I cried out of nostalgia, not because of the movie.

Rating: 7/10 (31 July 2019)

So let me start off by saying that the 1994 Lion King is my favorite movie of all time. I walked into this movie with high expectations but also the understanding that it probably would not live up to them and the greatness of the original. Now to the review...
I can imagine that trying to bring a full animal animation cast to life is no easy feat especially for a movie that every millennial could probably recite by heart. Visually, The Lion King was stunning. The team simply outdid themselves with the effects. It was truly bringing the classic story to life scene-for-scene. The characters who looked different were clearly more accurate to their real-life counterparts, which hopefully brings our youth closer to appreciating the animal kingdom's natural beauty, even if it doesn't have the flashing lights and colors of typical animation.
Speaking of characters, here's where my gripes begin. While the casting for Simba, Mufasa, Pumba, and many other characters was very well selected, there were some notable exceptions. Zazu and Rafiki, while technically supporting roles, had no soul. Whether that was bad casting, not being able to grasp emotion through the CGI animation, or poor writing, these very colorful personalities were black and white here. While it pains me to say it, the movie might have been improved by removing them altogether.
While Beyonce's voice is husky enough to represent Nala's speaking role, she doesn't bring the youth factor. It was apparent that her voice was too mature for a young adult role, especially when she's across from Donald Glover's perfectly cast role of Simba. Ok, ok, but she's a music personality. How was her singing? Meh. I felt that Can You Feel the Love Tonight started off beautifully, then progressed into THE BEYONCE SHOW! Honestly, I could hardly hear the instrumentals or Donald Glover, and just had Beyonce powerhouse riffing her way to the climax of the song. Oh, and Spirit would have been a better credits song. While casting Beyonce probably helped bring more Bey-hive supporters to the theater, it was a bad choice for filling the shoes of the OG Nala.
The movie took out a lot of witty banter from Scar with the hyenas and even Rafiki with Simba that I felt spoiled the characters and the end product. There is no quirkiness, joking, or sarcasm, but rather a forced dialogue to get to the end. While I was impressed with the rolling thunder of Mufasa's arrival, it left something lacking as we simply didn't feel the powerful connection between father and son. Honestly, just keeping with the original script of Mufasa's advice here would have done wonders for this moment. I wouldn't have minded them going for a less life-like animation to get the goosebump inducing end result that came from the original "Remember" scene.
Bringing Hans Zimmer and Lebo onto the music again was by far the best decision they made (besides the irreplaceable James Earl Jones, of course.) While they had the same instrumental songs, they also added numbers like "Rafiki's Fireflies" that just meshed beautifully with the rest of the soundtrack. You would have thought they were part of the original.
Overall, while there were deep feelings of nostalgia, I didn't get chills as often as I expected to. In fact, I went home and rewatched the original version to bring back the good vibes. Oh well, hakuna matata!