Faithful and visually dazzling remake that's probably a little too faithful to the original to become a classic of its own.

Rating: 8/10 (22 July 2019)

This is a faithful and visually dazzling retelling of the hand-drawn classic - but its reverence to the original film is likely to hold it back from becoming as well-loved a classic in its own right.
Favreau clearly loves the original - and he's so scared of messing with what was perfect in the cell-drawn version that there is often a feeling of an elaborate cover-version rather than the film finding its own unique identity (as his version of Jungle Book successfully did).
I think most people would agree that the best thing about the original film is its opening act - both in terms of story and visuals. And Favreau is so aware of this that he lovingly recreates the whole thing almost shot for shot. Unfortunately, it's so close a recreation that anyone familiar with the original is likely to be left feeling a little torn by what they're watching - undeniably impressive as it is visually. It doesn't help that the re-casting's are sometimes a little off (why bring back James Earl Jones but not Jeremy Irons? This was a strange choice - and a jarring mistake) and just as you get used to hearing the same lines spoken by someone new a new line comes along to jar things - or a familiar one is omitted. It leads to a general feeling of unease in fans of the original. That said, if you were coming to it fresh, having never seen the original, I think you'd be just as bowled over as I was watching the 90s version for the first time - if not more so.
Where the new version fairs far better is in its second half - after Simba has left the pride. In my view, the original film, classic though it is, really fell off in the second half - slightly in terms of story-telling but especially in its visuals - with character and background art paling in comparison with that wonderful opening half. This remake however, maintains a benchmarking level of visual splendour throughout - which gives the story a lot more weight in the second half. The appearance of Timon and Pumbaa invigorate this new film as too - with the re-castings here being such a success that they instantly strip away memories of the originals. This sections departs slightly more from the original too - in terms of visuals and dialogue - which makes the whole film suddenly feel a lot more like its own animal.
A lot has been made by detractors of the animation being "emotionless" in comparison to the original. While I can understand this point to a degree - I also think these people may have misunderstood the filmmakers intentions. What Favreau has done here follows the same animation template as established in Jungle Book - i.e. setting a constraint that the animals' faces and bodies should not move much beyond what would be physically possible in the real world. This means you won't get grinning lions or warthogs blowing raspberries, and that expressions are never going to be as over the top as they can be in cell-animation (which has no rules). If they were it would look absurd. Instead the animators use more realistic (and less anthropomorphic) tricks to get the animals to emote. It's a far more low-key approach, but a lot of thought and effort has clearly gone into it. It may be lost on a lot of people perhaps (and maybe children) - and is probably the main reason this version won't be as big a crowd-pleaser as the original - but anyone who really knows or loves animals (the real kind) is likely to find it pretty captivating and ingenious.
I'm a little surprised this remake has been so polarising and generally went down poorly with critics, since it's unequivocally a technical marvel of a film - and absolutely heads and shoulders above all the other Disney "remakes", other than perhaps Jungle Book. But I guess anytime you revisit a classic like the Lion King you're going to rustle some feathers. Take out the loony posters howling at the moon about "political correctness" and you still have a lot of sane-minded people unhappy with this remake. While I can sympathise with some of their grievances, at the end of the day, as someone who really loves the original, I still found this version hugely enjoyable and emotionally captivating. I only wish it had taken a few more risks - and that they hadn't dumped my favourite Hans Zimmer music cue (Simba running back to the pride over the desert)!