The Circle of Life begins again.

Rating: Null/10 (9 August 2019)

With all the live-action remakes Disney has been making as of late, it seemed inevitable that "Lion King" would be given the same treatment. Question is how do you even redo a film beloved by most, the very height of the Disney Renaissance? Jon Favreau took on the task having previously done "The Jungle Book", though I'd hesitate to really call this live-action given that it's mostly animation.
I'd be lying if I said watching this on the big screen didn't make me feel nostalgic, getting chills when scenes like "Circle of Life" and the wildebeest stampede come around. Hans Zimmer's music is still a blast to this day. I also got some laughs out of the new jokes, including references to both the Broadway show and another Disney classic; Timon and Pumba are still pretty funny. The new cast gets credit for their vocal performances with only a few lines that felt off. Certain characters, dialogue, and moments were changed albeit minimally, occasionally to give new contexts or more believable actions such as Scar's plot to take the throne.
Apart from one added scene, though, it's still the same movie, which may disappoint those expecting something truly new. Another issue is the crew's insistence on making this realistic led to a problem: most of the animals, despite their vocal inflections, lack facial expressions, making it harder to connect with them in the especially emotional scenes. It's strange given that Favreau allowed the animals in "The Jungle Book" a wide range of expressions (heck, actual animals can be expressive from time to time). Some aspects like "Be Prepared" and Rafiki aren't as impactful as they did in the original and, while graphically detailed, the visuals don't pop as much, particularly during song sequences where the colors are more muted.
"Lion King" 2019 is a case of what I call giving a classic a new coat of paint. It looks nice, but it's still fundamentally the same thing. This left me conflicted. I still enjoy it, but at the same time I think more could've been done.