The Lion King (2019) – Review

So my thoughts on this movie are going to require a longer review than usual which will include spoilers. Of course this being a mostly scene for scene remake most of these will just be spoilers for the original and if you haven’t seen the original The Lion King why are you reading a review for the remake? Watch the original.

This is another Disney remake where I have mixed opinions. There are elements that work really well and just as many that don’t work at all. Starting with the positives the cast all do a fantastic job, even the differences between James Earl Jones’ performance in the original feel like intentional choices on his part rather than his voice just sounding different now. There are some funny new jokes and while I have my fair share of criticisms of the animation none of them are the fault of the animators, their work on the film is really impressive and stands out in some of the more distant shots where looking realistic benefits the scene.

But of course trying to look realistic is where many of this film’s biggest weaknesses come in. The lack of emotion in characters’ faces really ruins the effect of a lot of scenes and several lion characters look so similar which is especially bad in any scene featuring multiple lionesses when they aren’t speaking. Even the scenery suffers from this because as nice as Pride Rock and the Hakuna Matata paradise look the elephant graveyard looks less creepy without a giant elephant skull (in fact it looks more like the outlands from Simba’s Pride) and worst of all in the Mufasa’s ghost scene instead of the clouds being shaped like him they just look like regular storm clouds.

But like with many of the live action remakes the main area where the realism approach is a problem is the musical sequences. While the songs are performed well (for the most part, the new Be Prepared is horrible) the visuals are so underwhelming and are especially bad in I Just Can’t Wait to Be King where they’re just running around. While I can understand a realism approach for the rest of the film they should break those rules when characters burst into song, something every other Lion King movie understands. Even live action musicals understand this. Also as forced as I felt the reprise of Jasmine’s song Speechless in Aladdin was it at least fit better than Spirit did in this. I understand that because Beyoncé is playing Nala they felt that they needed a song for her to sing but this isn’t a Nala song, it’s a Beyoncé song that plays when Simba runs home that mostly consists of the word spirit over and over again.

But on top of all of these issues it also suffers from the same problem as Beauty & the Beast, it’s too similar to the original with just a handful of new content. And this actually weakens the new content. Shenzi is given a bigger role but is stripped of all her personality while there are two new hyena characters named Kamari and Azizi who are basically just Shenzi and Banzai without Ed meaning Shenzi’s bigger role is to just talk serious and have a fight with Nala at one point. I am surprised they didn’t go with the Lion Guard retcon version of Scar’s death and made it even more clear that he got eaten.

But despite all these problems it still ended up surprisingly high in my rankings of the franchise, mostly because the films below it have weaker stories even though there are individual moments, facial animation and musical sequences that I think are better than this film. Also while I’m on the topic the best song in the movie is actually a Zulu version of He Lives in You from Simba’s Pride in the credits. If you do plan on seeing this make sure to wait for it to play before you start leaving.

The Lion Guard: The Rise of Scar – Review

So the thing from the conversation I had that alerted me to these Lion Guard movies’ existence is the changes made to Scar, who apparently is evil because he used to be the Lion Guard and let the power go to his head, instead of the fact his birth name Taka means waste.

So I gave the previous movie credit for being a good setup for the series even if it’s not for me. This one on the other hand just feels like it didn’t need to be movie length.

Returning to the subject of Lion King retcons apparently they’ve decided Scar died in a fire instead of being eaten by the hyenas, and the hyena villains from this show consider him a legend. I wouldn’t be surprised if this retcon ends up being how Scar dies in the remake (which I plan to watch later today).

Scar is barely in the movie since this is just the setup for whatever his role in the show was. I’m not really interested in seeing whatever fire ghost Scar’s plan is so I don’t plan on watching anymore Lion Guard, though I do find it funny that Zira and her Scar cult are in the show but had nothing to do with contacting his ghost.

The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar – Review

So in a discussion about The Lion King movies I found out that The Lion Guard actually had TV movies. So in order for my ranking at the end of my review for the remake to be complete it makes sense to watch them too. First up is the pilot movie.

So right away I’m not the target audience for this, but while it’s not my thing this is an alright pilot. It sets up the lore and cast of the show and lets potential audiences know if this is something worth watching more of. It’s not really my thing but I’m sure there will be children growing up watching the Lion King movies today that will love this.

So something rewatching Simba’s Pride and 1½ will do is make it clear that The Lion King franchise is full of retcons and this is no exception. It is nice that it keeps elements of Simba’s Pride like Kiara around (even though it now makes it weird no one in that movie ever brings up Kiara’s younger brother). Returning characters vary in quality both in writing and art style.

I’m not going to recommend seeing this unless like me you just want to have a complete series ranking for the Lion King films. I doubt I’ll watch this series again after the next TV movie but it was alright.

Jungle Emperor Leo – Review

Before rewatching the Lion King movies in preparation for the remake’s release I decided to use this as an excuse to finally get around to watching this movie of the franchise that The Lion King ripped off that was in production around the same time as The Lion King.

I’ll admit I never watched or read the original series of Jungle Emperor/King of the Jungle/Kimba the White Lion so there were a lot of details about this film that were made with the audience’s familiarity with these characters, a detail made especially clear when a freaking Mammoth shows up and all the animal characters are already familiar with her with no explanation for how a Mammoth is still around.

Something people who have only heard about this franchise through its comparisons to The Lion King is that there are humans in this movie, in fact they’re the main focus of the film’s theme as both the main storylines cover animal characters learning that humans can be capable of being kind or cruel rather than just the side they’ve experienced. The human designs are where Tezuka’s iconic art style really stands out and you can see the amount of love for his work that went into this film.

As for the scenes that influenced The Lion King there’s less of them in this movie with most of the more blatant stuff coming from earlier in the series when Leo is younger but there’s still a few scenes very early in the film that you do notice the influence. But overall the story is very different and worth seeing for its own reasons, though it might be worth watching some of the original anime first to get a better introduction to the world.

Spider-Man: Far From Home – Review

And so we get our first post-Endgame MCU movie. While I certainly was looking forward to this movie I’ll admit my excitement wasn’t quite on the same level as my excitement for Captain Marvel and Endgame. Still once Endgame came out the interest in seeing what the world would be like after the events of that movie and really Spider-Man is the right character to do just that.

It’s very good. The comedy is just as funny as it was in the first film with the right balance of high school movie comedy and MCU comedy. Peter’s story is a fitting next step after not just his last film but certain changes to his life after Endgame. As you might expect from a Marvel movie there’s two bonus scenes in the credits with the mid credits scene being one of the best bonus scenes in the entire MCU.

The stuff the movie does with Mysterio is really impressive taking advantage of the sort of visuals a character like Mysterio offers. There’s one especially great fight scene that is exactly what you’d want from a Mysterio fight, it’s like something out of a music video or anime opening. Jake Gyllenhaal does a fantastic job playing him too, especially when his true nature is revealed.

The romance subplot between Peter and MJ is cute, especially with other people in Peter’s life having a more successful love life than him. Zendaya was great as MJ in the first movie and this storyline allows us to get to know her better as a character. I don’t know what’s next for these two moving forward, I just hope things end up better than the previous two Spider-Man movie romance subplots. On that note

This makes it into my top 3 Spidey movies. Looking at what’s next for the Spider-Man franchise while I’m looking forward to more from MCU Spidey and the planned sequels and spin-offs of Into the Spider-Verse next year we’re apparently getting a Morbius movie and if this is going to be another Venom style movie it’s just going to be a regular vampire movie without Spider-Man.

While it’s less clear what’s next for the MCU with no schedule for Phase 4 announced yet everything we do know about is exciting, especially with James Gunn being back to finish his trilogy.