The Lion King

MFC Review

The Lion King (2019) is directed by Jon Favreau and features the voices of Donald Glover, Beyoncé, James Earl Jones, Seth Rogen and many others. It is the most successful Disney remake and the highest grossing animated film ever.

Since its original release in 1994, The Lion King became one of Disney‘s animated classics most loved by the audience. Inspired on William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the movie tells a story of redemption through beautiful animation and a powerful soundtrack, which made it a grossing success and winner of several Academy Awards.

Although this new version is almost a scene-by-scene recreation of the 1994 version, its realistic animation limits the range of expressions that the characters can reach, ending up with a version lacking the memorable personalities of the first one. Instead of adding new scenes, the remake chooses to eliminate crucial narrative moments for the development of the story and the characters.

This remake demonstrates impressive advances in terms of Disney animation techniques, whose artists managed to recreate a deeply realistic and visually stunning world. However, the remake of The Lion King does not add much more than that, because everything positive about this new version was previously in the original.

Disney’s remakes: Novelty or just nostalgia? Find out here