Disney is continuing its live-action revamps of it’s huge lineup of animated classic films with the beloved 90s film The Lion King. In a near shot for shot remake of the Disney cult hit, young cub Simba is thrust into a world packed with lessons taught from his father Mufasa about the Circle of Life.

The Lion King is a 2019 live-action remake of the 1994 animated film of the same name. It is produced and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It is currently in theaters.

Editor’s Note: This review contains near complete to complete spoilers for both the animated and live-action versions of The Lion King. 

With minimal alterations and some new footage sprinkled throughout it’s run The Lion King 2019 continues Disney’s live-action remake lineup which admittedly has been hit and miss since they’ve started. Having seen most of them I can honestly say Lion King isn’t the worst of the bunch, especially if you’re one of those who prefer remakes to be near screen mirrors of their predecessors. However, hardcore fans of the film will notice some annoying edits & changes which will undoubtedly effect their viewing experience.

THE GOOD: The 2019 edition of The Lion King is likely not going to be the worst film coming out of the year that you see, and most definitely isn’t the worst live-action remake of which Disney has produced so far. Admittedly it’s not quite the quality of the stellar Jungle Book remake, but it’s certainly not Dumbo level just to give a comparison. As a fan of the original I appreciate how much effort Disney and Jon Favreau put into getting the remake. Of course not every Lion King fan will like that, but the thing is most people who watch a remake of an animated property being “brought to life” actually want the shot for shot style. It’s the core complaint of anime fans who get upset over Hollywood remakes of anime/manga properties. If you’ve already seen the original film there’s not much reason for me to indulge on the plot like I normally do in these reviews. As I’ve previously state this is a near shot for shot remake. However, there is an additional 30 minutes of footage which I’ll discuss, in addition to what was removed or changed in the original version of the movie.

First off there’s a new (technically) Hyena named Shenzi who acts as the leader of the pack, and Banzai & Ed, have been renamed as Kamari & Azizi respectively. Ed has also received a character revamp from a goofy hyena to a bit of a needy hyena who doesn’t understand the concept of personal space. Some of the iconic scenes with Rafiki have been altered, such as Rafiki teaching Simba to learn from the past being completely absent. I feel like at this point it should be noted that while this is listed under “The Good” portion of the review I’m not necessarily a fan of its removal, it’s just apart of the current discussion piece. The changes really aren’t that great in number honestly, but some of them speak louder than others. That all being said I thought the cast performed extremely well in both the general acting and singing pieces of the film. I really dig the visuals of the movie, which clearly took inspiration from “photo realism”. 

THE BAD: Some of the changes felt unnecessary or to be more honest rather nit picky. Lion King is a film which is meant to teach life lessons, however when one of the most important scenes in the original film is just flat out ignored in this version Lion King 2019 is kind of defeating the purpose of the original. I understand why the scene was removed due the slight violence, but they could have changed to a way where the lesson remained in tact. While I liked the visuals it made getting emotionally involved difficult due to the lack of facial animations for the characters.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: The Lion King 2019 isn’t perfect, but if you’re coming into it with the thought process of just being a fan of the franchise, you should come out of the theaters satisfied. Otaku Dome gives The Lion King (2019) a 70 out of 100.