Badly Cast w/ No Emotion

Rating: 2/10 (30 January 2020)

The worst critique I heard before seeing this was that the animals show no emotion in their faces. I was willing to look past this as I thought a good cast could make up for the lack of emotive expression. I may have been right, but we'll never know because despite a good cast in of the actors themselves, only two actors fit their characters (James Earl Jones and Seth Rogan). I was so disappointed with Donald Glover (who really doesn't even talk that much, and when he does he's pretty unbearably boring and plain... kind of like Matthew Broderick...) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (whom I like less and less with each movie I view him in). My main complaint was it sounded like a bunch of people just having normal conversation rather than any cinematic, dramatic dialogue. The delivery of some lines was *painful*, especially with some key original lines. The script felt rushed and completely undramatic. It's a Disney movie... give us some drama, please.
Also, I don't know why Disney feels super fine re-creating some aspects/scenes of the Disney classics with perfect reflection (certain camera angles, character movements/expression, or lines being identical to the original), and then approach other classic scenes differently but with a cringy subtlety. Just do it the exact same way or leave it out. There's some serious cringe here, and in every other Disney remake.
I'm also super tired of this weird "original film self-awareness" thing that is present in all the remakes (Timon not interrupting Pumbaa in Hakuna Matata, or Genie dragging out the end of Prince Ali way more than in the original). It's just weird and awkward and not funny, especially when it's a classic moment and people get the thrill of knowing what's coming and look forward to experiencing it for the first time again, just in a new setting. You're sweeping the rug out from under your fans.
Anyways. That's my rant. Timon and Pumbaa (primarily Pumbaa, but Timon had some funny lines too) made me laugh quite a bit. The opening scene and they are the reasons I gave a 2 to this. Two points for two good components. The CGI was fine, but what CGI isn't impressive these days? It's not a factor worth mentioning in the review of a Disney classic remake because it's not what any of us cared about.