Lion King Remake (Jon Favreau)

LoughNeagh2017 wrote: »

I would have enjoyed the 2 hours more if the children in the cinema would have stopped talking and if the fellow near me would have took some breaks with stuffing popcorn down his throat instead of non stop eating. I think it is sensible to wait until films are nearly going out of the cinema to see them in a near empty room for example what I am doing with Aladdin and Toy Story 4.

Tsch, that's nothing. I'm in India at the moment. The film started at 12:40pm, people were still coming in and walking (slowly) up the aisles ten minutes later. There was one woman who thought it would be a great idea to bring her two year old, who refused to be carried, and sit at the very back so the 2 year old had to walk down by herself every time she wanted to go out. They also have a hard intermission in every movie - basically, half way through the scene with Timon and Pumbaa finding Simba, the cinema just went black - 15 minute break for people to get food. Apparently, a normal occurrence in Indian cinema.

In terms of the movie, I was a massive fan of the original. I remember seeing it in Thurles when I was about 10, and it stuck with me. I generally watch it once a year, and whenever I need to be cheered up, I generally put on the soundtrack. I really enjoyed this version. I didn't prefer it, but I didn't expect to. It took the story, kept it more or less the same, bar some enhancements to Nala, and put some small twists on it. The voice acting was pretty good, with Timon, Pumbaa, Scar, and of course, JEJ back as Musfasa being the high points. The rest did a serviceable job. The animation was amazing, and I felt it got most of the emotion across. I knew that they had changed Be Prepare into more of a spoken word song, so I was (ahem) prepared for that, but I thought it worked quite well. The main thing that disappointed was the Hyenas. I loved the relationship between Shenzai, Banzai, and Ed, but that didn't quite work this time around, the scene in the original with them denying they knew it was Mufasas son, and Eds brain rattling in his skull was a particular highlight for me in the original.

Overall, was it as good as the original? For me, no, but I'm sure for the people whose "original" is this, they will go the opposite. Was it a good retelling of the story? Definitely. In terms of the live action remakes, I've not been a huge fan, and so far none of them have stood near the originals for me (bar Cinderella, but I don't hold the original in high esteem anyway), but this came the closest, and it may encourage me to give Aladdin a change. Maybe.

El Duda wrote:

I begrudgingly must admit that I really enjoyed this. The critics had been very harsh on this and I went in expecting to hate it. I was expecting it to be a lifeless and lazy but it surprised me in a number of ways.

Genuine question borne of pure curiosity - why would you go to a movie you're expecting to hate???

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Timon (Billy Eichner) was mvp for me

Too much Nala (Beyonce) and this Scar (Chiwetel Ejiofor) was not scary

I took tissues expecting to be bawling, never used

Was he meant to be? He's not scary in the original either, just conniving and sly.

I actually thought this version fleshed out his jealousy a bit more and was actually a little more intersting than the original version.

I thought it was meh. Out of the live action Disney ones I've seen, this goes bottom. It doesn't do anything to actually justify its existence which I thought the others at least tried, and some managed to pull off. This is just a cash grab.

It has some good parts, mainly Timon and Pumbaa related, and He Lives in You is done in Xhosa in the credits and it sounds great, and I thought young Simon and Nala were good, but outside that its either lazy or just bad (Spirit was an awful song choice and Beyonce can't voice act at all).

I hope Disney's next versions are better, maybe do instrumentals of iconic songs from the animated films like they did with Jungle Book if they're doing anything animal related again.

Id still have hopes for Mulan and The Little Mermaid, but another bad one will kill this for people I think. Only really have Pocahontas and Hercules to be ruined after that really, along with inevitable sequels to these.

I finally got around to bringing the little fella to this.

It's hard to call really. The CGI to be fair was amazing and the voice acting in parts was better. I think if they could bring James Earl Jones back why not others?

Scar for example was probably the most frustrating in that I found that some lines he delivered were actually much better better than the original like the conversation between him and Mufassa probably the bigger lines like "long live the king" weren't even close. Really Jeremy Irons should have been brought back too in my opinion.

My 7 year old absolutely loved it. I enjoyed it and it was nice to maybe see the film for the first time through his eyes as it is hard to get him to watch the "old" disney films.

Not a slam dunk but I give it a pass.

Thought it was grand (but not a patch on the original).

I can forgive the lack of emoting, the giving Beyonce creative freedom to create a new and meh song and to pay her per note hit, the usage of voices because they're names even though they're worse at singing - John Oliver and Seth Rogan, the new Be Prepared, and some other bits and pieces......but they left out Lovely Bunch of Coconuts! Unforgivable!

So photo realistic Simba's Pride?

I much preferred the remake ,in fact,one of my favourite all time movies,and I loved the original too.