The Lion King is one of the most lazily impressive movies and it’s yet another pointless live action remake that only solidifies Disney’s warpath to re-imagining their animated classics as it went well past the $1 billion mark.
The Lion King
(2019)
Genre(s): Animation, Adventure, Family
Disney | PG – 118 min. – $24.99 | October 22, 2019
Date Published: 11/08/2019 | Author: The Movieman
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Buena Vista Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 2.5/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Simba (DONALD GLOVER) idolizes his father, King Mufasa (JAMES EARL JONES), and takes to heart his own royal destiny on the plains of Africa. But not everyone in the kingdom celebrates the new cub’s arrival. Scar (CHIWETEL EJIOFOR), Mufasa’s brother — and former heir to the throne — has plans of his own. The battle for Pride Rock is soon ravaged with betrayal, tragedy and drama, ultimately resulting in Simba’s exile. Now, with help from a curious pair of newfound friends, Pumbaa (SETH ROGEN) and Timon (BILLY EICHNER), Simba must figure out how to grow up and take back what is rightfully his. Review: There’s really no point anymore to scream at the sky with every one of these soulless, money-grab live action remakes from Disney. The Lion King is the latest though far from the worst, that distinction still goes to Beauty and the Beast for me, but doesn’t really offer anything new other than some very respectable visual effects and CGI, which most of the time is amazing. Of course, the CGI also tends to be amazing on a Michael Bay film too… While the voice acting wasn’t too bad, really though Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner were great as Pumbaa and Timon, but the problem I had was it not only was on the boring side as it’s pretty much a shot-for-shot remake of the animated version, but it also felt rather empty. I felt nothing and probably other than maybe a quick feeling of nostalgia, it was a movie that lacked any real, genuine entertainment. I mostly sat through the two-hour running time just watching the clock run out. Not helping matters, and where true animation has the advantage, you get the expressions far better than in this CGI/live action venture, from the sadness for Simba, anger with Scar or the joy from Pumbaa and Timon. Disney favorite Jon Favreau’s direction was adequate, again doing a great job utilizing the CGI technology that has advanced so well, but otherwise, this certainly one of his finest moments of filmmaking as he shown to be a rather good director between Zathura and Iron Man. For all intent and purpose, it seemed he was more of a figurehead, approving of certain designs and probably collect a nice paycheck (don’t blame him, really). I can bang my head on the wall all I want, but with few exceptions (Dumbo), these live action remakes tend to rake in $1 billion plus at the box office, and The Lion King managed to do $1.6 BILLION and this only emboldens Disney to do more of these, and when that well runs dry, they’ll do sequels for these, count on it. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3.75/5 |
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This release comes with a reflective and title-embossed slip cover and redemption code for the Digital HD copy. Audio Commentary — Director Jon Favreau gives, as always, an informative track, breaking down the story, voice cast and the basic process of bringing the animated classic to life in live action form. The Journey to The Lion King Documentary (53:25) is a behind-the-scenes featurette (The Music, The Magic, The Timeless Tale), split into three parts, and features interviews with members of the cast and crew. More to be Scene (10:31) breaks down three key moments (“Circle of Life”, “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” and “Hakuna Matata”). Music (8:36):
Song Selection (26:19) allows viewers to jump straight to the songs in the movie. Protect the Pride (3:02) is a PSA on the preservation of the lion population. |
VIDEO – 5.0/5 |
| The Lion King comes to Blu-ray shown with a 1.78 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer. No surprises here, this HD picture looks great, detail is incredibly sharp throughout, colors are vivid, black levels are stark without appearing crushed and there were no major signs of artifacting, aliasing or other flaws. A lot of times CGI in high-definition can look odd, but here the animals are certainly photo-realistic. |
AUDIO – 4.75/5 |
| The disc comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track which sounds incredible, with the nature sounds coming across rather nicely, to the clear dialogue awkwardly coming out of their mouths, this is a well rounded lossless track that is near reference quality, though I have heard (slightly) better. |
OVERALL – 3.5/5 |
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The Lion King is one of the most lazily impressive movies and it’s yet another pointless live action remake that only solidifies Disney’s warpath to re-imagining their animated classics as it went well past the $1 billion mark. As it is, I found it mostly dull as it does mostly follow the animated movie scene-for-scene and while the visual effects were fine, the photo-realism of the animals lacked any sort emotion and came across a little odd. I suppose Disney die-hards won’t mind it, and I will say it’s not the worst of the bunch, but still not good. |