Don't listen to the hate

Rating: 9/10 (28 December 2019)

I sat down to this movie fully expecting to turn off after 10 minutes. I came away surprised, it is excellent. Sure, it's different, but that doesn't mean bad. The animation is breathtakingly realistic, if you compared it to reality, reality would look fake. The main issue is that it's not a kids movie. The plan I assume is to return the film to it's Shakespearean origins of Hamlet and as a result kids will bore, but for adults it's great. There is so much depth to enjoy, the scene where Mufasa dies will shock even adults in its sadness. While it has to change to be realistic, like removing the dancing Hyenas in Be Prepared, they have adapted it well. For example the hula dancing scene with Timon is replaced with a Beauty and the Beast reference and the outdated Mr Pig joke is altered to fat-shaming. In addition, new jokes are added for the original fans such as Pumbaa being allowed to say fart when he is not originally, or Timon describing Simbas home as a 'big pointy rock' as he did in the semi-parodic Lion King 3. In short, the film exists almost as an adult version of the original. It won't satisfy alone, but as an optional extra to the original, it is extremely satisfying