Visual Stunning and emotionally flat

Rating: 6/10 (1 February 2020)

The Lion King is my all time favorite movie and left the biggest mark on me as a child. It's a classic movie that has stood the test of time and still remembered for its story, characters and music. The adults today who were young when it came out in 1994 can enjoy the nostalgia and watch it with their own children, and now it's being introduced to the new generation who can have the pleasure of watching the first if they haven't.
Few things I enjoyed:

The visuals were stunning and made it feel like a real life documentary where the characters and their world actually exist. Really shows how advanced technology has become since the 80s/90s. This movie showcased what the future of filmmaking may go and the possibilities of how stories could be told.

New story arcs were refreshing and interesting additions. They expanded the story and the role of certain characters such as Nala and her lifelong rivalry with Shenzi and Scars attempts to make Sarabi his queen. Learning she chose Mufasa over him and a battle took place between Scar and Mufasa for control of the pride, which is how he got the scar on his eye, gave more depth to the history of the characters.

The negatives:

Hyper realism at the expense of emotional expression. Real animals have small eyes with no eyebrows and their faces are fixed unless they growl or snarl. The lions in the original had big eyes and eyebrows to convey a range of emotions and it gives the voice actors a lot more freedom in their performance. Most of it felt slow, deadpan and unemotional and i think the restrained style of animation hindered the voice actors. They must have been told to follow a certain style.

This took out any heart and soul the original had. We know what the original was so we can't help but compare the two. It was rich and vibrant and funny and sad and exciting and heartbreaking and beautiful all at once because the art form of traditional animation allows you to use character designs and colors that convey visually all these moods and emotions and you can give voice actors free range to deliver the best performance possible, to match the visuals.
Overall, the nostalgia saved the day and this is what the studio banked on. The people who loved it back in the day were buying movie tickets and the newer generation was joining them. Our opinions come after we've paid to watch it. It was a groundbreaking feat in filmmaking but lacked the soul and heart and warmth of the original.