#while I agree that a lot of live action remakes of animated media are unnecessary that doesn’t instantly make them bad yk | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tiggerpup91 · 5 years

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My Review of The Lion King (2019)

Hello, Tumblr! I'm Tigger, and I am a life-long fan of The Lion King- the original movie, the music, the characters, the story, the aesthetic- everything. When the "live action" remake was first announced, I was absolutely ECSTATIC. Why? Well, you'll likely hear this phrase from me time and time again- "More Lion King is always better!" I love seeing The Lion King spread everywhere and enjoyed by as many people as possible. I am also an artist- I earned a BFA in Computer Animation in college and have been drawing TLK since middle school.

This all being said, it's been quite obvious on social media as of late that the general reception to the remake, leading all the way up to its release, has been negative- many people claiming it's a "cheap sell out", comparing the new visuals to the old and bemoaning the "lack of expression and emotion" when looking from the photorealistic characters of the remake to the cartoon visuals of the original. Personally, I wanted to withhold my own critical judgement until I had seen the full movie myself. I saw it two times on its opening day, and I have a lot of thoughts- many of which might surprise you.

First off- no, the remake is NOT the original. And if you go into it still thinking of the original, you'll likely be disappointed. The cartoony vibe of the first movie, with exaggerated expressions and sudden and extreme style changes, doesn't translate to the style the movie dedicated itself to- a photorealism style. For example, during the "I Just Can't Wait To Be King" sequence, the original's backgrounds all but abandoned its previously established style and ran brightly colored patterns alongside highly stylized designs for the animals. This was all well and good for the 2D animated film, given its complete freedom in these areas.

However, in the "I Just Can't Wait To Be King" sequence in the remake, the movie ran the sequence while still keeping the realism aspect of the rest of the movie, dedicating itself to staying in line as if the entire movie was being filmed by a live camera out in the wilds. Simba and Nala sung and danced and ran amongst the animals, which joined in the singing, butterflies swarming and animals splashing along the water. If you were still thinking of the bright colors and extreme patterns of the original while watching the remake's version, you'd obviously be noticing the difference.

Noting these differences is objective and factual, and that's all fair. It's also perfectly valid to have a preference of the two! However, the biggest issue that's bugged me in regards to the movie's "reception" (I use this term loosely... since most people who have been saying these things haven't actually watched the movie yet,) is that people are objectively saying that the style of the remake is objectively worse than the original, or that it's an insult to the original. This is what I personally have a problem with. Let me explain, by backing up a bit.

I mentioned earlier I've been drawing Lion King since middle school. Back then, I was a member of "The Lion King Fan-Art Archive", or TLKFAA for short. It was an online community of people who drew TLK artwork. I grew up with a wonderful supporting group of artists, ranging from young to old, that were all united with a single passion- The Lion King, of course! It didn't matter how talented or skilled you were, it didn't matter if you were just starting out or a veteran who'd been drawing for years, it didn't matter what color you made your lion characters, if you put wings or tattoos on them or made them as natural as possible, and it didn't even matter- no, it never ONCE mattered- HOW you drew your Lion King characters. Cartoony, realism, in your own style- all of it was encouraged! What mattered was what was clear- we all loved TLK.

And to me, it was very clear throughout the entire remake movie that the love was there. And honestly, it's always been a childhood dream of mine, wondering how The Lion King's story would go if all of the characters looked exactly like real animals. How would they sing, dance, joke, fight? This movie answered that and gave us all a wonderful delight of a film, a great story we all know and love but through the eyes of "what if 'The Lion King', but as if it were real life?' And y'know what? The remake is still the SAME story. It's STILL The Lion King! Y'know what else? The characters were the same as they were in the original, a lot of poignant lines were still there, verbatim even. And y'know what ELSE else? There are even some parts of the remake, some full scenes even, that I felt were done even BETTER than the original! (*GASP*)

For example- both Scar and Nala had additional scenes in the remake that I felt fleshed out both characters in ways the original did not, and likely COULD not. Scar had a wonderfully chilling, entirely new scene where he pressured Sarabi into becoming his queen, ultimately showing him as an even more terrifying and ominous figure who was willing to put his own selfish desires above the safety of the pride. His interactions with the hyenas were also more serious than the original- where his relationship with them was almost comedic, the hyena trio even scoffing at him and brushing him off at times- but in the remake, their relationship was more tense and Scar's attitude towards them made him even more scary of a character.

And Nala also had an additional scene- the scene of her escape from Pride Rock- a scene that fans have been dreaming up on their own since the original, where it was never revealed how that went down, or what she might've had to go through in order to escape Scar's clutches. This scene made Nala's character seem all the more brave, Scar's character seem all the more frightening, and when Nala finally found Simba, you felt more ingrained in the overall story as a result. (Not to mention, cub Nala had some additional lines that were both adorable and endearing. I think I like Nala in the remake more than Nala in the original! Same for Scar!)

There were a lot of things the remake did well- and yes, there were things I think were dings against its overall performance. In particular, the post-stargaze scene, where Simba's fur mixed with plants in the wind and is eventually found by Rafiki, was seconds in the original... and MINUTES in the remake. Entirely unnecessary (though during my second viewing, I did realize this was a good time for a quick bathroom break, so, that's something?) and really interrupted the emotional pacing of the story.

And while I wish more could've been done with Mufasa's character (he was missing a significant amount of his charisma that was seen in the original- didn't hug Rafiki in the opening, didn't chuckle at Zazu's jokes about Scar, etc), I also want to keep in mind in this particular regard that James Earl Jones might've only wanted to do a limited amount of voice acting for the remake, and I want to respect that as best I can. I can't judge this because I don't know to what extent his contract allowed for on both ends, but it's still something I missed in the remake.

The biggest gripe I've seen about the remake is people taking photos they found online of various real lion extreme expressions and saying "see! Real lions can still have expressions! They could've made it expressive but they CHOSE not to!" Well, yes and no. Yes because it's true that lions have been seen to display certain expressions on their faces, and the remake lions' expressions are very subtle. Yes, the art directors could've chosen to go a more expressive route a la The Wild or Aslan. But, ultimately they chose to direct the movie as if they were *filming* real lions, with expressions few and far in between.

Is this a ding against the remake? A little bit, yeah- I'll agree to that. There were parts where I felt that they could've stretched an emotion even just a tiny bit more and it still would've felt real and believable, but they didn't. However, this was a choice made in production, and if you hold it against the entire movie, then you aren't even giving the artists a chance to show what they can do with those limitations. Lemme step back to when I talked about TLKFAA- it didn't matter what style you drew lions in, they were lions and it was Lion King and trying new things and sharing new things was always welcomed.

"But the original was a masterpiece!" Yes, it was, and it still is. No remake will change that. "This remake is a sham, it's riding off another movie's success!" The original kinda was, too- it was a low-key rip-off of Kimba, created by Osamu Tezuka in 1950. "This is just for some quick and easy cash!" That isn't exclusive to Disney- every company makes movies to make money. Making money is and will always be any and every company's #1 motivation for doing ANYTHING. And as an artist and an animator, let me tell you one thing- making animations is NOT an easy thing to do.

"This shouldn't even exist, it doesn't do anything good!" More Lion King is never a bad thing, the amount of merchandise and reawakened love for TLK that's come about as a result of this remake is absolutely amazing, I've been swimming in new artwork and creations that have popped up since the remake got announced! So many wonderful pieces of artwork- traditional, digital, physical- and so many artists that have been hired to share their talent with the rest of the world. I can't even begin to describe how much my TLK collection has exploded in the past few months. "But you're supporting lazy business practices!" I'm supporting ARTISTS.

Because at the end of the day, please, PLEASE remember... a company does not create anything. A company CANNOT create anything. Companies do one thing and one thing only, they make financial decisions on what they should spend money on. If you believe that this movie shouldn't have been made in the first place, that's fine and fair. But it was funded anyways. And who produced it? People. Who made it? Artists. So the next time you see marketing for it and scoff "man that looks so lifeless and dull", please remember you aren't insulting a company that makes billions, you're insulting a human being who created with their own two hands artwork they were paid to create.

Back in my TLKFAA days, I tried lots of different styles. At one point, I debated with myself whether I should dedicate my style to being as close to the original movie's style as possible- as sometimes that was seen as the more "popular" and "desirable" pieces of art- but ultimately I decided I would keep the TLK inspiration in my style, but draw what I felt was right. Whatever each artist decides to do with their art, their style, is their choice and that choice is something to be celebrated. And throughout the years, whenever I see TLK in ANY kind of artwork, in ANY kind of style, I love it because that means the artist loves it, too.

If you ever want to create something- if you ever want to try something new, change your style, mix things up, explore, learn, create, share... please don't ever feel afraid to do so. And on the other side, if someone around you ever shares a change like this with you, please keep in mind they might be feeling afraid of being rejected, judged... scoffed at. I can't control what other people do or say, no. But as for myself, if there's ever any artist I come across that wants to share something they created with me, all I will ever respond with is encouragement and joy. That's how we grow as human beings- experiment, create, share, and learn. And we best do this together.

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