General thoughts regarding all the recent Disney live-action/CGI remakes I’ve seen (“Aladdin,” “Dumbo,” and now “The Lion King”):

Disney, just calm down.  The over-saturation of this particular product spoils your legacy for half your base, the millennials who were raised off the content.  This also cheapens the experience when the films are rolled out or announced so close together.  And I’m not meaning to imply that the remakes aren’t creative, stylistically stunning (in some regard), or boring, because that’s an arguement to be made per film and not ascribed to the remakes as a whole. But, the enhanced productions with gorgeously diverse casts and minute deviations from the original 2-D animated Disney source material is causing this fanatic some fatigue.

Now, the review of “The Lion King:”

🦁  I got restless right up until Timon and Pumbaa came on screen. Shawty was BORED. Even “Hakuna Matata” was boring. The scene when Simba matures as they all walk across the log was so “Blah!” All I could think was “the animated version did it better.”

🦁  The un-tragic death of Mufasa: the impact of Simba frolicking in the gorge before the wildebeests stampede did not translate as well as it did in the 2-D animated film. That’s unfortunate because that scene was the transition from the rising action to the climax.  Audiences felt the danger of Simba being alone, and that danger was dire! In the animated version, there’s an absence of light when the frame zooms in on Simba’s terrified face. These frames were critical to emotional impact of Mufasa’s urge to safe his son’s life, but in the CGI version the opportunity was missed.

🦁Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen as Timon and Puumba, respectively, were the best things about the film. The jokes landed and were updated from the original film. Seth’s effervescent laugh was infectious. They both are true talents and carried this remake. Also, John Oliver as the ‘reporter’ was expert casting.

🦁 Donald Glover would not have been my first choice to voice mature Simba. Simba, post-Mufasa’s death, was supposed to come across as a bit immature because his adolescence was shaped by a jolly wild boar and meerkat duo.  Glover’s adaptation of grown Simba did not do it for me—felt a bit offbeat. I was hoping for seamlessness in the character’s voice, the actor’s voiceover, and the screenplay, and it never happened for me.

🦁 Chewitel Ejiofor as Scar surprised me. I’m glad they didn’t have him sing “Be Prepared;” the rousing speech before Mufasa’s death was good enough. I mean, Jeremy Irons is still the 🐐, but Ejiofor ticked the box and did a fine job doing so.

🦁 As a proper fan of Mrs. B. G. Knowles-Carter, I feel I shall provide proper credit when it’s due.  Shawty did well with her voiceover. Bey is not the best actress, and her past voiceover work was not stellar so I was afraid of this casting being solely a marketing ploy. And I mean, it totally was, but she actually did a better job than Glover, honestly.