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Quote Originally Posted by Kossu View Post
I

In the end, to connect with the characters and the plot I feel like I was clinging on to the 1994 movie too much to make watching this bearable. If I didn't know what would happen in the 1994 movie, if I wasn't familiar with the music, I think I'd be confused as for what the characters were feeling and thinking. Or how it all connected. I teared up when Mufasa died and it resonated to me right then, that if it wasn't for this music that I was already familiar with and overall with the connection with the original, I'd be hardly moved. From that moment onwards I felt like I was watching some sort of very well made parody.

It was interesting to see some things from another perspective and I certainly didn't hate this film, but I didn't like it enough either. It left me feeling meh too. It doesn't feel like it has much heart to stand out on its own. It seems to me that it just relies too much on people's memories and love for the original.

I think you said a mouthful right there. You are absolutely right, if I didn’t know the story so well I probably would be thoroughly disengaged from the film on it’s own merits, and lost at worst. There was a little boy sitting next to me about 8 years old who was asking his mother if it was going to be over, and are they leaving soon, before Mufasa even died, who sat on his mother's phone the rest of the movie.

Also....

Quote Originally Posted by Leorgathar View Post
I think the movie has a problem with handling subtext. Like before the stampede, when Scar and Simba are in the gorge. In the original, Scar plays with Simba's feelings telling him everybody knows about the mess he got in with the hyenas ("lucky daddy was there to save you, huh?") and suggests him to practice his "little roar". That pissed off Simba, which is why he practiced it right there and then, and loud. That was pure Scar-style manipulation, Simba really felt his dad's death was his fault. In the new movie, however, Scar literally tells him that the gorge is where lions practice their roaring, and that he should practice his roar right there to make his dad proud. If I was that version of Simba I'd tell Scar "But you TOLD me to roar here!"
Dear god did it ever. Most of the dialog just felt like an awkward mess, and there was no follow-through on any of the trains of thought.




Anyway, my review:


It wasn’t butchered, but it wasn’t great either. Lots of people have commented on the facial emotions thing so I’ll skip that, there’s plenty of other ways to convey emotion too, though, and the film just fails in them. The effects were "pretty" but the cinematography wasn’t great. Even not taking body posture into account (which yeah…they clearly didn’t try too hard there either,) there’s dramatic angles and things to convey mood and emotion and suspense that the first film had that this one was oblivious to. They could have replicated Simba’s desperate run through the trees after Rafiki if they’d wanted to, lots of CG films have light & shadow running scenes to build drama; things like the hyenas not popping out anywhere; or even the framing shots when you see Pride Rock at the end, the old one conveys movement and drama by following Zazu in, in this one Zazu is just kind of fluttering somewhere on the side of the panorama. They weirdly used the Busa theme to play when Rafiki is fighting at the end, too, why? "Pretty", but no sense of cohesive vision.

The dialogs all just felt stilted and non-organic/forced/awkward. No natural flow. From all of the characters. (In hindsight the Simba/Nala interactions were pretty rushed/weird, but I’ll admit….I was sort of getting bored with the movie by then and it was just one more example of hot-mess dialog.)

I liked the handling of the hyenas here better than the original and wish I could transplant it--it was just an inkling in the original that they were a seperate 'nation' with a matriarch, and this film makes that right available and Shenzi is legitimately frightening. But even then, you took the pains to cast comedians and like…barely used them. I get it, its probably WAAAAY more expensive to animate like this, than to dash a pencil around after seeing a voice actor's mannerisms when they go off the cuff, but meh. Would've added a little energy.

I was totally OK with the reprised Be Prepared. You seriously can’t do goose-stepping hyenas right now, the USA has collectively lost it’s f----n mind lately and it doesn't need to be fed. IMO the reprise was fine considering I thought they weren't even going to have it. It just goes with the lackluster CYFTLT that other people have mentioned.

And the weirdest thing, but if you would’ve asked me what the theme of the first one was, I would have said to take on responsibility. This one, despite being basically the same, the closest thing to a theme I could force into it was a blunt “don’t be a hedonist”, which I guess is solid advice but lacks all the delicacy and grace and inspiration of the former. The Mufasa-in-the-clouds in this one really did shift the scene from any kind of broad philosophical application of "remember who you are", to specifically being about Simba. I don't think the film took much time to put any kind of heart or meaningfulness into it.

IDK, ultimately I found it took itself too seriously without any real artistry or vision or investment, impressive as they effects were. The whole thing was pretty shallow, which I guess is better than a raging dumpster fire.

I left the theater with the music haunting my consciousness like a waking fever dream, and an overall feeling that there was nothing to what I just saw, one way or the other, good or bad, inspiring or nostalgic or not.

This is not a movie that is going to engage, intrigue, or move new fans, only remind old ones that TLK exists.

I’ll probably see it again with my cousin in a few weeks, she’ll want to see it and maybe I’ll find up other things to like, and I’ll enjoy raiding the Disney Store for classic merchandise if they have any. That’s about it though. It’ll be out of theaters in about 3 weeks once everyone’s gawked, Disney pushed the TLK brand so the characters don't become obsolete in people's minds, and it’s come and gone.


And hello plot-holes, ZAZU WASN’T IN A CAGE in this one why did Nala not tell him to go for help, or Zazu not think of it himself? xD


Edit to add: I want to give the Elton John song a listen thru, I sort of felt like he was giving us middle aged Millenials a bracing message, lol.