An Unemotional Portrayal of a Disney Classic

Rating: 4/10 (30 March 2020)

So I watched the live-action version of The Lion King last night and was left utterly disappointed. As a hardcore 90's kid, I grew up with the animation version which might make me a little biased but this version was truly remarkably underwhelming.
To start, I would like to thank the CGI team for the stunning visual effects. I found myself captivated by the beauty of the Savannah and the stunning creatures that lived there. From the opening scene up to the very last one, I felt the effects were brilliant and very real-to-life. I imagine it took a lot of hard work to bring the story to life from animation to live-action and for that reason and that reason alone, I was very impressed by the visual aspects of the film.
However, the voice acting was well under par. I felt many of the actors did not express emotion enough which made the whole story seem very uninviting and flat. I mean, even the great James Earl Jones who returned as the great Mufasa was very underwhelming.
What was most striking about the animated version, apart from the emotion expressed by the animated characters was the fact that the voice acting was brilliantly executed and exciting. The musical stylings of James Iron who played Scar, Rowan Atkinson who played Zazu, Whoopi Goldberg who played Shenzi and even Jonathan Taylor Thomas who played young Simba drew me in from the very first moment and captivated my heart.
In this version, the songs were appalling, apart from 'Hakuna Matata' which I really enjoyed, the rest were way under par. In 'Be Prepared', I could hardly hear what Chiwetel Ejiofor was singing and the iconic 'I Just Can't Wait to be King' was bland and missed the awesome Rowan Atkinson flair I was looking forward to.
All in all, the cinematography was epic but the story lacked heart due to underwhelming voice acting and bland musical numbers.