The Lion King Review: 3 Ups & 7 Downs
3. The Songs Are A Wildly Mixed Bag
The original Lion King of course features many of the most iconic songs from Disney's entire cachet, and though renditions of the likes of "Circle of Life" and "Hakuna Matata" evoke the necessary feeling, they're pretty much the outliers.
As mentioned, "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" takes place at the wrong time of day, stripping it much of its impact, while Scar's "Be Prepared" is chopped up and transformed into a bizarre spoken poem-like number.
Then there's Beyonce's mediocre new song, "Spirit", which lacks the instantly iconic appeal of the original soundtrack, and confirms that her role in the movie ultimately feels more like a cynical stunt than anything.
Again, some of the reprised songs do work, but given how fool-proof it should've been to reproduce these hit tunes - especially with Elton John returning to rework his own tracks - the results are certainly much wonkier than expected.