The Lion King (2019)

I wish I could say that John Favreau’s remake of The Lion King was terrible, but I can’t say that. I can’t say it when it has the best visual effects money can buy, the great Caleb Deschanel handling the cinematography, and Hans Zimmer, Elton John, and Tim Rice back doing the music in addition tot Beyoncé. They are doing the very best they can, in service of the director’s vision: And that’s the problem: The vision is disappointingly mediocre.

The thing that really bothered me about it was how lifeless it is. Yes, you have photo-realistic animals and locations, but that severely limits how the characters can express themselves. In the scene when Simba discovers his father’s lifeless body, as much as the young actor JD McCrary tries with his voice, with the limitations set by the amount of expression a real lion can show, there’s not much for the actual being that we are supposed to be attached to. Also, during the “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” where Simba and Nala are falling in love, all that we can see is two big cats playing around, no matter how much Beyoncé and Donald Glover are overdoing the song.

Another thing that is severely limited by the realism is the theatricality of the story. This is basically a musical version of Hamlet written by Elton John. A musical based on a very capital “D” Dramatic play, written by one of the most exuberant and flamboyant entertainers that there has ever been. There’s none of that here. Favreau doesn’t give the dramatic moments any room to breathe. Take the scene where Simba talks to cloud Mufasa. In the original film, with the music and the colors of the cloud and the closeups on Simba it was a very dramatic and powerful. Then, we’re allowed a minute to take it all in with the scene in the funny scene where Rafiki asks Simba what he is going to do. In this new version, a storm cloud that kind of sort of looks like Mufasa when there’s lightning says “remember who you are,” and an expressionless Simba immediately says in a very nonchalant way something along the lines of “Yep, I’m the true king. I better do something about it.”

As for the musical aspect? There is no life to the musical numbers. Every single one of them is staged like a walk-and-talk scene from an Aaron Sorkin TV show, but without the energy. The worst offender of this is the “Be Prepared” scene. In the original we have Scar gleefully singing about destruction as the earth around him changes. Here, Scar just does a kind of spoken verse take on the song. Hans Zimmer’s new take on his score doesn’t help either. He doesn’t actually do anything with it other than add louder instruments, which somehow makes the work feel smaller while playing during the actual film.

The film only really comes alive when Timon and Pumbaa are on screen. These scenes work because Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen are obviously having a blast probably coming up with these jokes on the spot. Their actual personalities are so theatrical in real life that they can’t help but bring this aspect in the film. Also, this is the section where the characters are allowed, at least in personality, to be bigger. In fact, because of this alone, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” is the only musical moment that feels like its from a real musical.

Look, I wasn’t looking forward to this film, but at least I was hopeful that it would find something interesting to do. Even after the marketing materials started dropping, I wanted it to work even if only to not feel like I was wasting two hours. I should have known better.