20 Most Surprising Rotten Tomatoes Scores Of 2019

19. The Lion King (53%)

Though 2019's other "live-action" Disney remakes didn't fare too well critically, the likes of Tim Burton's Dumbo (47%) and Guy Ritchie's Aladdin (57%) were always considered risky, fringe prospects at best.

Conversely The Lion King, which boasted an all-star cast alongside veteran filmmaker Jon Favreau - who previously helmed 2016's The Jungle Book remake to a stunning 95% - felt like it had no prospect of failure whatsoever.

Anything below 85% didn't really seem likely at all, and so the world was shocked when it opened to wildly mixed reviews, criticising its uncanny valley visual effects and the general pointlessness of remaking the animated classic with such aggressive exactitude.

That critics deemed it only marginally better than Dumbo and actually worse than Aladdin was practically inconceivable pre-release.

But of course, driven by nostalgia above all else, The Lion King was practically critic-proof at the box office, grossing a colossal $1.657 billion worldwide.