The Disney remake of “The Lion King” was more of a showcase for VFX/photo-realism than an actual successful remake of a beloved Disney classic. Maybe they should have just left the 1994 movie alone. No, not maybe, actually, they should have just not touched it. The remake’s director, Jon Favreau (The Jungle Book, Iron Man, Chef), was so concentrated on the technological aspects of the film that he forgot about the emotional core of the story itself and, when it came to the Shakespearian-influenced ‘Lion King,’ that was a mistake.
And so, despite people telling me that it would not be a shot-for-shot remake of the original, well, this 2019 Lion King kind of was. The screenplay was quasi-similar to the animated movie. After you started to get used to the stunning VFX, there was nothing left to cling on, just a retread of the same old story. The animated version had more emotions in its characters, more humanity in the hand-drawn than the coldly distanced VFX of Favreau’s version.
Another aspect that irked me to no end was the non-use, or lack thereof, of the excellent 1994 soundtrack by Elton John and Tim Rice. John has been pretty hush-hush about his feelings towards this remake, but he’s decided to give his honest take about it, telling British GQ he was not consulted whatsoever.
“I wish I’d been invited to the party more,” John said, “but the creative vision for the film and its music was different this time around and I wasn’t really welcomed or treated with the same level of respect. That makes me extremely sad.”
“The new version of The Lion King was a huge disappointment to me, because I believe they messed the music up,” John added. “Music was so much a part of the original and the music in the current film didn’t have the same impact. The magic and joy were lost.”
“The Lion King” will most likely earn a few Oscar nominations, especially in the categories of Best Visual Effects and Best Original Song Oscar (for the Beyoncé tune “Spirit”) and the film has made close to a billion dollars worldwide, but the remake was still seen as a major disappointment by critics and many fans of the original.
Reeves is supposed to direct, David E. Kelley is writing, and just like that, Apple got cold feet — the usual “creative differences” excuse is being cited in the report, and maybe that was indeed the case.