An Okay, Maybe Even Good, Movie That Falls Short of It's Source Material

Rating: 7/10 (24 July 2019)

First of all this movie is visually impressive-the landscapes are breathtaking and the animals look incredibly realistic (though when comparing establishing shots I'm not sure that the African sunset of the live-action remake outshines that of the original). This remake trades in the stylization for extreme realism-though this seems like this movies greatest strength, it quickly becomes it's downfall.
The movie feels like someone edited and dubbed over an animal documentary. Super realistic, but devoid of facial expressions and therefor emotion. This creates a juxtaposition that make it's awkward, almost off-putting, when these real-world animals start talking. I wonder if the movie would have been better if Disney would have conceded that this was a kids movie and sacrificed a little bit of the realism for the sake of humanism.
The realistic feel of this movie also pushed Disney to make the appropriate choice to make the tone of the movie more real and even keel, but the result is that the movie feels flat. Simba is missing his boyish charm. Mufasa lacks his grandeur and gravitas. There is far less chemistry between Simba and Nala. And worst of all much of Scar's sinister sarcastic, sneering, and delightfully evil scheming is lost behind his vacant albeit realistic expression. In addition, or as a result of, the voice acting feels bored and uninspired.
In a similar vein, the film tried to play it cool or at least safe on the musical numbers-many song intros are spoken instead of sung, sung parts feel mellow and noncommittal, and the musical numbers are completely void of choreography. This results in an underwhelming hollow soundtrack that moves the plot along, but does little to inject any energy into the film. I wish Disney would have decided that it was making a musical and committed to it or accepted that it wasn't a musical and scrapped the musical numbers completely.
I hate to spend a whole review discussing the aesthetics of a film, but the challenge of working with this realism ultimately weighed down the whole film. This burden, and the stark contrast to the original, is made even more apparent by the fact that the remake follows the original almost entirely beat-by-beat.
The movie is most interesting, engaging, and ultimately successful in the 30-second glimpses where it deviates from the original script and explores new ground-a brief discussion between Scar and Mufasa alluding to the history of their beef, a darker more sinister lead hyena, Nala's slightly hair raising exodus from the pride. A new ensemble of supporting characters fleshed our Simon and Pumba's bohemian paradise (even though the subtle hilarious fart jokes of the original became a little too spelled out and tired).
Again, I wish Disney should have either kept the original audio track and updated its visual look and feel or, preferably, had the courage to scrap more of the original script and allowed the movie to approach the story from a fresh, new, probably darker, perspective. The movie (especially the trailer) alluded to a fantastic discussion on the disenfranchisement and resentment of the hyenas, a narrative that could have been greatly expanded.
Every so often the talent of a cast, skill of a production team, and a little bit of luck come together to catch lightning in a bottle in a way that is nearly impossible to reproduce. The original Lion King was great, almost perfect, the Citizen Kane of a consistent powerhouse of an animation studio. It balanced a kid's movie with profound storytelling all while delivering a collection of Disney's greatest sing-alongs. When Disney decided to remake this movie, it took on an impossible task and made things worse by refusing to try explore anything really new. The result is a movie that is okay, maybe even good, but falls terribly short the source material it tries to replicate.