First Impressions: The Lion King (2019)

I follow a lot of animation reviewers online, people like Cellspex, PhantomStrider, Mad Munchkin, Animated Antic, all people you should check out. However, I think the most relevant one to this point is Mr. Enter, I remember him saying that if this movie was bad, he would do an Animated Atrocities review of it when he could. I bring that up because, this movie is indeed awful.

Even when I was watching the trailers, my only reaction was, "This would be more impressive if it looked prettier", and even before it came out I was expecting this movie to suck. Partly because I also saw the Dumbo remake and did not like it, but I already gave my thoughts on that disappointment. I did not have much hope for this movie, not even after seeing the original. If you haven't read my review of that movie, I thought it was a fine movie, but it looked incredible. Here, the entire main problem of the movie is that it looks dreadful.

I'm not kidding when I say that this movie is one of the ugliest movies I have ever seen. Isle of Dogs took place on a literal island made of garbage, and that doesn't even make my top twenty-five. This movie makes my top ten, and it is not just because it looks muddy. The realistic visuals drag down scenes that were supposed to be of a certain atmosphere. Like the Elephant Graveyard scene, which in the original was shadowy, full of darker colours and grays. It was supposed to be eerie and foreboding. In this movie, it is as lit as the rest of the movie, it looks the same. Even under scars rule, all that really changed was that the trees lost their leaves, that is it. The scene was still a muddy, sepia splotch compared to other Disney live action movies.

This problem with the visuals also bleeds into the characters. They all look emotionless and lifeless. Going back to the original, when Simba came across his father's body, they animated him with all kinds of minor movements, the eyes and mouth are how you express the most emotion. However, this movie not only keeps the character's faces stoic, but also never directly at the camera, so even if their was emotion, we could not see it.

But okay, visuals are one thing, but if the rest of the movie is fine than it can not be too bad right? One thousand and one entries of wrong. Not only are the visuals downgraded, but literally nothing is done better. The songs? "Circle of Life" is still good, "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" is less of a visual piece, "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" is still dreadful, but "Be Prepared", one of the best Disney villain songs, was shortened, they might as well just have removed it from the film altogether. While Hans Zimmer's score is still great, I just wish it could have been used for a better movie, like Muppet Treasure Island.

And the humour. The Lion King was not the funniest Disney movie ever, I think it is a toss up between Robin Hood and The Emperor's New Groove. However, there were some things that made me laugh in the original, and in this movie...
No.
Nothing made me laugh in this movie, and some of the jokes were changed or removed. Zazu's line about turning Scar into a throw rug? Gone!
Zazu's reaction to Simba's pouncing lesson? Gone!
Scar's sarcastic replies to Mufasa? Gone!
Timon putting on a grass skirt and dancing the hula? Changed to him singing the opening of "Be Our Guest", I'm not kidding. People thought that was funny, it was not, it was cringe-inducing and a pathetic attempt at a reference, and I am someone who loves reference humour.
I think the only plus I can give this movie in terms of humour, is the awkward "In The Heat of the Night" reference is also removed, so take that for what it's worth.

And the plot, oh my, of all the things you had nothing to do but improve upon, you ended up making it worse. What was the reason the lions stayed at Pride Rock in the original? Because Scar demanded them to. In the remake? "Because it is their home." What is with Disney remakes and making thier females worse? Then we get to Scar, not one of my favourite villains in the original, but he was a fun character in how much you hated him. Here, all of his charm is gone, and is replaced with, well, nothing. Scar isn't even designed in an interesting way, his design is so generic, that in the end climax I could not even tell who was Scar and who was Simba.

Also, Donald Glover and Beyoncé don't do great jobs in their voice roles. I don't typically comment on voice performances, but I had to mention it, they were about as convincing as EA when they make an apology. That might be going to far... Actually no it isn't because I spent money to see this movie and I'm bitter.

The Lion King is a slap in the face. It is a slap in the face to the original, as it makes absolutely no improvements upon it. It is a slap in the face to animation, as it is touted as a "Live-action remake" and even if people are aware that it is an animated movie, the fact that Disney felt it was fine to remake this movie with photo-realistic CG is just another slap in the face, but to the original team behind the movie. The dedicated team that worked hard to make The Lion King look and animated as amazing as it did. It is a slap in the face to the animators that worked on it, because there is nothing to commend them for on what was probably months upon months of hard work. It is a slap in the face to Disney, who might I remind you, not only popularized animation, but literally made a name out of itself for the medium, and now instead of making another beautiful animated movie, they made a muddy looking waste. It is a slap in the face to fans of the original because again, it makes no real improvements over the original, and is the inferior version, and should we not offer the fans something better? However, it was also a slap in the face to me, because I could have seen Crawl, Men in Black: International, Yesterday, Rocketman, Wild Rose, or anything else in theatres. It is a slap in the face to me because it gives me no joy to give a movie an "Avoid" rating, it gives me no joy to ask people to allow a movie to flop.

I would much rather give this a "Not Recommended" because at the very least the movie would have SOME reason to be viewed, something that meant it was anything other than an awful mess. But I see no reason to recommend this film to anyone. So, I really do feel it warrants an "Avoid" rating.

And those were my thoughts on 2019's The Lion King. I am done with Disney remakes, when is Frozen 2 coming out?

The Lion King (1994) - A Disney classic, but not my favourite

Okay, I'm going to be honest here. I had no intentions of reviewing another Disney movie so soon after Robin Hood. I wanted to review a more recent film this week since I found it for fairly cheap, but with the Lion King remake coming out, I thought it was the best opportunity to look at this classic Disney renaissance err.... Classic. Plus, since I didn't do this one for Aladdin, since I had no intentions of talking about that movie here, I thought, since I do intend to share a first impressions on the upcoming Lion King remake, I might as well.

I don't think I need to discuss the Disney renaissance of the 90s, but of the movies released between 1988 and 2000, the biggest movie of the entire set was, without a doubt, The Lion King. It grossed 968.5 Million dollars, it was the highest grossing animated movie of all time until Toy Story 3 was released, in 2010 (Which grossed 1.067 Billion Dollars at the box office). Holding such a record for over a decade and a half is no small feat, especially since Toy Story 3 would be surpassed three years later with the release of Frozen, which is still the highest grossing animated movie as I write this (at 1.276 Billion Dollars grossed). Aside from the money, The Lion King is often considered one of Disney's best features, not just animated, and not just of the 90s. It's on multiple lists of must see animated movies, and if products like The Lion Guard are of any indication, it is one of Disney's more lucrative franchises. Is it all worth it though?

I think we all know the plot to this movie, but in case you don't. It's basically a simplified version of Shakespeare's Hamlet. After the young prince Simba is born, his Uncle Scar no longer stands in line to become king, and so, decides to have Simba killed. This leads to a stampede of Wildebeests in which Simba's father, King Mufasa, leaps in to save him, only to be thrown to his death by the treasonous Scar. Simba runs away from his home of The Pride Lands thinking it is all his fault, and he meets with Timon and Pumbaa, a meerkat and warthog respectively, who teach him to relax and never worry about his past, which becomes his philosophy as he grows up. After Scar makes a decayed pit out of The Pride Lands, Simba's childhood friend Nala searches for help, when she comes across Simba. While Simba still thinks he cannot confront his past, but with help of an old friend, Rafiki, he goes to confront Scar, reclaim his throne and set things right. The plot is really smooth, with a couple hiccups, here and there. The movie is good with showing us that it indeed was not Simba's fault for the stampede that killed his father, and this movie does one up Bambi a little by actually showing Simba seeing his father after his death. I don't like how Scar seems to get the upper hand on Simba towards the end, but as a whole, the plot progressed nicely.

It would be remiss of me if I didn't at least bring up the controversy surrounding this movie and a similar sounding anime called Kimba the White Lion, by big name anime artist, Osamu Tezuka. Of course, what you do have to keep in mind is a lot of names in the Lion King are mostly words of Swahili origin, though I did a couple minutes of research so don't quote me as a source. Personally, looking at a Wikipedia summary the two don't seem at all alike, but I'm also aware that Wikipedia is first, not reliable as a main source, and second, likely missing a few pieces of information. I think this is like a Toy Story vs Jim Henson's The Christmas Toy thing, where people can draw similarities, but a lot of differences as well. Also, Kimba's name was actually Leo in the original and was only Kimba in the English dub from what I've read. So I think we can take most comparisons with a grain of salt.

Steering back on track, the characters were alright. Scar was devilish with his cunning, but also quite arrogant, which would lead to his downfall. The Hyenas are your typical bunch of crazy, Timon and Pumbaa are your typical comic relief, and they do their job fine. There isn't much to say about character here since most of the side characters are only given a couple scenes to shine. Simba's mother for example is only given a couple lines, her biggest scene is probably when she is talking to Scar about his rule. Now we come to Simba, and honestly, he's okay. He begins as a typical child character, excited, full of himself and a bit careless, but also really emotional. When he gets older, he is still emotional, but still has determination. While the characters all had some cute moments, I don't exactly feel like this is Disney's strongest movie when it comes to character. We do not really get subtle shifts and development like in Treasure Planet.

Now, where I can really set my praise is the technicals, specifically the animation. The setting designs and colour schemes are all wonderful, and some of the night scenes are just plain beautiful to look at. Also, any animated movie that attempts slow motion is immediately a high score in my book, animation is hard, and having to slow it down must be tricky. I think the scene where I fell in love with the animation was during the opening, not the sunrise at the very start, that always scared me as a kid. It's when the sunlight fell on the young Simba's head while Rafiki held him up. It was visually amazing, and perfectly timed with the music. Speaking of, musically this movie is... mixed. The background score was incredible, Hans Zimmer did an amazing job with this movie and he was given the Academy award for Best Original Score at the 67th Academy Awards ceremony. It's no wonder he would continue to do many other amazing scores. The songs on the other hand were done by Elton John and Tim Rice and I'm mixed on them. Circle of Life and Be Preapred are amazing two of my all time favourite Disney songs. I just Can't Wait to Be King is good, I think I like the chorus more than the rest of the song, but I don't mind it. Hakuna Matata is stomachable, but Can You Feel the Love Tonight is wretched. I got to like two verses into the song before I just had to skip over it, it was dreadful. As a whole, I can definitely praise the animation and parts of the soundtrack, though I should say this movie pretty much begs to be seen in a theatre setting.

I'm very conflicted on The Lion King. On the one hand, yeah, it is a good movie, with a good story, decent characters, and amazing animation and background score. On the other hand, this was the highest grossing animated movie for sixteen years? I mean, of 1994 The Lion King is one of the better animated movies (though next to  that dreadful Cinderella movie I reviewed that isn't saying much), but honestly, I don't think this is one of Disney's best. It doesn't have the emotions of The Fox and the Hound, it doesn't have the depth of Treasure Planet, it doesn't have the charm of Robin Hood, I know this is all subjective, but I did not get the same enjoyment out of the movie as I did others. That is not to say I did not like it, I did enjoy my time. While I may think the movie is overrated, I still think it is a perfectly fine recommendation. Now let's get the remake out of the way...

The Little Prince (AKA Le Petit Prince) (2015) - A beautiful, if a little lengthy and abstract, movie

France has had an interesting recent history with animation. The country has many old and historically significant animations, the first "true" animation that we know of is "Phantasmagorie" from 1908 and it was created by Emile Cohl, a French man. However, with some exceptions I don't think many people could name any really well-known French animation off the top of their heads. I mean, you could probably name 'Ernest & Celestine", but I think for most people, that's about it, and even then I don't think any casual animation viewers will know what that movie is. I mention all of this because I really needed a way to introduce this movie, and I guess just bringing up things that it is tangentially connected was the best option. This is Le Petit Prince, or The Little Prince.

Quick thing here; I watched this movie in the original French language with English subtitles. Even being forced to learn French in school could never make me understand it. So, I'm gonna make no comments on, or mentions of the dubbing quality.

The Little Prince is based on a 1943 book of the same name by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, I have never read the book (A big surprise there), so I'm not going to judge this as an adaptation, though I would have to assume it is a loose one. The plot of the movie is simple, a young girl is working hard to try and get into a fancy school. She is interrupted when an old man known as "The Aviator" gives her a page of a story about The Little Prince. From then on, the girl and Aviator bond over the story, but the young girl keeps the friendship a secret from her mother as to not get her upset and to follow the "life plan" she set for her. Then it becomes strange, the girl's mother finds out, the old aviator gets hospitalized, and the girl goes to find the little prince and... plotwise this movie gets confused. I'm not entirely sure what the final act was entirely about, and it jumped from a slice-of-life framing device around a fantasy story, to a pure low fantasy-adventure movie. That being said, the plot itself moves pretty smoothly. We see why the mother gets a house next to the aviator, we see the friendship between the aviator and young girl grow, and we see how each event progresses into the next. While the plot does get a little confused, it runs smoothly and even when it got to the abstract dream (I guess), I never had any questions about how the movie got to that point.

Characters are an interesting part of this movie. The characters don't have much personality, the characters don't even have names. They're referred to as "The Aviator", "The Mother", "The Businessman" and so on. This is not the first movie I reviewed like this, in fact this movie reminds me a lot of the previously reviewed Night is Short, Walk on Girl. However, to that movie's credit, the main characters had a bit more of an identifiable personality. That is not to say the characters are not identifiable in this movie, The Aviator is playful and cheery, but does get serious when he has to. You can see it the scene we first see him. He's laughing and cheerfully waving to his neighbors, but he also answers the officer's question in truth and even raises his hands in preparation for arrest. The Mother is a little controlling, but in the end she does show that she cares for her daughter. As for out young heroine, she's fine. She's a better child character then the girl from Wonder Park, but I don't think she's as relate-able as Kubo. I don't think the characters are this movie's strongest aspect, which is not to say they are bland and uninteresting. At no point did I ever get bored of seeing them, but they aren't as good as a movie like Ice Age, or the previously mentioned Night is Short.

I would also like to go on record saying that this movie got a couple of chuckles out of me. This movie is not really a comedy, and it is most definitely not laugh-out-loud funny. However, it got a couple chuckles from me, and the themes of the movie also got an emotional response from me. There are too many movies about holding on to your childhood and staying a child at heart. This movie instead opts for a "It's fine to grow up, but just don't forget" kind of theme, which is a great theme and message. I think too many people have forgotten that they too were children, but I digress. While I do find this movie a nice emotional adventure, I do not think it will really sell on the humour aspect.

Now, animation on the other hand is amazing. They mixed Computer-Generated animation with Stop Motion, and it looks beautiful. The scene where the Aviator and Girl get covered by the deployed parachute was when I really started to like this movie. The starry nights, the rooms lit by glow in the dark lighting, even the vast and sprawling deserts looked amazing. Even when the movie is supposed to look mundane and bland, the movie never does get boring to look at. The colours and lighting always make this movie a visual delight, and some of the character design in the final act of the movie stands out among the rest of the movie. If you love animation, I can recommend this movie based on this aspect, as long as you don't mind everything else. If you're looking for an amazing story and truly great characters though, you won't really find it here.

The Little Prince reminded me a lot of Night is Short, Walk on Girl and in more than just the characters. Both movies had bizarre final acts that felt almost out of nowhere, and both movies did feel a bit lengthy. Pin me down, I would say that Night is Short is the better of the two movies, it had stronger lead characters and only felt lengthy towards the end. That is not to say The Little Prince is bad, it does have some good characters, a smooth plot progression and some truly amazing animation. However, I can see why some people wouldn't like it. In fact, another blogger that talks about animated movies called Animated Antic, also reviewed this movie back in 2017, and he was a lot harsher on it than I was, but I can see where he comes from. If you want to check out his review, the link is here! As for me though, I did enjoy my time with this movie. It was beautiful and charming to watch, and if you can get past any of the faults myself or Antic mentioned, it might be worth checking out. I might give it a Slight Recommendation, but by a hair or so. If I were rating these based on how I felt, it would be a solid Recommendation, but I have to understand that this movie is not for everyone, and for that, it gets a Slight Recommendation.

Robin Hood (1973) - A Classic from one of Disney's Lesser Eras

After Walt Disney died in 1966, the Walt Disney Company began to enter it's second dark age. The era from 1970 to 1989 is mixed for Disney's releases. While many of the movies released at this time have gained cult followings, some even found popularity afterwards, this was not one of Disney's better eras. Releases were far between, some taking three or four years, and many agree that the output of this era are not the best Disney movies, with some exceptions, many will say that they were all pretty weak, with one of those exceptions being Robin Hood, and for good reason.

The tale of Robin Hood is a classic one and has had many retellings over the years. This version tells the story with anthropomorphic animals, which Disney would not do again until Zootopia in 2016. Honestly, the choices for each character for what animal they are is pretty clever. Robin Hood being a fox, Little John being a bear, the Sheriff of Nottingham being a fat wolf, the Minstrel being a rooster, even Prince John being a scrawny lion without a mane, it's all really clever. I don't really get why Friar Tuck is a badger of all animals, but if that is my only complaint, the choice was justified pretty well.

Oh my, I almost forgot the plot. Well, we all know the tale of Robin Hood, or we should. When King Richard goes on a crusade, Prince John usurps his crown and taxes the townsfolk. This means Robin Hood has to steal from the wealthy to give back to those in need. This leads to Prince John wanting to get Robin Hood and have him executed, so he sets up a trap at an archery tournament, with the prize being a kiss from Robin's sweetheart, Maid Marian, luring the hero of the people into a trap. When that fails, Prince John bitterly raises the taxes he collects and locks all those who cannot pay in jail. This culminates in the Sheriff of Nottingham angering Friar Tuck, leading him to fight back, leading to his arrest. At this news, Prince John sentences him to hang as another trap for Robin Hood, leading to him and Little John attempting a jailbreak. Plotwise, this movie is really tight, we don't get a lot of unnecessary filler, and each scene flows into the next very well. For example, after Robin Hood runs from the archery tournament with Maid Marian, the townsfolk join him in Sherwood and sing a song at Prince John's expense, and when the prince finds out he then raises the taxes leading to jail for those that could not pay. It is a solid and smooth plot progression, it leaves me with no questions about how, and it is a fine example of the smooth and simple plots that Disney is known for.

As for characters, it's a wonderful cast of colourful and entertaining characters. Robin Hood is kind and sympathetic, but also playful and romantic. I think this is one of Disney's best lead characters of all time. As for the side characters, Maid Marian is your typical sweet lady, but I think the film knew this because she kind of disappears during the climax, she is not a terrible character, and I do genuinely buy her feelings for Robin Hood, so she gets a pass. Little John being more cautious than Robin Hood but just as playful is a nice touch, and makes for interesting talk between him and Robin. Then we have the villains, Prince John and Sir Hiss are two of the funniest villains Disney has ever made. They are seriously up there with Yzma and Kronk, and the Queen of Hearts as Disney's funniest. Prince John trying put on a facade of royalty while being a whiny, greedy cry-baby that is prone to anger makes for one of Disney's most entertaining characters, and the way he and Sir Hiss interact is also really amusing at times. The Sheriff of Nottingham is also one of Disney's best villains, being such an unashamed jerk to the townsfolk, almost taking pride in doing things like, irritating a man's injury and stealing from a blind beggar. He is a good example of a character you love to hate, but not hate to love. Robin Hood is one of Disney's strongest casts, even the minor characters have some good moments and the major characters are enjoyable to follow throughout the film.

But of course, this is an animated film so, how is the animation? Around this time, Disney was trying a different art-style. One that looked more sketchy and didn't look as clean as some of their older films. This would end with The Black Cauldron, but would be brought back for Oliver & Company, ending for good with The Little Mermaid. Whether you like this art-style or not will come down to preference, I personally don't mind it. To me, the art-style is only a small part of the visual style, it also includes design and colour, and on both of those fronts, Robin Hood is brilliant. I don't think this is one of Disney's best looking films, after all if we're looking at the classics it is pretty hard to top films like Alice in Wonderland or Fantasia, but on it's own, it looks great. Colours stand out when they need to and no colours blend in with each other. As for design, again the character design is all really clever, and a lot of the backgrounds look great. As for the actual animation, it's Disney theatrical animation, so it is of high quality. I saw no animation errors, and there were even some small touches, like mouths moving in group shots. Now, full disclosure, watching the movie for this review, I was watching the 40th Anniversary Edition on DVD, so it was a bit cleaned up, however I do own a couple copies on VHS and even on that format the movie looked good, so I don't think this movie struggles in the animation aspect.

Robin Hood is without a doubt, one of my all-time favourite Disney animated movies. It's funny, thrilling, and even a bit romantic. It looks great, has wonderful characters, which include some of Disney's most entertaining villains, has some wonderful songs and is all wrapped up ion a tightly woven plot. Many kids were introduced to the Robin Hood legend through this movie, though my first introduction was the 60s cartoon series Rocket Robin Hood, I had a weird childhood. Regardless, Disney's Robin Hood is a well-loved classic for a reason, and while it came out in one of Disney's darker eras, it is still loved and appreciated by Disney fans, animation fans, parents and children alike. So it should be no surprise that this movie gets a High Recommendation from me. It's a charming and timeless classic that is sure to entertain everyone.