Rent The Lion King (2019)

Elton gets richer. - The Lion King review by NC

Keeps well to story and graphics are very impressive. They getting them near perfect now. Go see it on stage in London if can, is even better!

Not as good. - The Lion King review by AH

Great CGI but the music and voices are not as good as the original. Michael Cain once said that " You should only remake a bad film" this film proves the point'

Can You Feel the Love? Again? - The Lion King review by BG

I prefer the original version, but I have to say that I was very impressed with the way they got those animals to act the way they did! It must have been a nightmare training those lions for a start. Usually you get a wildlife photographer on his own for a year, buried in a hide in the middle of nowhere in South America, and all he has to show for it is some footage of a chinchilla having a s**t.

Inexorable Videos Micro Review: The Lion King (2019) - The Lion King review by EP

The Lion King (2019) is an almost shot-for-shot remake of the original, but it’s animated in a style that fits the story much, much worse.

Cynical CGI remake with unnecessary pc woke casting, but a decent enough family film - The Lion King review by PV

OK so I have to admit that The Lion King original was not my favourite Disney cartoon - not in the same league as Dumbo or Sleeping Beauty or Pinnochio for example. Its plot is totally ripped off from HAMLET. But anyway, I did enjoy this film with some reservations. Here are the pros and cons.

1) the bad things: why remake a decent animated feature anyway? Milking it. The animation though is superb - lovely colours and contracts black evil/lighter colourful day. Not sure how much they took from the original and how much they added. One issue then is that this looks SO realistic and yet a) the lions lack any physical sign of maleness under their tails (!) as if they are all sexless, and the naturalism jars then. b) the animals of various species all living together happily is pure nonsense - it works in an animated film BUT when this looks so realistic, it comes over as silly. I also disliked the use of black actors only for play the lions as if that makes it authentic! They are all Brits or Americans anyway. How absurd! Lions are not black people, even if living in Africa! Clownworld 'authentic casting' trend. WHY is Nala sounding like an African American sassy woman as played be Beyonce? Miscast badly. I can think of many white actresses who could have done a MUCH better job. The music by Pharrel Williams is too modern R&B for me, and tbh the Elton John/Tim Rice songs were not all that great in the first place.

2) the goods things: the animation is really classy, detailed and superb. The script and story structure is well done. AND I loved the fact there was violence and death in this story - so many authors of children's books and TV shows get told these days that they are not allowed to show bad things happening or violence or death. So good for the Lion King producers for that. I did enjoy the characters and story, despite its silly 'all animals love each other' shtick. A good evil character in Scar too.

SO all in all, this is Disney milking it as it is all its back catalogue now - so lazy and cynical. On the plus side, I enjoyed a mindless almost 2 hours watching this fairy tale. So 3 stars.

Better graphics but nothing else - The Lion King review by MM

Aside from the CGI rendering, which is so realistic it might as well be a nature documentary, it's difficult to see what this remake adds to the original. Most of the songs are the same, but the changes they have made are certainly not improvements — "Be Prepared" is reduced to about 45 seconds of mostly spoken chanting, to make way for "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and some shouty auto-tuned rubbish by Beyoncé. Mufasa and Scar have decent voice actors but the rest are pretty mediocre: child Simba is just a generic whiny American kid while adult Simba sounds like a comedy actor who is out of his depth in a serious role. The film is almost a shot-for-shot remake but somehow manages to be 30 minutes longer without actually adding anything of value, which in a way is something of an achievement.

The King Still Rules! - The Lion King review by trbp72

I love the original animated Lion King, it is one of very few movies that resonates with me and really grips my emotions. So I was always a little dubious about this 'Live Action' version...when you take beloved characters and 'update' them for the millenial audience it sometimes never quite works the same as the original...but this...well this is something else!

Everything about this movie whilst pretty faithful to the original (I believe it is almost shot-for-shot directionally speaking), also expands the greatness of the animation by giving such lifelike interpretations of the characters! It was great that James Earl Jones was Mufasa again...it would have been nice to perhaps have had Jonathan Taylor-Thomas as the adult Simba...just for fun...but I get there are newer voices in Hollywood...the soundtrack which is the life and soul of the original is also well preserved...The opening bars to 'Circle Of Life' always bring me to tears (it's my cross to bear!)...and that was the acid test for me...once that happened, I knew this version would be as good as the animated one.

So if you haven't watched this because you are protective of the original and think this will spoil your fond memories...I can guarantee that this version will have you gripped and in tears as much as the original, but you will marvel at the stunning set pieces and execution of the pivotal scenes of this movie! Give it a try! You will like it!