A decent remake, but won't surpass the 1994 original

Rating: 6/10 (19 July 2019)

Jon Favreau has once again worked a technical marvel with this updated rendition of Disney's Oscar winning feature from the mid-90s. Although it's updated in the visuals, the story is still the same one that a majority of the audience has grown up with from childhood.
The casting is fairly top-notch with the likes of award winning singer-actor Donald Glover as the older Simba (far more believable than Matthew Broderick in 1994), comedian John Oliver as eternal punching-bag Zazu (who is quite braver than his counterpart, but still hilarious with straighter humor than Rowan Atkinson's slapstick-like routine which makes the character Oliver's own), Florence Kasumba as a more sinister Shenzi who joys in terrorizing Nala, the beloved return of the magnificent James Earl Jones as Mufasa (and once again my childhood got to endure that trauma that makes me sob like a little kid) and JD McCrary and Shahidi Wright Joseph as young Simba and Nala respectively.
However not all the casting fits quite as well, but this is not to say the actors are awful or are utterly poor in their performances. They just don't deliver quite as much as many of their costars. As the big bad, Chiwetel Ejofor's vocals sound more like an impression of Idris Elba as Shere Khan in 2016's "The Jungle Book" which is a shame. The man is a great actor, but he mostly lacked the gravitas that was brought to the role by Jeremy Irons in 1994 (especially when he is opposite James Earl Jones). One major highlight is that Ejofor gets the menace of Scar correct and is quite vicious with his actions and is so self-serving he doesn't care what happens to others.
In the role of comedic relief with the always hilarious Timon and Phumba, I feel we got a downgrade from the hilarity that was Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella who had an Abbott-Costello chemistry as the duo. Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner feel more like two loud-mouthed buddies who try to replicate some of the beats from the original film. To Eichner's credit, he does capture Timon's arrogant attitude on-point more than Lane's smarmier meerkat and his 'Be Our Guest' parody is a gut-buster (though I miss that 'Luau!' hula, but this worked on so many levels). Rogen was the ideal choice for Phumba in concept, but he is clearly the smarter one as opposed to his original counterpart who is dimmer but is what made the humor work between Lane and Sabella; having two characters act alike isn't really that interesting a dynamic.
As for the badass Nala, we really didn't need Beyoncé in the role. While yes she can sing (although plugging her own song in wasn't needed or asked for by most) her vocals lacked what Moira Kelly was able to balance with the same character. Moira Kelly was more stubborn and sharp-tongued (while singing was done by Sally Dworsky who was excellent for the Oscar winning "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?") compared to Beyoncé' who seems content to live the 'Hakuna Matata' life. Beyoncé's Nala gets huge credit for rallying the lionesses in the final battle and taking on Shenzi in a girl-on-girl fight that was a nice twist.
The visuals are obviously one of the greatest parts of the film. Styled in the same photo-realism that won 'The Jungle Book' an Oscar for Visual Effects, this seems like an homage to how the Disney animators got inspiration for the original film's designs (the '90s team went to Africa and sketched the savannah and wildlife). However this technique takes away much of the expressive features that the original animation was able to imbue (like Andreas Deja incorporating Jeremy Irons' facial expressions and features into Scar). It's wonderful to see realistic animals though I suppose.
One final note goes to the wonderful score by original composer Hans Zimmer who took home an Oscar for the original film and the songs by Sir Elton John and Tim Rice (who also took home an Oscar for Best Song). From that opening chant by Lebo M and the chorus to the glorious triumphant 'King of Pride Rock' at the climax, I felt the tears welling in my eyes and wept; bringing those happy childhood memories back and fresh. Even Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen singing 'Hakuna Matata' was a blast (their singing was on par) and having Donald Glover just own the end of the song elevated it to coolness. Sadly the song that fell the shortest was "Be Prepared" which is basically the greatest villain song ever written of the Mouse House canon. Chiwetel Ejofor doesn't sell it like Jeremy Irons' throaty and foppish sly slickness. It's more like a talk-sing monologue that takes less than a minute which is no way to treat the darkest song of the film. The child actors during "I Just Can't Wait to be King" really brought the bounciness and youthfulness required with John Oliver adding a straight-man spice.