A visual masterpiece... that falls apart at its heart

Rating: 2/10 (9 August 2019)

Visually, it is a true masterpiece and a technical wonder! It really looks like Disney stole some footage from a National Geographic Lion special.
Unfortunately, this is where the praises end for me.
Knowing that the "realistic" approach will severely limit facial expressions and somewhat curb body language, I knew that they would have to double down on the dialog and its delivery in order to fully convey the character's state.
I was sorely disappointed when even James Earl Jones sounded like he was reading his lines with a gun to his head.
NONE of the characters delivered their lines with any emotion!
Except Timon and Pumbaa as Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner famously recorded their dialogs in the same booth. As a result, their interactions felt real and natural.
Whereas everyone else's dialog felt robotic, stale and out of context as their interactions were clearly spliced together from multiple recordings.
Byoncé (God bless the queen) is a phonemal performer, but as a voice actor, she only dragged Nala's presence down to hell.
Donald Glover gave a cardboard box performance as Simba and their rendition of "Can you feel the love tonight" was painful to listen to as, together, they had as much harmony as a bunch of kindergarteners singing Happy Birthday at a birthday party.
The biggest disappointment was that they cut out Rafiki's lesson about dealing with the past, but felt the need to pad the film with extra and often unnecessary extended scenes.
Do not expect your kids (or you) to fall in love with this adaptation, tonight.