A Technically Incredible Disaster

Rating: 2/10 (30 July 2019)

The Lion King remake follows the exact same story the original does, revolving around the character of Simba, a lion who after tragedy strikes, is fed lies and is forced to flee and never return to his homeland.
A reoccurring theme from Disney lately has been to remake some of their most beloved animated classics into live action films. While there has been a debate as to whether The Lion King (2019) is live action or not, it certainly appears that way due to the highly impressive animation. And while it is undoubtedly incredibly impressive, it's also one of its biggest flaws.
Some of the greatest aspects of the original Lion King were the character designs and the small mannerisms each of them had which made all of them original in their own right. However all of that is stripped away here, due to the stale animation which closely resembles a nature documentary. Nothing against nature documentaries, however the decision to go into freakishly detailed animation takes away the energy and heart of the original, leaving us with a soulless and dull feature film filled with characters who cannot display any kind of emotion.
Even the performances from the very talented cast are almost entirely lacklustre, although it is admittedly a tough task to bring any kind of life or character to the roles, again due to the stale animation. An exception to this were Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner who play Pumbaa and Timon respectively. They do their best and if nothing else bring a slight amount of comedy.
The Lion King (2019) will almost certainly make a lot of money at the box office which in all honesty is a worry. To reiterate, the technical achievement of this film is remarkable, however for me this was not the right way to go about remaking it, not that it should have been remade at all. To be honest I fear Disney may continue to remake these fan favourite films in an effort to squeeze any remaining money from their franchises that are so precious to so many.
To conclude, just watch the original.