Excellent visuals, but lacking the heart and energy of the original.

Rating: 6/10 (4 August 2019)

This movie was neither great or bad. This was basically a book by book movie of the original. The animation was stunning and certainly the highlight of the movie. The cubs looked awesome, the animals great and the scenery was just breathtaking. However, I believe that is what greatly deterred this film as well. The photo realism sucks the life out of the film---the characters are lacking the facial expressions and the audience is not able to emotionally connect with them and the scenes which they are in. Compare the scene of the wildebeest and Mufasa's death---there is a glaring difference between the animated and 2019 film and that is just one of many. The voice acting, while not terrible, seems to take a noticeable drop from the original. I recognized many instances where the phrases were slightly altered or the voices did not say the the lines with as much feeling or enthusiasm. In fact, even the original voice actor who played Mufasa did not put as much feeling and emphasis like he originally did(my dad felt exactly the same way after watching it at drive-in theator). The song "Be Prepared" was also heavily butchered; so disappointing. In addition, they also butchered the character Rafieki a bit---taking out several of his memorable lines and hilarious charm. I also did not care for that song written by Beyonce towards the end. The original tune fit it much better. All that being said, this is still a solid movie on its own and the photo realism makes it at least worth a watch, especially for animation aficianodos. Besides that, this film is a clear drop-off in almost every single way from the original---voice acting, pacing, character expression, music, etc. A solid movie on its own, but very lackluster if compared to the original.