Why ‘The Lion King’ Remake Would Be A Major Disney Fail

Disney is releasing a remake of “The Lion King” this year, featuring a more realistic approach on the 1994 classic. But just like many of the recent remakes of the Disney animated library, this remake seems to make reviewers long for the original film more than look forward to a re-watch of this new take.

Amid the high anticipation for “The Lion King” remake, critics who have already had their first glimpse of Jon Favreau’s 2019 version of the film have mostly negative reviews about it. Following the film’s world premiere at Hollywood last week, film critics who attended the event came out of the cinema rather underwhelmed.

According to reviews, the film has placed so much emphasis on “realism” at the expense of entertainment value to the point of downplaying its own emotions. As Forbes has put it, the key direction of the film is “like the 1994 version but less.”

The original “Lion King” is one of Disney’s most precious gems. But as for the remake, majority of the critics who watched the film said that there’s nothing about Favreau’s version to win viewers over aside from the animation and technology used in crafting it.

“It comes off like a mix of comic book adaptation of a movie, where thought bubbles and extraneous dialogue makes up for the lack of movement, and actors who sound like they’ve forgotten their lines and are winging it from memory of the 1994 flick,” one critic said.

“Whether it’s just about padding a 90-minute feature to two hours, or playing to the online demographics that view every attempt at subtle as a ‘plot hole,’ these films come off like the original stories retrofitted as preschool cartoons,” the critic added.

Critics also slam the upcoming remake for being a beat-for-beat recreation of the original. The exact retelling of the new adaptation will only reportedly disappoint fans who are looking for a new take on the iconic story, as the “stone-faced, non-drama” remake brings nothing new to the table storywise aside from its updated visuals. Overall, the film is reportedly far less enchanting and less passionate than the 1994 smash hit.