For the past few years, Disney has been on a marathon of live-action adaptions of their beloved animated features.
Some have worked well like Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella and Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book. While others such as Beauty and the Beast and Dumbo not so much. As with any successful Disney endeavor, they’ve ramped up production and started churning them out at a rapid pace. However, striking while the proverbial iron is hot often yields mixed results. Marvel films benefit with rapid-fire releases because they’re based on comic books but the Star Wars franchise suffers without proper rest. Then we have films such as Aladdin where one has to wonder if a live-action remake is even necessary. This just might be the case with The Lion King.
Just like the 1994 animated film The Lion King tells the story of a young lion cub named Simba who idolizes his father, King Mufasa and dreams about his eventual turn as king of the Africa plains. But when boastful naivety allows Simba to be manipulated by his evil Uncle Scar, his royal destiny is put into question. Exiled from Pride Rock, Simba must search within himself for the courage and wisdom to take back what is rightfully his.
Without getting too much into spoilers (for the 5 people who didn’t watch the original) the story of The Lion King is a bit problematic for a few reasons rarely discussed.
When The Lion King was released in 1994, South Africa had its first election without the racial restrictions of Apartheid. This is a loaded subject everyone should read and the article you’re reading now is a movie review so I’ll keep it short. Even though Apartheid had dissolved, it didn’t stop political parties from mucking up elections. Propaganda painted the African National Congress as a dumpster fire unfit to run a country due to their hatred of white people. The racism may have been gone on paper, but the message was still clear: Politicians favored a rule in class over democracy.
You can already see the similarities with the story of The Lion King, a film about manipulated racial equality dropped the very same year. Mufasa rules Africa and everything is fine as long as the undesirables are banished from entering the kingdom. His rule will continue by way of his son Simba and so on. Without any real reasoning, the animals in the Pridelands (as well as the viewer) must take Mufasa’s word for it. We assume the hyenas are undesirable because it’s just the way it is. This is even taken a step further with the film’s opening song “The Circle of Life”. Grow up, make babies, grow old and die. The good stays in, the bad stays out. If anyone questions this, they’re clearly the enemy.
In today’s political climate, the message of The Lion King is still problematic.
The hyena characters in this film are undesirable but does that mean the entire species is trash? It’s like Right Wing politicians insisting all black people are violent gang members, Mexicans are rapists, and Liberals are baby killers. When the hyenas are eventually brought in to the Pride Lands under Scar’s rule, there’s a life-threatening drought. It just happens and being the hyenas are villains, we have to accept it’s their fault. In a 2019 film, one would think these issues would be challenged or at least taken from a different perspective.
This is where the 2019 version of The Lion King falls short in the most tragic way possible. It recreates the original scene for scene. Problems and all.
In the live-action remake of Aladdin, Disney gives Princess Jasmine a little more to do than simply be the love interest who has to marry a prince. Despite social media trolls feeling Disney is pandering to the Me Too movement, the filmmakers went to great lengths to fix an outdated issue. Validating the superiority of a ruling class is just as disgusting as sexism but this time they didn’t even try. Simba is the hero because he just is and Scar is the villain because he just is.
Now would have been a perfect time to elevate the story by tackling issues of racism, prejudice, and class warfare. Even the marketing campaign bragged about the diverse cast. But what good is diversity if it’s just used as an accessory? This was a missed opportunity when society needed it the most.
In fact, Disney doesn’t try to do anything with The Lion King. For all intents and purposes, this film is a shot-for-shot remake of the animated film from 1994.
At face value, I can honestly say The Lion King is a technical marvel. The characters (voiced perfectly by the cast) and environments are amazing. Subtle things like bugs and dust floating in the air look as if this movie wasn’t almost entirely CGI. What it lacks in charm and integrity, it certainly makes up in its visuals. If this film doesn’t get at least nominated for an Oscar for its special effects, I will question the Academy even more than I already do.
Even that comes at a cost. The characters look like photorealistic animals so much, it’s hard to see any real emotions from them. When the animals fight, it just looks like animals fighting. While that’s pretty exciting in its own right, it’s obvious the people behind this movie wanted to feel epic when it really isn’t. Stripping away all the political subtext and music, The Lion King is simply a movie about some animals fighting for dominance.
The Lion King isn’t a bad movie. It just doesn’t justify its existence. There isn’t a single thing this film does better than the original.
Director Jon Favreau is a talented director and I love most of his work, but The Lion King lacks his visual flair. It feels like this movie was made because it was inevitable. Maleficent, The Jungle Book, Cinderella, and most recently Aladdin made serious bank, so why not update yet another classic? If you plan on seeing this, odds are it’s only because you’re a fan of the original.
This pandering to a built-in nostalgic audience is the biggest issue with Disney right now. They know Marvel and Star Wars fans will knock down walls to see new installments even when they’re trash. But taking the same approach to their animated features is a disservice to not only the originals but to filmmaking in general. The Lion King is a big budget exercise in power and greed. It might be nice to look at, but there is absolutely no magic or soul to be found. Just pre-ordered ticket stubs and on-brand merchandising. Hakuna Matata indeed.