An interesting take, but just a bland copy of the original

Rating: 4/10 (16 October 2019)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
As the son of Mustafa (voiced by James Earl Jones), the 'Lion King', the young Simba (voiced by JD McCreary) is destined to take over from him and rule the animal kingdom upon his death, much to the chagrin of his evil uncle Scar (voiced by Chiwetel Ejiofor), who engineers a plot to murder Mustafa, convince Simba he is responsible and banish him away as he falsely ascends the throne. During his time in the wilderness, Simba grows into an adult lion and must return to Pride Rock to confront Scar, who's allowed his villainous cohorts the Hyenas to take over.
Although the original Lion King is a Disney classic I hold fond memories of from my childhood, I've taken my time getting round to watching this 'live action reboot' (of which Disney seem to be making their stock in trade at the moment) on the grounds that I wasn't awfully keen on sharing my viewing experience with loads of rowdy kids, and so waited until it had been out a while. Although it felt odd as a grown adult watching a load of talking animals, I tried to put aside my cynicism, and was rewarded with a scene for scene remake, minus the magic.
With the exception of James Earl Jones returning as Mustafa, the characters are all voiced by different actors from the original cast, none of whom have the same inflection in their voice that made all of them so memorable before. This isn't helped by the live action animals not having the ability to use their expressions like they did in the animated film. The success of David Attenborough's Planet Earth series shows how fascinating people find real life nature, and so transferring the film into a live action setting was certainly an idea with potential, but none of it is explored here.
This is Disney's special way of marking the 25th anniversary of the release of the original film, but while it's visually impressive, it still just amounts to the original film, scene for scene, with a third of the heart and Seth Rogen doing a characteristically crass turn as a farting Pumbaa. Stay at home and watch that instead. **