This Left Me in Awe and Speechless! Absolutely Spectacular!

Rating: 10/10 (20 July 2019)

It seems like Disney has been having a mid-life crisis lately by retelling their old formerly animated movies as new and expanded live action adaptations. Some of these have worked really well, (i.e. 2016's The Jungle Book and this year's Aladdin) and some not so well, (2017's Beauty and The Beast for example.) Treading on such sacred ground as The Lion King would almost be sacrilege right? After seeing this in a packed theater earlier this evening, I must say, this new "Live Action" Photorealistic Animated GCI version of Disney's triumphant 1994 film is just as spectacular and emotionally driven as the original animated film was, if not even more so! In fact, a minute into the movie I began to giggle. I was struck dumb just by how stunning and awe inspiring the visuals are, so much so that at multiple points in the movie I forgot I was watching an animated GCI movie and thought that I was watching REAL animals!
Hans Zimmer's Music was once again uplifting and chill inducing, giving us some familiar musical cues from the original, while still treading new ground and giving us some slightly new music to fit the story. Plus, it was wonderful to hear the old classics like "Hakuna Matata" and "I Just Can't Wait to Be King", and I actually love this movie's version of "Be Prepared" better than the one that was in the animated movie, as it's much darker, sinister, and frightening!
And yes, while the Story is familiar for the most part, there are some things in the story that are expanded on that were missing from the animated movie, as well as some fantastic new small additions to the story as well!
Jon Favreau and Disney also could not have picked a better voice cast for this either! The young actors of JD McCrary and Shahadi Joseph Wright voicing Young Simba and Young Nala respectively were amazing, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar brought a deeper level of cunning and terrifyingly sinister schemes of villainy, Beyoncé was really great as Nala, and so was Donald Glover as Simba, but once again, Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen steal the show as Timon and Pumbaa! The hilarious one liners and humor from those two are really really well done, and had me almost in tears from laughing so hard!
All in all, I was left stunned and speechless by how beautiful and awe inspiring this film in not only in the photorealistic animation but in the voice work, the music, and humor and subtle additions to the story as well. Disney's line of live action remakes are finally justified by this one incredible movie! It's a remake you didn't know you needed, but when you do see it, it'll make you want to stand up and cheer! What a triumph! Long Live The Lion King!! I highly recommend it!!