The Lion King Remake

[Daniel]

"Hakuna Matata" in 28 Languages:



Yeah, the new rendition wasn't really a highlight. Subtle it was not!

[Ben]

So they’re not only making a shot for shot of the movie but they’re now also ripping off the original film's bonus features (this same idea was on the original’s LaserDisc box set)!

Golly, for all the talk of photorealism and "real" animals, a lot of that looks really cartoony and weird: the Greek part with the zebras dashing away especially looks bizarrely fake.

[Ben]

Really noticing again how badly directed this is, and the editing is just plain WEIRD!

I mean, they had a perfectly made template to follow, and while I get that they wanted to change things and make it their own thing, everything is for the worse! How many shots of watching Timon and Pumbaa's butts walking do we need? How many boring eye-level track backs?

Yeah, I get it, it all looks so real and like it’s being done in real-time on a steadicam. Impressive and all that. But mega-boring as filmmaking goes, and like I say, those edit cuts are just weird, like they’re playing catch-up on a live broadcast, which may well be intentional but doesn’t actually make sense because I understood the whole point of a "live-action" approach was to shoot all their coverage and cut from there...but then they didn’t use (or even shoot!?) their coverage!?

Just plain bizarre. Very, very bizarre.

[Daniel]

and while I get that they wanted to change things and make it their own thing, everything is for the worse!

That's more or less how I felt about the whole movie and tried to get across earlier. When I first saw that sequence, it actually felt more like Gopro footage. Felt kind of woozy! And If you see it in English, well, there's one other change that I think is for the worse...

If there's one positive: baby Pumbaa. Aww!

[Ben]

In English, why do Timon and Pumbaa basically sound alike? They didn’t even get two distinctive enough voices for their two comedy sidekicks!

[Daniel]

Cocept art. Would've preferred that Scar! So many missed opportunities. Not that they couldn't, they just wouldn't.

[ShyViolet]

I LOVED the 28 Hakuna Matata language versions! (Thanks, Dan!)

Totally agree that the American voices are awful, but the other languages all sounded very beautiful, at least in my opinion. Not just nicer-sounding voices but much more FUN, not so leaden and dutiful that the song doesn’t even have the paper-thin charm that an actual “carbon copy” would.

Also, just for the heck of it: direct translation of Hebrew version clip.

Timon:

When Pumbaa was young—

Pumbaa

A warthog but not young!

Timon

How do you feel?

Pumbaa

(Sniffs)

It’s a sad story.


Weird I know. I guess it “loses something in the translation.” Lol. (Plus it doesn’t rhyme in English...so that takes part of it away too. Lol.)

[Daniel]

Interesting! Not so much weird, just different. In the English version, Pumbaa says "It's an emotional story". Kinda prefer them opting for "sad".

[ShyViolet]

[Daniel]

Trailer for the home release:



Those Mufasa lines...

[Daniel]

Elton John on the remake:

DJ: Have you seen the new Lion King film?

EJ: The new version of The Lion King was a huge disappointment to me, because I believe they messed the music up. Music was so much a part of the original and the music in the current film didn’t have the same impact. The magic and joy were lost. The soundtrack hasn’t had nearly the same impact in the charts that it had 25 years ago, when it was the bestselling album of the year. The new soundtrack fell out of the charts so quickly, despite the massive box-office success. I wish I’d been invited to the party more, but the creative vision for the film and its music was different this time around and I wasn’t really welcomed or treated with the same level of respect. That makes me extremely sad. I’m so happy that the right spirit for the music lives on with the Lion King stage musical.

I admire his honesty. Go Elton! He's not wrong. Although it's not the only reason...

[Ben]

He has enough FU money to just say what he thinks, which is honest and refreshing in this day and age.

[Daniel]

Watching this again, my feelings didn't really change. It's entertaining, but so much wrong. I'm still sad they did away with that Rafiki scene and what was done with "Be Prepared"... didn't mention this earlier, I can't believe they spent so much time on Simba's hair! (Trust me, that makes sense when you see it.) Such a waste and grinded the movie to a halt. Kinda gross when you think about it...

Some of the dialogue, too. One that really irked me was the scene between Scar and Simba after the stampede. Nevermind the force sounding emotion, did Scar really need to hammer home his points so much!? Yeesh. Too talky and a case of less is more... piling on added zilch.

[ShyViolet]

Honest trailer:


https://youtu.be/67W7JCohZMo

[Daniel]

"Beyoncés Lion King" A lot of truth in that video.