The Lion King (Live-Action)

[rodrigo_ca]

I know this could be verified by now but I have a feeling that Spirit isn't in the movie. It doesn't really match the tone of the other songs from the little I've heard of it and there isn't an international version of it. On basically all international albums released, that's the only song kept in English along with the ones sung by Elton John and I refuse to think Disney would keep a song in English during the movie because of Beyoncé

[Disney's Divinity]

I listened to it a little bit ago. It wasn't quite as good as I thought it would be, but not bad. I can picture it overplaying Simba running back to Pride Rock.

[D82]

Here's "Never Too Late", the new song by Elton John: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbjbz1aX3TQ

And here are the rest of the film's songs (you can also listen to the entire soundtrack or buy it here):

- Circle of Life/Nants' Ingonyama: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF-c1K3WWg4
- I Just Can't Wait to Be King: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOz2cvHDDJc
- Be Prepared: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLQ6SRH90s4
- Hakuna Matata: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUioIn8rPPM
- The Lion Sleeps Tonight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I82PFHKgY2c
- Can You Feel the Love Tonight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_USvdbYS1g
- Spirit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXblqtzy_tE
- He Lives in You: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j7mEsakUHQ
- Mbube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZnHD88e3HQ

[tsom]

I’m going to take a wild guess: Sarabi.

Wish it was Nala since it would make sense why she was leaving

It was indeed Sarabi. There's a backstory where Sarabi chose Mufasa over Scar, but they didn't delve deeper into it. I wish they did! Sounded fascinating! Since Sarabi keeps resisting Scar's advances, he decrees that the hyenas will always eat first before the lionesses, which sucks because once hyenas eat, all that's left are their scrapes.

[tsom]

How sad was Mufasa's death?

The death was literally the same as the animated version. If you cried during the first, I guess you may cry now. I wasn't sad, but I never really cry during movies.

[Atlantica]

Gosh, just listened to Can You Feel The Love Tonight ... Beyoncé was pure Beyoncé from start to finish. If you love her, then that’s wonderful but I found it totally distracting. She was warbling off notes that most certainly weren’t there to begin with !!

Whatever floats your boat I guess.

[disneyprincess11]

Wow...that subplot seems so wasted and a huge disappointment since it nearly made it to the original. Disney didn't really took any liberties to re-tell the story, a la Cinderella, Aladdin and even Jungle Book, which had the same animation. They had chances to up the story with well-deserved solos for Mufasa, Nala, Simba and Rafiki, along with that queen subplot. Even most of the songs sound the same, minus Be Prepared (which is a gigantic disappointment) and IJCWTBK & CYFTLT, which have great updates. But, this seems like indeed a cold money grab.

[Disney's Divinity]

I thought the Elton John song at the end was going to be his version of Beyonce's song? Oh, well. "Never Too Late"'s alright... Not a standout, unfortunately. I enjoy the first half of Ejiofor's "Be Prepared," but I don't care for the ending. And it ends too quickly after it gets going. I think I'll get "CYFtLT" and "Spirit" only then. Beyonce sounds better on the former than her solo, imo.

[NeverLand]

Rotten Tomatoes Score is 57%
With 82 Review!

"A show-off of technical prowess rather than a solid example of good storytelling."

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_lion_king_2019

[Vlad]

How sad was Mufasa's death?

The death was literally the same as the animated version. If you cried during the first, I guess you may cry now. I wasn't sad, but I never really cry during movies.

What makes the scene so powerful in the animation is the intensity, and the horrified look on Simba's face as he tries to wake up his father. I heard online that fans and critics who went to early screenings of the movie said that the characters basically have no facial expressions, which I kinda expected. So I think that maybe, just maybe this will be the first time I won't cry during this scene. I doubt it, though, because I cried when I listened to the score on YouTube.

[DisneyFan09]

Well, after listening to all of the songs: Spirit was okay, nothing more, nothing less. Never Too Late was quite catchy and fun, though. While not perhaps particularly memorable, it's still the best of the new songs. As for the re-recordings of the old tunes, Circle of Life is pretty much the same as it's animated counterparts, while the pacing for Be Prepared was slower and thus jarring. As for the other songs, the orchestrations and arrangements were fine, though I did dislike the flute arrangement for Hakuna Matata at the beginning. Mbube was amazing, though, as was The Lion Sleeps Tonight, whereas He Lives in You was just as generic as it was in Simba's Pride.

As for the clips, Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen sounds surprisingly similar to Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella, though their cartoony antics seems a little off. As for the animation of the characters speaking, it looks exactly like how they did it in Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book.

[Farerb]

Does anyone else feel like they really didn't want to do "Be Prepared" and only did a mediocre job after the backlash?

[DisneyFan09]

Went to the premiere on Tuesday and also saw the movie. It's visually beautiful! Story-wise... it's legit the same as the animated version. I don't know how people will take it. It could go either way.

Just wondering, did it try to "fix" certain story points as the live action remakes of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin did?

[tsom]

Just wondering, did it try to "fix" certain story points as the live action remakes of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin did?

Yes and no. I felt like it was literally a carbon copy of the original, with a few things added here and there. They mentioned some things that could've been backstory (i.e. Sarabi choosing Mufasa over Scar), but they weren't delved deeper. To be completely honest, Lion King was never my favorite. It wasn't one I watched all the time, like say Cinderella or Little Mermaid, so I'm not sure how much the story needed fixing, However, I took a trip last Sunday and the animated movie was an option on my flight. I watched it and as I watched this remake, the animated movie kept playing in my head. It was 85% shot-by-shot and line-by-line remake. Hope that makes sense?

This movie is visually stunning! Deserves an Oscar for Visual Effects. The music was on point. Most of the performances were good. Timon and Pumbaa were the best characters (mostly because they ad-libbed). Beyonce did not suck. HOWEVER, and you all know I'm a supporter of these live action remakes, and I've seen most of them (except Jungle Book and Dumbo), this was the first one I ever thought "Why? What was the point?" I'll see it again though!

[DisneyFan09]

Okay, tsom. Thanks for answering. The Lion King used to be one of my favorites, having watched it trice theatrically in my childhood and seen it various times on VHS. As an adult, however, I've been more resistant to the film and found it to be a little too po-faced and pretentious at times. Yet I still have a soft spot for it and regardless of how it's regarded as overrated, it truly possesses some great qualities that makes it worthy of it's success.

[JeanGreyForever]

Critics are skewering this film online. Looks like another case of Aladdin where critics despise it but audiences will probably flock to it.

Considering how protective Disney is of this film and its legacy, I'm not surprised that they didn't bother to alter any of the story unlike the supposedly more "problematic" films like Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. I think more backstory here would have been nice, beyond Sarabi choosing Mufasa over Scar.

[Sotiris]

Here's "Never Too Late", the new song by Elton John.

I quite liked the song. While obviously not his best work, it's pretty catchy, upbeat, and fun. Much better than Beyonce's Spirit, in my opinion.

I really enjoyed the soundtrack. I'm glad they kept most of the original orchestrations and arrangements. You really can't top perfection. The singers who covered the songs were quite good so that was a relief. I loved "He Lives in You" in Xhosa. I expected it to be in English because the title was so it took me aback at first. It's a very powerful and beautiful anthem. The only track that I outright hated was "Be Prepared". They completely butchered the song. Why did they do that? What was the point? I don't know whose idea was this but that person should not go anywhere near musicals ever again.

Gosh, just listened to Can You Feel The Love Tonight...Beyoncé was pure Beyoncé from start to finish. If you love her, then that’s wonderful but I found it totally distracting. She was warbling off notes that most certainly weren’t there to begin with!!

I completely agree with you. Her constant riffing was distracting and didn't fit the song at all.

Does anyone else feel like they really didn't want to do "Be Prepared" and only did a mediocre job after the backlash?

It don't know if the plan was indeed to have it omitted at first but they certainly did a poor job with it. It was the biggest disappointment on the soundtrack.

[D82]

I quite liked the song. While obviously not his best work, it's pretty catchy, upbeat, and fun. Much better than Beyonce's Spirit, in my opinion.

I also liked "Never Too Late", I agree it's much better than "Spirit". If any of these two songs is nominated for the Oscar, I hope it's Elton John's one, though I think the new song he wrote for the movie Rocketman probably has more chances of being nominated than this one.

Rotten Tomatoes Score is 57%
With 82 Review!

"A show-off of technical prowess rather than a solid example of good storytelling."

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_lion_king_2019

Wow, I thought it would receive better reviews! I was already planning to skip this film in theaters, but now after these reviews and especially knowing it's almost a shot-by-shot copy of the original, I'm definitely not seeing it on the big screen. In my opinion, Jon Favreau struck a good balance between old and new material in The Jungle Book and that was one of the reasons of its success. I thought Disney had hired him to do the same here. I don't understand why they didn't allow him to have more creative freedom this time.

[Kyle]

Still a percent higher than Aladdin, hah. I'm really curious to see what audiences (and critics) ended up preferring when all is said and done. Based on what I've seen I know I would probably go with Aladdin, just for having real people. But most people tend to pick lion king over Aladdin when talking about the originals so...

[NeverLand]

If we compare the first reviews for both of them, Aladdin get higher score than The Lion King.

First reviews are in for #Aladdin, and it's currently #Fresh at 71% on the #Tomatometer.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxxHuWSAuRj

First reviews are in for #TheLionKing, it's currently #Rotten at 58% on the #Tomatometer.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/BzySZP_HKcF