The Lion King (2019)
Released July 17, 2019
Simba idolizes his father, King Mufasa, 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, 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, Simba must figure out how to grow up and take back what is rightfully his.
CREDITS
Directed: Jon Favreau
Starring: Donald Glover, Beyonce, Seth Rogen, James Earl Jones and more.
Rated: PG
Runtime: 118 min
SPOILERS BELOW
(Though if you don't know the plot of The Lion King by now,
you probably don't deserve The Lion King.)
Holy...mother....of....
This movie is a cinematic masterpiece. I do understand that I am a notoriously hard to please moviegoer but this was an absolute ball to watch. As a child that grew up in the 1990s, The Lion King was my favorite movie and I watched it roughly six-thousand times. My poor parents. I believe that I still have the VHS collecting dust somewhere in their house.
So, because the original was such an important part of my childhood I was understandably a bit nervous to watch this remake. Needless to say I am completely ecstatic that I gave it a chance.
Now, the reason that it was so enjoyable is because the filmmakers knew their place. They didn't change or "retell" the story, it's basically a shot-for-shot remake. The same songs that we grew up singing (and more than likely can still recite), are still here. They aren't "reimagined" by some middle-aged producer with a coke habit that has no idea what people actually want in a movie.
The thing that I love most about this movie is how true it was to the original. I have a toddler and the frustrating this is this, he has no interest in the movies that I enjoyed growing up. I credit this to the fact that he's just so used to stunning CGI and the 2D drawings that we loved growing up just aren't up to snuff. But, now that The Lion King is here with hands down the most incredible visuals that I have ever seen I am so excited to watch it with him. This basically gives new life to an old movie, and because it's little more than a remaster it's perfect.
I will admit that it isn't perfect though, there is an issue that I had with some of the casting. I love Donald Glover as Simba, even Beyonce kills it as Nala. But Seth Rogen's laugh is easily on of the most appalling noises on earth. This job being just a voice over, I just wish that he would've said his lines and when it came time for him to laugh they brought someone else out to do the laugh for Pumba. The other thing is Timone, I spent the entire movie believing that he was voiced by John Mulaney and it wasn't until I started writing this and pulled up the cast on IMDB that I discovered it was done by Billy Eichner. Credit where it is due though, Eichner does a great impression of John Mulaney but I think the real thing woul've been preferable.
So, at the time of writing this The Lion King has grossed roughly $1,200,000,000 at the box offices. Making it the number three highest grossing animated film of all time, and still growing. The movie has only been out three weeks and is only $90,000,000 away from Frozen (the highest grossing animated film of all time), with plenty of time to go. I would be shocked if it didn't become the number one animated film of all time. To put this in perspective, the original Lion King was the number one grossing animated film from 1994 to 2010 when Toy Story 3 surpassed it. The original Lion King grossed $960,000,000, which was beaten by the remake in just a little over two weeks.
Please go check this one out and bring the kiddos!
Final Rating: 9.9/10
FYI: The 9.9/10 would be a 10/10 had Seth Rogen not laughed in this film.
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