niennumb1
Master Member
I saw The Lion King 7 times in the theaters back in 1993 and again when it was out in 3D some years back. I was extremely excited to see this new "realistic" take on it. I came out very mixed.
Without trying to rant too much....
I thought Zazu choice of voice was terribly annoying. Don't get me wrong, Zazu is a fairly annoying character, but Rowan Atkinson does it SO much better. Maybe it was the inflection of the voice, but I just didn't like Oliver's voice as Zazu.
Donald Glover was fine as older Simba. I think some lines were odd, but I more blame the director in how the lines were spoken.
James Earl Jones... you absolutely cannot replace, but a lot of those lines were spoken with much more emotion in the animated version than this one. I was disappointed in how his lines were directed. I just didn't feel the intensity that was there in the '93 film.
Scar's voice.... I have great respect for Chitwetel Ejifor, but this was an absolutely HORRIBLE choice to fit the incredible and villainous Jeremy Irons voice. I would have absolutely recast Irons to play him again, no doubt.
Timon and Pumbaa - VERY surprised to have enjoyed Seth Rogan as Pumbaa. Billy Eichner was very hit and miss. There's a VERY huge place in my heart for Nathan Lane. I don't think you could get anyone else to be Timon personally.
Beyonce as adult Nala worked fine. No complaints.
The hyenas - They were good, but I missed Whoopi Goldberg's Shenzi. And I don't know why, but I love Jim Cummings as Ed so much and as I recall I don't think that was Ed, but a different hyena.
The opening was AWESOME! But when the story began getting underway it quickly felt off, which lead to sadly I feeling VERY disconnected from the performances. I like some of the fan renditions that are almost photo real, but still the look of the iconic animated characters. I think because animals facial expressions are very limited was what was due to the downfall of the cold and wooden appearance of how the performances translated with the vocals. They REALLY needed more expressive faces to capture the emotion. I was VERY impressed with the CG animal renditions though. They did a remarkable job in the details and movements of the characters. Great textures and appreciated all the '93 shot-matched stuff through a lot of the film.
A lot to be appreciated in what they did with this movie, but it fell kinda flat for me in terms of the weirdness felt by aiming for 100% accurate looking animal renditions with cold-looking performances due to lack of being able to push the facial expressions on top of some surprisingly disappointing voice acting and/or direction.
One final thing.... Simba's child voice actor does a really great job being sad after Mufasa's death, but they didn't even add any tears welting up in the cub's eyes with all that crying and sniffling?!
Without trying to rant too much....
I thought Zazu choice of voice was terribly annoying. Don't get me wrong, Zazu is a fairly annoying character, but Rowan Atkinson does it SO much better. Maybe it was the inflection of the voice, but I just didn't like Oliver's voice as Zazu.
Donald Glover was fine as older Simba. I think some lines were odd, but I more blame the director in how the lines were spoken.
James Earl Jones... you absolutely cannot replace, but a lot of those lines were spoken with much more emotion in the animated version than this one. I was disappointed in how his lines were directed. I just didn't feel the intensity that was there in the '93 film.
Scar's voice.... I have great respect for Chitwetel Ejifor, but this was an absolutely HORRIBLE choice to fit the incredible and villainous Jeremy Irons voice. I would have absolutely recast Irons to play him again, no doubt.
Timon and Pumbaa - VERY surprised to have enjoyed Seth Rogan as Pumbaa. Billy Eichner was very hit and miss. There's a VERY huge place in my heart for Nathan Lane. I don't think you could get anyone else to be Timon personally.
Beyonce as adult Nala worked fine. No complaints.
The hyenas - They were good, but I missed Whoopi Goldberg's Shenzi. And I don't know why, but I love Jim Cummings as Ed so much and as I recall I don't think that was Ed, but a different hyena.
The opening was AWESOME! But when the story began getting underway it quickly felt off, which lead to sadly I feeling VERY disconnected from the performances. I like some of the fan renditions that are almost photo real, but still the look of the iconic animated characters. I think because animals facial expressions are very limited was what was due to the downfall of the cold and wooden appearance of how the performances translated with the vocals. They REALLY needed more expressive faces to capture the emotion. I was VERY impressed with the CG animal renditions though. They did a remarkable job in the details and movements of the characters. Great textures and appreciated all the '93 shot-matched stuff through a lot of the film.
A lot to be appreciated in what they did with this movie, but it fell kinda flat for me in terms of the weirdness felt by aiming for 100% accurate looking animal renditions with cold-looking performances due to lack of being able to push the facial expressions on top of some surprisingly disappointing voice acting and/or direction.
One final thing.... Simba's child voice actor does a really great job being sad after Mufasa's death, but they didn't even add any tears welting up in the cub's eyes with all that crying and sniffling?!
