(Opinion) The Lion King (2019): Why presentation in film is everything.

The night before I saw the The Lion King (2019), I re-watched the original animated film again. Needless to say that its a masterpiece of animation, music, and emotional storytelling (even if its just Hamlet in disguise).

So yeah remake that shit.

What if Back to the Future were to get a remake? Sounds stupid right? That's exactly how I felt when a remake of The Lion King was announced back at the end of 2016. Its already a near perfect film, so what would a remake do differently other than a live action approach rather than 2D animated approach? Financially it makes every bit of sense. Just by the title alone Disney already had an extra billion dollars in the bank, which shows the power and impact of original film on its own. But despite the film already crossing the billion dollar mark, the films sits at 52% on Rotten Tomatoes. Compare that to the original film which sits at a 93%. So why such a difference in critical reception despite that the two films are almost shot-for-shot the same?

Presentation is the answer.

The purpose of any film is to tell a story. Many say that a good script is the key to a film working. And while I agree that a bad script is dooming a film from the start, presentation (usually) always gets forgotten about when discussing whether a film is good or bad. Notice how in the Lion King (2019) that its told with a realistic approach that almost looks like something out of national geographic? The story of the Lion King is about human qualities and morals told with animals. Realistic animals lack the expression of humans, of course. Compare this to the animated version which also features animals but with one key difference: Expression. When Mufasa is killed, we see Simba's tears and feel exactly what he feels. Everything from the performance, music, and visuals come together to create a powerful and iconic scene. When this scene happened in the remake, almost every bit of impact was lost despite showing the exact same thing.

This proves that with this remake, presentation is everything. There are many people who enjoyed this remake. Sadly I could not enjoy it. As much as I appreciate the passion and hard work from Jon Favreau, The Lion King (2019) just misses the mark for me due to its approach that lacks the emotion and empathy of the original. But don't let me stop you from enjoying it though!