Hello lovelies

Last Thursday I went to see a film that has always had a special place in my heart. For as long as I can remember The Lion King has been my favourite Disney film which left me sceptical when I heard a live-action remake was being made. Going into the film I already knew in the back of my mind no remake would ever be able to live up to the original film but I stayed optimistic going into the film with high expectations.

My Rating: ★★★

This post contains a few spoilers so if you are yet to see this film you may want to come back to this post later!

The Lion King (2019), directed by Jon Favreau, follows the original story of The Lion King seen originally in 1994. The one thing I can’t fault is Disney’s attention to detail especially with the movements and depth of the animated characters. How realistic it looks was evident with a group of adults sat behind me were asking “how were they able to film that” during the opening scene. They then asked the same at the end of the film as the credits rolled. I also felt they made the film self-aware with some of the tracking shots used an example of this being at the start of the film following a small mouse running towards Scars cave. The camera couldn’t quite keep up with the pace this small animal was running at.

As someone who gets easily emotional whilst watching films especially when it involves animals, I found it difficult to fight back the tears whilst Mufasa fell to his death. After speaking to others however who watched the film they found very little emotion towards the event.

The film did feel very depressing from start to end with a few light-hearted moments in the middle once Simba met Pumbaa and Timon which got a few laughs from the audience. I think this was mostly due to how dark the film’s story is as a whole which I never realised whilst younger. I imagine this mostly to be because the bright colours and colourful songs which are featured in the 1994 version making it appeal to younger children. Because of this and how scary at times (leaving me as an adult biting my nails) I would not suggest this as a children’s film and is much more aimed at adults. Even down to the screenwriting which gave very few moments of laughter aimed at the younger audience.  This was obvious with how fidgety the children in the cinema became appearing disinterested in the film they were watching.

Another reason I believe this film to be unsuitable for children is how similar each character looked. Without the confirmation of characters mentioning the name of who they are speaking to even I struggled to differentiate between them. That’s one of the huge positives of the animation as you can easily tell the difference between each character as well as the exaggerated actions making them easy to read.

Although I do believe there are a few amendments to make to this film I would recommend seeing it especially in cinemas where it benefits from a big screen and surround sound systems.

Have you seen the new Lion King film? If you have let me know your thought on it in the comments below!

I can’t believe as a film student this is the first film review that I have published and is definitely something I will try and do more. Are there any films you would like me to review? If so let me know down below!

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