Visually amazing but emotionally felt flat

Rating: 6/10 (21 July 2019)

I took my 6 year old son to see it and from the get go I was highly impressed by the visuals. From the sunlight reflecting off of fur and water to the dirt and grass I had to ask myself if they actually filmed on location. However with all the attention to detail in the way everything looked they seemed to choose to stay away from the animals actually showing emotion. I understand they were trying to be as realistic as possible but I couldnt help but feel like the "animals" themselves didnt care about what was happening...only the voices seemed to. Also because of this realistic approach the fight scenes and things of that nature lacked the drama that the original conveyed. For instance when simba and scar are fighting on top of pride rock there wasnt the slow motion shot of scar being thrown off. There was a great slow motion shot earlier in the fight when they are standing on their hind feet. So when scar just quickly and quite anticlimacticly fell off the rock I was like that's it? so humor...this movie had a few laugh out loud moments...mainly from zazu which was a bit surprising because I figured of course that timon and pumba would steal the show. Not to say that they didnt work because honestly their characters probably felt the most well casted. Ok now for what is probably my biggest gripe...every second that beyonce was singing was like nails on a chalkboard for me. No soul in her voice at all when she sang. Her voice was overbearing and crowded every word of the songs. Where as everyone else sang in a way that felt real her performance felt more like hey look what I can do. In the end my son seemed ok with the movie but didnt spend very long talking about it after we left and outside of the visuals I felt pretty much the same. So in the end nostalgia and the fact that it was stunning to look at got me to give the lion king a 6/10