After the murder of his father, a young lion prince flees his kingdom only to learn the true meaning of responsibility and bravery.
Jon Favreau’s “The Lion King” marks, by my count, the 10th Disney live-action remake of their own animated property. At least 10 more are on the way. The fad was reignited with the box-office (if not critical) success of Tim Burton’s 2010 “Alice in Wonderland,” which led to the pixelated re-imaginings of “Sleeping Beauty” (a.k.a. “Maleficent”), “Cinderella,” “The Jungle Book,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Dumbo,” “Aladdin” — and now, “The Lion King.” Forgive my cynicism, but at this point, it feels like my childhood dreams — at least ones spurred by the magic of Disney — are being recycled, over and over, for mass consumption. What could be easier than taking a property that’s already proven to be successful, applying a generous amount of PC polish to it, and re-releasing it under the pretense of re-introducing it to the current generation? Why re-introduce something perfect? Obviously, to make us shell out to watch the “2.0 version.”
Now, I appreciated Kenneth Branagh’s craft in (re)shaping “Sleeping Beauty.” I liked Guy Ritchie’s goofy “Aladdin” more than I’d expected. Jon Favreau’s “The Jungle Book” got a lot of things right. Those films trod a thin line between adoringly retelling the same stories shot-by-shot and infusing them with some crafty new tricks — mostly courtesy of the crafty directors (which makes Tim Burton’s lackluster efforts that much more disappointing). Yet after a dozen multi-million-dollar-budget extravaganzas, the Hollywood market is so oversaturated with those retellings, it’s starting to suffocate on its own vacuousness. No amount of cleverness, visual splendor or faithfulness to the original can overshadow the simple fact that, well, its all sloppy seconds. Favreau’s “The Lion King” is a prime, unfortunate example of this.
Let’s get the hyperboles out of the way: I doubt you will find a more visually awe-inspiring feature this year. I watched it in the much-dreaded 3D, and my mouth dropped as the opening, photorealistic African vistas unfurled before me, and the ultra-real-looking animals scurried their way to bow before their King, perched atop of the infamous cliff. Throughout the rest of this feature, I had to keep reminding myself that most of what I was witnessing wasn’t real. You see, “The Lion King” was shot using revolutionary VR technology in a VR-simulated environment — the same kind Favreau used in “The Jungle Book.” While certainly impressive, it also left me feeling hollow and not-a-bit creeped-out somewhere at the mid-point. Was this a real sunset? Was this fire real? How uncanny did the fur on this creature look…The animals, as life-like as they were, lost their animated expressiveness and acquired “uncanny valley” characteristics: imagine your dog, or lizard, talking to you in Alfre Woodard’s voice. Is that where we’re headed: a completely digitized cinematic future, where glamorized versions of our world are presented to us, as opposed to the grandeur of a caught-on-location shot? Has the warmth of a brush-against-canvas been long since forgotten?
Though Favreau fervently claims that the story is NOT a shot-by-shot remake of the original — it pretty much is, with a lot of the shots exact replicas of Roger Allers’ and Rob Minkoff’s classic. Sure, it’s longer, with some sub-plots added to unnecessarily “flesh out” a tight, succinct narrative. After tiny Simba (JD McCrary) is introduced by Mufasa (James Earl Jones, reprising his original role) to the “circle of life” concept — and to the rest of the jungle as the new King-to-be — the rascal cub goes off to the Elephant Graveyard and encounters villainous hyenas, led by Shenzi (Florence Kasumba). He’s saved by Mufasa, then is promptly betrayed by Mufasa’s bitter young brother Scar (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and has no choice to abscond from his home. Simba’s adventures lead him to the carefree, vegan land inhabited by warthog Pumbaa (Seth Rogen) and meerkat Timon (Billy Eichner). Apathetic, munching on “grub,” the cub grows up into a Donald Glover-voiced lion. In the meantime, under Scar’s reign, the jungle kingdom dissipates, for the sleazy villain doesn’t respect life’s circle. Soon enough, Simba’s young love Nala (Beyoncé… Knowles-Carter) comes to persuade Simba to come back and reclaim his rightful throne.
Favreau is a skillful director, and he knows his way around the aforementioned technology, joining the ranks of James Cameron when it comes to conquering SFX frontiers. The film glides on smoothly (except the musical numbers — more on that later), with the director’s attempts to apply warmth palpable beneath all the pixels. Nothing is technically wrong with any of the glossy sequences — yet I was never moved, much less roused. Even if I hadn’t seen the original, each beat of the story is so predictable, each character serves such a specific purpose, there’s nary a moment of surprise. Rogen and Eichner’s riffing provides some welcome respite (both are perfectly cast), but Glover underwhelms as the neither-here-nor-there Simba, as does Beyoncé… Knowles-Carter, perfunctorily voicing the noble and… um… well, that’s about it, Nala. Their updated duet of “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”’s got nothing on the Elton John original.
Speaking of which, the songs — God help me, the songs… Anyone who knows me will testify that the musical is my least favorite genre, yet I attempt to be unbiased when reviewing a film where characters unexpectedly break into song-and-dance numbers, therein violently yanking our investment into the story. In the original, hand-painted “The Lion King,” it was easier to go along with the soaring numbers. Here, however, seeing expressionless, expertly-rendered animals belt out tunes made me feel uneasy; each song (save for one, rudely-interrupted one: “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”) feels like a wrench thrown into the narrative.
Once the novelty of the visual awesomeness wears off, the boredom sets in. Everything is TOO realistic, TOO perfect, TOO formulaic. Judging by the box-office, Disney will keep remaking its own features until the well runs dry. By that point, the remake of THIS “The Lion King” will most likely be in the works. Sigh.
In Theaters Friday, July 19th
