The Lion King Review: 3 Ups & 7 Downs
2019's most disappointing blockbuster (so far).
Disney's third and final live-action remake of the summer is here, with the highly anticipated re-do of 1994's legendary animated classic The Lion King.
Expectations are high, of course, and the film is about as critic-proof as any ever gets, but there's no joy in reporting that, even under the direction of the usually reliable Jon Favreau, this new take just fundamentally doesn't work.
Critics are firmly divided on the new Lion King, with praise for its visuals and some of its performances, but quite rightly also plenty of hand-wringing over questionable creative calls Favreau and Disney have made while bringing the film into the realm of photorealistic CGI animation.
Joining Dumbo and Aladdin as yet another thoroughly forgettable stab at rejuvenating an animated classic, it might benefit the Mouse House to pump the breaks and slow down their conveyor-belt of money-printing cash-grabs, lest not "Disney fatigue" might set in.
But in a summer that's been full of big-budget disappointments, The Lion King has to be the biggest of the lot, if only because it actually had so much obvious potential. And so, here's everything the movie got wrong...