Precisely what it was meant to be. (8.5/10)

Rating: 8/10 (27 May 2020)

The point of this 2019 virtually photo realistic remake of the classic 1994 Disney traditional animation was to faithfully adapt that beloved original version's cartooned caricaturing into naturalistic physics as if the same exact story and characters could have been performed by real animals through precisely directed staging in front of a camera lens on location in the African Savanna - oh, and somehow articulate sophisticated angst and language sentiment as if fully conscious of sentient morality plights.
It accomplished that task astonishingly well. I have no idea what anyone has to complain about, it's not as if the cartoon version suddenly ceased to exist, so if the original animated movie's more vivid and broad anthropomorphized expressionism is what you prefer then you're in luck because it's a classic that ain't going anywhere.
The virturealistic version's fan service to replicate the original animation's iconography and signature beats is precisely why it exist and what makes it intriguing. That's not creatively lazy it's meticulously devout - as it was always intended to be. Also, in the first place The Lion King was never exactly the pinnacle of originality (Hamlet + Kimba The White Lion).
I think what director John Favreau and vfx company MPC accomplished along with Caleb Deschanel's virtual cinematography input is nothing short of masterful and most beautifully reverential to its source inspiration. The character conveyance of emotion through its realistic animation is sublimely subtle and nuanced, I'm sorry if the Snapchat/TikTok generation can no longer process cadence of observable emotive behavior that isn't demonstratively exaggerated, but if that's really a delimma it is certainly a personal one not shared by the fine craft on display in this rendering.
And let there be no debate, upon it's release Favreau & MPC's The Lion King was absolutely the most stunningly perfect computer generated sfx ever rendered in the history of anything to do with the milieu. The fact that a phoney fanatical backlash took any prevalence against such supremely realized work is a most shameful mark against a petulantly petty society that has lost all perspective.
But whatever. As far as I'm concerned the remake's legacy can be as proof of concept - now let's have ThunderCats... ThunderCats... ThunderCats! Hoooooo!!