The Lion King

Rating: 5/10 (4 November 2019)

The Lion King (1994) was a near-perfect emotional and humorous movie. Though its live-action remake doesn't go near its predecessor.
The elements that made the movie so special are lacking in this one. Let's take the "Be prepared" scene. In the 1994 version, Scar explains to the hyenas his dark plan that is to bring down the king and kill him to take its place. The exaggeration of the visuals, the music, the voice of Jeremy Irons suits the scene perfectly, making it frightening and evil. In the 2019 version, the scene is highly weakened. Chiwetel Ejiofor barely sings, however you can still distinguish a sort of song, making the scene uncomfortable. Moreover, we don't see the reaction of the hyenas very well in comparison to the original, who interact with Scar during the scene. Generally, the incredible music, making the scenes more emotional and heartbreaking in the original, are very weak and not even noticeable in the new version. Finally, the characters feel emotionless. They still express them though their voice, but with the realistically look it's really difficult to distinguish their feelings, unlike the original when the faces were drown.
The voices are highly important in The Lion King, and this was something I was afraid of when I heard of this remake. James Earl Jones retrieves his role as the great king Mufasa, and does the job amazingly. Donald Glover and Beyoncé portray the older versions of Simba and Nala respectively, offering a new side of the characters than in the original. Chiwetel Ejiofor, as much as he tries to be convincing, is quite disappointing but still manages to sound helpless and evil at some times.
However, the movie still offers touches of originality. You wondered how Nala managed to espace from Pride Rock? A new scene shows how she manages to get away from Scar's claws. Timon and Pumbaa's new friends appear when they are in the jungle, however they don't disturb the plot. Going back on Timon and Pumbaa, their infamous distraction scene in front of the hyenas when Timon dances the hula is replaced with a Lady and the Beast reference.
The movie follows the same plot as the 1994 one, but isn't a copy-paste as I feared, as new elements are added. This is the first Disney live-action remake I watch, so I hope the others take the same idea however changing some elements. Disney still has to realize that transforming a classic animated movie into live-action doesn't make it any better.