Lion King 2019

I was not the biggest fan of Lion King growing up. For me it was ruined by a boy in my class who was obsessed with the film and used to run around pretending he was a hyena. But now that that boy is just a distant memory my love for the film has grown, as has my appreciation. I was highly antcipating the release of the new lion king, after seeing the new Aladdin revamp and loving it even more than the original (which is in my top 5 Disney film of all time). Me and my Mother were sat at the back anticipating this alleged film of the year. The Circle of Life music erupted into the cinema and filled our hearts with joy. My eyes started to well with tears, the music combined with the beautiful animation was overwhelming to the soul.

Then they spoke...

This remake takes everything that was good about the original and takes a big steamy dump all over it. I understand that the shots and animation where more realistic but if I wanted to watch some animals run about in the desert for 2 hours I would have switched on the discovery channel. This creative choice stripped the film of it's Disneyness. The musical numbers where lacklustre and I found my self drifting away counting the lights on the ceiling. Words cannot describe how disapointed I was. So many pivotal and iconic lines were cut from the film like an umbilical chord from a fresh faced babe.

The voice acting was atrocious, there was absolutely no emotion behind the lines being delivered, it was as if the script had been handed to a group of 7 year olds who could barley read. Pumba (Seth Rogan) and Timon (Billy Eichner) were a bigger disappointment to me than I am to my parents. Timon was played far too camp, his script had the potential to be funny but the way that Eichner dilivered the lines diverted the comedy right over the audiences head and straight into the bin. Seth Rogan read Pumba as himself, expecting it to be good enough but frankly it just wasn't. He needed to step up his game, this isn't Neighbours, you cannot just rely on dick jokes and slapstick.

Chiwetal Ejiofor's (scar) performance was traumatic to watch. Scar in the original was the perfect villian, he was sarcastic, theatrical and cunning. The new scar was the bad guy, he just read the script with a slightly evil tone which ruined the legacy of his predecessor. I also found Rafiki to be a disappointment, in the original he comes across as wise and eccentric, he has an air of mystery surrounding him. This new Rafiki doesn't say anything. He just seems to exist and say things, none of them relevant of course.

My biggest pet peeve about this film was when our eyes and minds were abused by what felt like five minutes of a piece of fluff flouting around only to end with yet another iconic phrase unaccounted for.

Although I do commend the film for it's predominantly black cast, and I did enjoy Beyoncé's performance of spirit, I just can't shake the feeling of mortification.
I hope that the new generations don't see this as THE Lion King... because its not mine.