the ability to express emotions on an animal's face, because the canvas is not heavily based upon the reality of the animal. However, in the Lion King 2019, the animals are CG and rendered to look like real animals, and they do, however it is at the expense of the ability to personify the characters. And since literally every single character in this movie is a computer generated animal, every single one of them cannot show emotion on screen. This absolutely kills all emotional sequences in the movie that touched viewers in the original animated version. You know that there is a problem when I am laughing at one of the saddest scenes in all of Disney movies (Mufasa's Death). The way Simba looked when he saw his father falling to his death was just how any normal lion would look if their mouth was open. Taking away the personification of the characters made the entire movie feel Lifeless.
Every new thing added to this movie felt unnecessary. Right at the beginning, after the Circle of Life, we get an extended sequence of a mouse moving around the dirt and grass to eventually fall victim to Scar. Why was this in the movie? Because Disney wanted to show off their photo realism (which I cannot deny, does look very impressive) and fill more time in the movie. Not much story aspects were changed, probably because the average person considers the original Lion King to be a masterpiece, but the main thing I noticed, was that the leader of the Hyenas was much more assertive, and powerful. This caused the 2 other Hyenas of the trio were intimidated by her, and even go as far as to lying to the leader about Simba's "Death". This never really got a payoff, and just feels plain unnecessary, and just a second but lesser version of Scar. Speaking of Scar, "Be Prepared", one of the most epic Disney Villain songs, was downgraded by 50. The entire song was building up to the climax of the familiar chorus, and then when it got there, it just stopped. The entire song was only buildup meant to excite. Overall, everything new added to the movie just felt like a way to show off, or get a positive reaction, even if what was being shown wasn't anything too extraordinary, and came off as Pretentious.
However, in all the rubble, there are still some good things in this. The voice acting was pretty good, (however this doesn't serve as a substitute for the lack of visible emotion in the characters). The CGI looks real, and the opening scene with the Circle of Life is actually really cool! The songs aren't even that bad either. Most Disney live-action remakes have an abundance of auto tune in their remastered songs, however this movie doesn't seem to have that much. And that's it. That's all the good I can say about this movie.
I don't hate all Disney Live-Action remakes. I liked Aladdin, because it had a lot of changes to the original, and even improved upon it in some areas. (also the main characters are humans not animals) Judging from the trailer, Mulan looks like it will be much more dramatic, and will twist up the original story with new elements, and that is great. However, I cannot bring myself to say that I liked this film, when the characters all have the same emotionless expression, and it barley has any new elements, and those new elements feel unnecessary. If you want to watch this movie, just watch the original 1994 animated version instead, because it is the same thing with actual emotion heart.