Disney’s “Live Action” remake of The Lion King grossed $191.8 million at the domestic box office in its opening weekend.

That’s the second-largest box office opening weekend in 2019 (after Avengers: End Game) and ninth-largest in history.  And according to Variety, Simba and Mufasa have already brought in $531 million worldwide (at time of this writing)!

But despite all of the box office success… for the most part, we didn’t love it. And here’s why.

1. The Animation is TOO Realistic

This may seem like an insane gripe, but please bear with me — we aren’t LION! The CGI effects in this film are insanely beautiful. At times you will forget you’re watching animation and not real animals.

So why is this a problem?

Well, the realistic nature of the animals makes it much harder to read their emotions compared to the anthropomorphized drawings in the original. When Mufasa dies (spoiler alert?) I find it much sadder, and I cry a lot harder in the 1994 version. And no — it’s not because I was expecting it this time around. I cry every time I see the original film, even though I’m very aware of what’s about to happen. It’s because of little Simba’s tears and reaction to seeing Mufasa on the ground.

(I literally teared up adding this gif here, and I am so sorry if you’re crying now, too.)

The other thing that’s a little odd about the animals being too realistic, is a lot of the humor is now just… weird. For example — a cartoon Rafiki fighting hyenas with a big stick? Hilarious. A “real” Rafiki fighting hyenas with a big stick? Not hilarious, and in fact… weird.

The technology behind this movie is incredible, no one can argue that. But having “real” animals takes away from the emotion of the original characters — in both humorous and tear-worthy moments.

2. “Be Prepared”

To be fair, a lot of the music is very good in the 2019 film. JD McCrary (young Simba) and Shahadi Wright Joseph (young Nala) do a great job with “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” and it’s a shock to no one that Donald Glover (Simba) and Beyonce (Nala) sound beautiful in “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?”

But one of the pinnacle songs in the film, Scar’s “Be Prepared” is bad. And not just “worse than the original” bad, like actually bad. Unlike Jeremy Irons (Scar) and Jim Cummings (Ed the Hyena, but Cummings also provided some vocals for Scar after Irons’ voice became sore), Chiwetel Ejiofor can’t sing. At least, you can’t tell in “The Lion King.”

In reality, Chiwetel Ejiofor has a lovely singing voice, as evidenced by 2005’s Kinky Boots and 2013’s 12 Years a Slave. But for some reason, the classic villain song is really just Scar yelling, not singing. All of the exciting theatrics are gone, and Scar simply shouts the lyrics at the hyenas while he climbs on rocks.

Perhaps they were trying ensure the films were different, or maybe Disney wanted to avoid the whole “Nazi Hyena” conversation this time. Either way, Disney Villain songs are usually a highlight, and that was certainly not the case in this version of “The Lion King.”

3. It’s Almost a Shot for Shot Remake of the Original 

Unlike in other Live Action remakes, The Lion King is virtually the same movie as it was in 1994. There’s slightly more depth to Sarabi and the hyenas are scarier, but that’s about it.

The Lion King expands on some scenes unnecessarily. Like when some of Simba’s fur literally goes THROUGH a giraffe before it blows over to Rafiki, and that’s how he knows Simba is still alive. That actually happens. But it doesn’t take this chance to tell us more about the beloved characters. I for one, would’ve loved to see more about how Scar got that scar. (Instead of watching a dung beetle push around dung that contains fur. Again, this actually happens.)

Beauty and the Beast at least provided some backstory as to the Beast’s history.

If Disney isn’t going to expand the story and give us more information about the characters — what’s the point? If it’s going to be more or less a shot for shot remake — was this necessary?

My answer is no. As I’ve stated before, I’d rather see brand new, fresh stories than continuous remakes of classics, and “The Lion King” is exactly why. Beyond the style of animation, there isn’t anything new or fresh about the “Live Action” version.

“The Lion King” is stunning… but superfluous. 

That said, there is one thing — scratch that, there are  two things — we LOVED about the new film: Timon and Pumbaa.

Billy Eichner (Timon) and Seth Rogen (Pumbaa) are the clear stars of the show. They are hysterical — and unsurprisingly, I’ve read that a lot of their banter was ad libbed on the spot. The back and forth between these two is witty and smart, and I laughed out loud every time they were on screen.

Their version of “Hakuna Matata” is cute, and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” is the only song better than the original in my opinion. There’s one moment that had our entire theater in stitches — I won’t spoil it here but if you’d like to discuss it in the comments, then be our guest!

Timon and Pumbaa (also, John Oliver as Zazu) are the best parts of the new movie — and honestly, it’s worth going to see The Lion King just for them.

What did you think of the 2019 version of The Lion King? Let’s debate — nicely —  in the comments! 

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