*Red Diamond and Annie look at the concept for making Infinity Gauntlet in order to revive half of livings*
Annie: So, you showed me your concept of your gauntlet based on your authority?
Red Diamond: Yes, because that will perfectly fitting for the "Diamond's Authority", based on the colors, like the fingers are red that was based on me, the yellow on the left part is based on "Diamond Ramsay", the blue one on the right is based on Blue Diamond and the light purple on the forearm is based on Cosmic Diamond, what do you think?
Annie: Hm, thats kinda cool, but i think its too small for other diamonds like Cosmic or Blue, since it has a regular size of human hands like you or Diamond Ramsay.
Red Diamond: Yeah, kinda make sense, because im the only diamond for using the gauntlet. Hope these stones are harmful on my hand.
Annie: Lets hope so. Anyway, catch ya later when your gauntlet is done.
Red Diamond: Ok.
(Review starts and after nearly 2 hours)
Annie: *walks out of movie theater in not very happy reaction* ... They F***ed it up!
Ok, i think we can all agree that Disney loves remake our nostalgia favorite films from golden age to "Disney Renaissance", i mean there have been plenty of reports of so many Disney's plans to make their live action remakes from their animated classics. From before, we had Tim Burton's Dumbo that it looks not bad, but its obviously boring to watch with lackluster writing and some bad characters. Then there's Aladdin, which it was not as boring as Dumbo at the time for the presentation. And finally, they made a movie from 1994's classic that we all know and love.
"The Lion King 2019" is a... Well, a 2019 animated remake from the original "The Lion King", directed/produced by Jon Favreau, co-produced by Jeffrey Silver and Karen Gilchrist, then written by Jeff Nathanson for screenplay.
Ever since the 2016 "The Jungle Book" was a success and easily the best Disney's remake, it was quickly announced that they made the remake of The Lion King, which we though it was done in live-action, when in reality, it was all done in CG animation with photorealistic look of this film, which most people (including me) aren't as sure that this will be a success than the classic version. When i heard about it, i was easily believe this will never be as good as the original, because all know that making a live action remake of animated films will be a bad idea. (Except for The Jungle Book 2016.) PS: yes, i am aware it was considered ripoff of "Kimba: The white lion" that they wanted to sue Disney, but never happened since Disney has expensive lawyers, but i digress.
So, with all that said, will this movie holds up for the circle of life, or is this yet another cash grab for modern viewers that it made us get run over by the stampede of wildebeest?
Well, lets find out.
The Story
With this remake, you think if the writing could be adding something new for the story? Probably not, because its basically the retelling from the original, but with some slightly new elements, just slightly.
As we already know, it started with a sun rising from animals of Pride Land of Africa witness the birth of a young cub Simba who's presented by Rafiki. Meanwhile, Scar grew bored and possibly jealous that he wants to be the king since Mufasa is a peaceful ruler of Pride Rock. Later on, Mufasa teaches his son Simba about the circle of life for the animals and nature and to be the future king. And after that Scar killed Mufasa (in order to lying at Simba) and tells his nephew Simba to stay away and never come back then the rest... Well, im sure you already know what's going on.
Like i said, the writing is pretty much nothing special, its just they copy the story element and adding a teeny tiny new element of this film and thats it. Its like the original story was written by a father, but when his son arrived to do the reboot, he just write the story that happens to be a copycat with no originality. Though they did add some new element that i mentioned before, likely the new location and some changing dialogue to make it more drama than comedic for the most part, but not for the execution. Speaking of jokes, i find them to be rather fun for the most part, but unfortunately, i felt foreshadowed that the jokes from the original is a lot more fun and entertaining.
The story is pretty much unoriginal, just borrowed everything from the original, but adding some small different element. It just comes off as lazy for the writing with zero knowledge and effort.
The Presentation
Even though the writing is pretty much dumb down for copying, but at the presentation itself looks rather nice.
The location designs is no secret that it takes place in Africa, it looks beautiful where it takes place. Though one exception for the change is hyena's home. Where in the original, they live in elephant's skeleton, but here, they live in mount of rocks in elephant graveyard, which i guess its because we're not sure if a giant size elephant's skull would work for hyena's home.
The visual and the quality looks amazing, since it was done in photorealistic CG, it looks nice and clean that i think that did a good job for most part. At least it looks much better than some movie's quality looks video game-ish. Though the downside is that copy the same moments from the original known as "Shot-for-shot", i get they want to make a bit different, but again, they literally repeating some scenes from the original, but at least it doesn't have the infamous SFX or SEX dust from one scene. Aw well.
The character design are pretty obvious that it was done with a realistic look of animals or even how they move, they look rather good at the time, but some of the facial seems to be emotionless, i know they're trying to make their reaction look real for their gestures or even expression from the ears, but its just they're rather a bit weak, but at least they don't make an ugly cartoony look. But the probably one of the weakest character design is definitely Scar, he looks way too ordinary, just a small scar and change his fur color. Like he doesn't have a sinister look nor even the same color, he's just pretty weak looking that they don't want to designing him seriously.
Last but not least, the musics are great, specially with the return of my favorite composer Hans Zimmer. The musical number are pretty good, even if i expected to be slightly different, but least its nice to bring them back at the time like "The circle of life", "Can you feel the love tonight" and "Hakuna Matata".
But probably the weakest song is the remake of "Be Prepared", though at first, they originally wanted to remove this song, but they decided to bring it from our support. But in reality, this version is so bad, it feels like it tries so hard to make it evil for Scar's set up to hunting down Mufasa, but it was poorly execution what the music plays or the sing ability. Its just so bad that its rather cinge on our childhood, but hey, at least it doesn't have Nazi march, right? But don't even give me started with cover version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", don't give me wrong, the original version is fun and catchy, but in this version, it feels pretty weak that i'd rather skip away.
Though the presentation may look nice in photorealism and a good soundtrack, but its just sometimes, some facial could be too ordinary, some poor designs, some shameless shot-for-shot one bad song.
The Characters
Lets be honest, even if some characters could be likable, but its just that a lot of them remains the same, but with some new elements, sometimes. But for those you're new, il explain who they are, along with a small comparison.
First is our main protagonist Simba (voiced by Donald Glover and JD McCrary for young role), as we all know, Simba is the main focus that not only he's a dreamer, but he's also somewhat brave, curious and playful, especially with his chemistry with either Nala or Mufasa. Its no wonder for what we love Simba in our childhood. In this version, despite he remains the same, but i have to give a credit Donald Glover, he did a nice work to playing as Simba, maybe he's better than Matthew Broderick, considering how Matthew appeared in crappy movie, after crappy movie and after crappy movie since after the 1994 version. (Though yes, i am aware he does a better role in Ferris Bueller's day off, but i digress)
Then we have Nala (voiced by Beyoncé and Shahadi Wright Joseph for young role), Simba's friend/future love interest. Even though she's rather nice with Simba, but she's somewhat of tomboy while playing with him. Though the nice thing about her is that they want her to give a big role a bit for some moment, which im ok with it, which we want to know how did she reunites with Simba. Even though im may not a fan of Beyoncé, but i think she did a nice role.
Next we have Zazu (voiced by John Oliver), who's basically the reporter for what is going on at the animal kingdom in Pride Land. I find him to be not bad, even if he was used to be comedic at the time, not to mention, he's like in high accent of English (what do you expect about Mr. Oliver). Though John did a nice role, but he's not as fresh as Rowan Atkinson's role.
Then we have Pumbaa and Timon (voiced by Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner), its no secret that we always love to see these comedic duo characters since before, they're always likable for their funny moments and helping out our main hero, specially with Pumbaa is slow-witted and Timon is wise-cracking.. In this version, despite they remains the same, but again, i felt that they're foreshadowed by the original, even though Seth and Billy did a great work, but its not as memorable as previous role from Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella.
Next up is Rafiki (voiced by John Kani), who's a wise shaman, advisor and Mufasa's best friend, since we all know that he's memorable for helping Simba to not only helping him to be the king (for most part) and even sees Mufasa in the air for Simba's hope and bravery. Though he's also have a sense of humor for his wisecracking. Even though he appears small (though they want him to appears more a bit), but like before, he's also likable for his fun persona and wise for our main hero.
As for the main villain Scar (voiced by Chiwetel Ejiofor), as we all know in the original, he's a young brother of Mufasa who's desperate and jealous to be the king, not before he became sinister and manipulative to take Simba away from Pride land on his hand with hyenas. But in this version, he's easily the weakest villain ever, it feels like they tried to make him "psychologically possessed" and "brutal", but it failed what they're trying for the execution, especially with his poor design and his weak cover song. Though Chiwetel did not bad, but this is easily the weakest villain in the remake version. And i though Jafar from Aladdin 2019 is bad, Scar is even worse than i thought.
As for the hyenas? They have some different, likely the names and persona. While the original version has Shenzi, Banzai and Ed, whether is Shenzi being sassy, Banzai being aggressive or Ed being a goofy minion with laughter. In this version, they're completely different.
First, they kept Shanzi's name, but Banzai and Ed was changed to Kamari and Azizi.
And second, they have a new and different personas, where Shenzi (voiced by Florence Kasumba) is somewhat of leader of hyenas, Kamari (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key) serious and kinda aggressive and Azizi (voiced by Eric Andre) is a bored, kinda whiner and idiot.
Though in this version, they're rather pretty average and not as interesting than the original version.
But the only character who's easily the likable is definitely Mufasa (voiced by James Earl Jones), he remains the same, he's wise, gentle, strong and a firm father to teaching Simba to be the king of Pride Rock. He's always a memorable father in Disney films for not just being respectful and lovable father, but also the great performance from James Earl Jones, which is a well deserved reprising role since 15 years ago, especially since returned to play as Darth Vader in "Rogue One".
And lastly there's Sarabi (voiced by Alfre Woodard), the queen and Mufasa's mate. She's pretty much appeared for keep her eyes at Simba and Nala to be with Zazu or even being forced to be with Scar after Mufasa died. She's... Well, she was just there.
The characters are rather good and kinda likable to see, but its just that whether some of them just plain foreshadowed and a very weak depiction than the original. but at least its nice that Mufasa remains the same, not just his persona, but the voice as well.
And now for my final opinion of this film.
Overall, "The Lion King 2019" is trying so hard to be the big deal for Disney Remakes, but its pretty obvious that this movie is just painfully average with lazy written story, shameless shot-for-shot moments, foreshadowed humors or roles and weak bad guys.
But, at least the presentation looks nice for a photorealistic CG, the musics are not bad, some of characters are good and this maybe the only Disney remake where one character such as Mufasa was voiced by the same actor since the original.
In the end, i felt that Disney really starts to milking the classic films from decades ago in order appeal for modern viewers and of course, a lotta money in the box-office. Ever Since Disney started to borrow a lot of classic films to do the remake, it always pinching my nerve what they're thinking for their goal. The best way to end my statement is: stick to the 1994 version, you cannot beat the classic.
For my rating, il give it 5/10. But im glad its over for Disney's remake in 2019, but once again, it was just the beginning for the future.
So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.
Thanks for reading, and im Annie, signing out.
(Review Ends)
Annie: Hey RD, how's going?
Red Diamond: Alright, my gauntlet is completed, check this out. *shows her own Infinity Gauntlet at Annie*
Annie: Hm, it looks good.
Red Diamond: Alright, time to put this thing on. *wears her gauntlet, but the Infinity Stones starts to electrocuting at RD in dangerous pain*
Annie: Oh my god...! Are you ok?! Are gonna trying to snapping it?!
Red Diamond: I...!! I will...!!! *lefts her hand in the air, slowly and painfully and finally finger snaps out loud and powerful*
To be continued...!
As we already know, it started with a sun rising from animals of Pride Land of Africa witness the birth of a young cub Simba who's presented by Rafiki. Meanwhile, Scar grew bored and possibly jealous that he wants to be the king since Mufasa is a peaceful ruler of Pride Rock. Later on, Mufasa teaches his son Simba about the circle of life for the animals and nature and to be the future king. And after that Scar killed Mufasa (in order to lying at Simba) and tells his nephew Simba to stay away and never come back then the rest... Well, im sure you already know what's going on.
Like i said, the writing is pretty much nothing special, its just they copy the story element and adding a teeny tiny new element of this film and thats it. Its like the original story was written by a father, but when his son arrived to do the reboot, he just write the story that happens to be a copycat with no originality. Though they did add some new element that i mentioned before, likely the new location and some changing dialogue to make it more drama than comedic for the most part, but not for the execution. Speaking of jokes, i find them to be rather fun for the most part, but unfortunately, i felt foreshadowed that the jokes from the original is a lot more fun and entertaining.
The story is pretty much unoriginal, just borrowed everything from the original, but adding some small different element. It just comes off as lazy for the writing with zero knowledge and effort.
The Presentation
Even though the writing is pretty much dumb down for copying, but at the presentation itself looks rather nice.
The location designs is no secret that it takes place in Africa, it looks beautiful where it takes place. Though one exception for the change is hyena's home. Where in the original, they live in elephant's skeleton, but here, they live in mount of rocks in elephant graveyard, which i guess its because we're not sure if a giant size elephant's skull would work for hyena's home.
The visual and the quality looks amazing, since it was done in photorealistic CG, it looks nice and clean that i think that did a good job for most part. At least it looks much better than some movie's quality looks video game-ish. Though the downside is that copy the same moments from the original known as "Shot-for-shot", i get they want to make a bit different, but again, they literally repeating some scenes from the original, but at least it doesn't have the infamous SFX or SEX dust from one scene. Aw well.
The character design are pretty obvious that it was done with a realistic look of animals or even how they move, they look rather good at the time, but some of the facial seems to be emotionless, i know they're trying to make their reaction look real for their gestures or even expression from the ears, but its just they're rather a bit weak, but at least they don't make an ugly cartoony look. But the probably one of the weakest character design is definitely Scar, he looks way too ordinary, just a small scar and change his fur color. Like he doesn't have a sinister look nor even the same color, he's just pretty weak looking that they don't want to designing him seriously.
Last but not least, the musics are great, specially with the return of my favorite composer Hans Zimmer. The musical number are pretty good, even if i expected to be slightly different, but least its nice to bring them back at the time like "The circle of life", "Can you feel the love tonight" and "Hakuna Matata".
But probably the weakest song is the remake of "Be Prepared", though at first, they originally wanted to remove this song, but they decided to bring it from our support. But in reality, this version is so bad, it feels like it tries so hard to make it evil for Scar's set up to hunting down Mufasa, but it was poorly execution what the music plays or the sing ability. Its just so bad that its rather cinge on our childhood, but hey, at least it doesn't have Nazi march, right? But don't even give me started with cover version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", don't give me wrong, the original version is fun and catchy, but in this version, it feels pretty weak that i'd rather skip away.
Though the presentation may look nice in photorealism and a good soundtrack, but its just sometimes, some facial could be too ordinary, some poor designs, some shameless shot-for-shot one bad song.
The Characters
Lets be honest, even if some characters could be likable, but its just that a lot of them remains the same, but with some new elements, sometimes. But for those you're new, il explain who they are, along with a small comparison.
First is our main protagonist Simba (voiced by Donald Glover and JD McCrary for young role), as we all know, Simba is the main focus that not only he's a dreamer, but he's also somewhat brave, curious and playful, especially with his chemistry with either Nala or Mufasa. Its no wonder for what we love Simba in our childhood. In this version, despite he remains the same, but i have to give a credit Donald Glover, he did a nice work to playing as Simba, maybe he's better than Matthew Broderick, considering how Matthew appeared in crappy movie, after crappy movie and after crappy movie since after the 1994 version. (Though yes, i am aware he does a better role in Ferris Bueller's day off, but i digress)
Then we have Nala (voiced by Beyoncé and Shahadi Wright Joseph for young role), Simba's friend/future love interest. Even though she's rather nice with Simba, but she's somewhat of tomboy while playing with him. Though the nice thing about her is that they want her to give a big role a bit for some moment, which im ok with it, which we want to know how did she reunites with Simba. Even though im may not a fan of Beyoncé, but i think she did a nice role.
Next we have Zazu (voiced by John Oliver), who's basically the reporter for what is going on at the animal kingdom in Pride Land. I find him to be not bad, even if he was used to be comedic at the time, not to mention, he's like in high accent of English (what do you expect about Mr. Oliver). Though John did a nice role, but he's not as fresh as Rowan Atkinson's role.
Then we have Pumbaa and Timon (voiced by Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner), its no secret that we always love to see these comedic duo characters since before, they're always likable for their funny moments and helping out our main hero, specially with Pumbaa is slow-witted and Timon is wise-cracking.. In this version, despite they remains the same, but again, i felt that they're foreshadowed by the original, even though Seth and Billy did a great work, but its not as memorable as previous role from Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella.
Next up is Rafiki (voiced by John Kani), who's a wise shaman, advisor and Mufasa's best friend, since we all know that he's memorable for helping Simba to not only helping him to be the king (for most part) and even sees Mufasa in the air for Simba's hope and bravery. Though he's also have a sense of humor for his wisecracking. Even though he appears small (though they want him to appears more a bit), but like before, he's also likable for his fun persona and wise for our main hero.
As for the main villain Scar (voiced by Chiwetel Ejiofor), as we all know in the original, he's a young brother of Mufasa who's desperate and jealous to be the king, not before he became sinister and manipulative to take Simba away from Pride land on his hand with hyenas. But in this version, he's easily the weakest villain ever, it feels like they tried to make him "psychologically possessed" and "brutal", but it failed what they're trying for the execution, especially with his poor design and his weak cover song. Though Chiwetel did not bad, but this is easily the weakest villain in the remake version. And i though Jafar from Aladdin 2019 is bad, Scar is even worse than i thought.
As for the hyenas? They have some different, likely the names and persona. While the original version has Shenzi, Banzai and Ed, whether is Shenzi being sassy, Banzai being aggressive or Ed being a goofy minion with laughter. In this version, they're completely different.
First, they kept Shanzi's name, but Banzai and Ed was changed to Kamari and Azizi.
And second, they have a new and different personas, where Shenzi (voiced by Florence Kasumba) is somewhat of leader of hyenas, Kamari (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key) serious and kinda aggressive and Azizi (voiced by Eric Andre) is a bored, kinda whiner and idiot.
Though in this version, they're rather pretty average and not as interesting than the original version.
But the only character who's easily the likable is definitely Mufasa (voiced by James Earl Jones), he remains the same, he's wise, gentle, strong and a firm father to teaching Simba to be the king of Pride Rock. He's always a memorable father in Disney films for not just being respectful and lovable father, but also the great performance from James Earl Jones, which is a well deserved reprising role since 15 years ago, especially since returned to play as Darth Vader in "Rogue One".
And lastly there's Sarabi (voiced by Alfre Woodard), the queen and Mufasa's mate. She's pretty much appeared for keep her eyes at Simba and Nala to be with Zazu or even being forced to be with Scar after Mufasa died. She's... Well, she was just there.
The characters are rather good and kinda likable to see, but its just that whether some of them just plain foreshadowed and a very weak depiction than the original. but at least its nice that Mufasa remains the same, not just his persona, but the voice as well.
And now for my final opinion of this film.
Overall, "The Lion King 2019" is trying so hard to be the big deal for Disney Remakes, but its pretty obvious that this movie is just painfully average with lazy written story, shameless shot-for-shot moments, foreshadowed humors or roles and weak bad guys.
But, at least the presentation looks nice for a photorealistic CG, the musics are not bad, some of characters are good and this maybe the only Disney remake where one character such as Mufasa was voiced by the same actor since the original.
In the end, i felt that Disney really starts to milking the classic films from decades ago in order appeal for modern viewers and of course, a lotta money in the box-office. Ever Since Disney started to borrow a lot of classic films to do the remake, it always pinching my nerve what they're thinking for their goal. The best way to end my statement is: stick to the 1994 version, you cannot beat the classic.
For my rating, il give it 5/10. But im glad its over for Disney's remake in 2019, but once again, it was just the beginning for the future.
So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.
Thanks for reading, and im Annie, signing out.
(Review Ends)
Annie: Hey RD, how's going?
Red Diamond: Alright, my gauntlet is completed, check this out. *shows her own Infinity Gauntlet at Annie*
Annie: Hm, it looks good.
Red Diamond: Alright, time to put this thing on. *wears her gauntlet, but the Infinity Stones starts to electrocuting at RD in dangerous pain*
Annie: Oh my god...! Are you ok?! Are gonna trying to snapping it?!
Red Diamond: I...!! I will...!!! *lefts her hand in the air, slowly and painfully and finally finger snaps out loud and powerful*
To be continued...!
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