The Lion King: An Animation Sensation

It often pays to have low expectations because then you can't be disappointed. This is true of most things in life, and particularly movies. I went into The Lion King expecting it to be mediocre and left pleasantly surprised. Does this movie need to exist? No. But is it a perfectly entertaining way to spend an afternoon? Yes.

Obviously the first point to comment on is the animation. This is a "live-action" film, but they didn't actually wrangle a bunch of animals to run around the Serengeti. Instead, they have done a brilliant job of rendering these creatures with CGI, to the point where the majority of the film feels like you're watching Planet Earth. All that's missing is David Attenborough. And all that animation is front and center right when we head into the movie's famous opening scene. As those memorable Zulu vocals burst through the speakers and all the animals start racing from the watering hole to Pride Rock, you can settle in and enjoy the show. Every animal is rendered in startlingly fine detail, and as the movie progresses, the animation just gets more impeccable. Towards the end, there's a scene in the rain, and watching how the raindrops cling on to Simba's mane is a feat that probably took some animator a few months to perfect. That being said, however, by making the animals this realistic, you lose the anthropomorphic magic of animation. Apart from moving their mouths when they speak, you can't really see any emotion on these animals' faces, so it's hard to feel emotionally involved as the more dramatic events of the film transpire.

Then we get to the voice cast. There's still James Earl Jones' iconic voice as Mufasa, gently handing us over from the 1994 film to this remake. While it's remarkable how little his voice has changed, it also means that the first half of this movie feels identical to the cartoon and there's nothing particularly new to enjoy, apart from John Oliver's splendidly British ditherings as Zazu. However, where this movie excels is the second half, with the introduction of Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen as Timon and Pumba. The two make a fantastic double-act and insert much-needed comic relief into a movie that would have otherwise gone off the rails pretty quick. Also, I don't know what's going on with animators in Hollywood, but there's a sequence in this film when Timon and Pumba are explaining to Simba how life is meaningless. Coupled with the existentialism of Toy Story 4, it's starting to feel like all of Hollywood is experiencing a mid-life crisis.

Of course in the second half, we also finally get Donald Glover voicing adult Simba, and Beyonce voicing adult Nala. And hoo boy, those voices are smooth as butter. Those two can make a children's movie feel fraught with sexual tension. They don't spend too much time talking, but whenever they do it's glorious, and when they're singing, it's sublime. This is not remotely a surprise (it's Donald Glover and Beyonce!) but still, it's the most novel aspect of a movie that is otherwise not offering up much in the way of new revelations.

The Lion King is a gorgeous movie featuring great voice acting, but it doesn't throw in any twists and turns that differentiate it from the 1994 original. Like most of Disney's remakes, it's very obviously an attempt to cater to nostalgia and make money. It adequately delivers, but if you are not a fan of this story or do not want to give in to the corporate greed of our Hollywood overlords, you can easily give this film a pass. We'll probably get another version of it in twenty-five years anyway - that's the circle of life.