TimeOut Abu Dhabi – July 24, 2019

58 July 24 – August 6 2019 timeoutabudhabi.com

Film

Edited by Paul Clifford

timeoutabudhabi.com/fi lms

DISNEY’S CHERISHED 1994 animated adventure

gets a high-tech sheen and loses some heart

in the process.

Something is off about this defiantly

unmagical remake of The Lion King, a film

that is both photorealistic – down to every

artfully crafted lens flare and whisker on

Simba’s chin – and about the furthest

imaginable thing from real. It’ll either mildly

disturb you or make you feel like your skin is

on backwards. Granted, it’s still The Lion King,

still a sturdy piece of Hamlet-derived musical

theatre, only with 100 percent more Beyoncé,

which is never a bad thing.

But Disney’s animated movies have always

been invitations to dream bigger than nature;

even when you go to one of its theme parks,

you submit to pretending. This new version is

an invader of the real world, its characters like

stuffed trophies mounted on the wall. They’re

lifelike, yes, but somehow not alive.

Almost certainly, kids aren’t going to mind

this, even if their imaginations

will be a little short-changed. The

Lion King is still a yarn about

talking and singing animals; no

amount of digital work is going

to change that. And vocal talent

is what semi-saves this remake

from Jungle Book director Jon

Favreau’s more computerised

instincts. As the regal Mufasa,

the sensible leader of the Pride

Lands, rumbling James Earl Jones

still has Darth Vader sonority

on tap. He remembers to give

an actual performance, as does

Donald Glover, voicing the cub

who would be king with increasing surety.

But the rest of the cast is flattened into two-

dimensional reductions: John Oliver’s flapping

advisory hornbill (panicky), Billy

Eichner’s slinky meerkat (bitchy)

and Seth Rogen’s sputtering

Pumba (Seth Rogen-y).

The sincerity – best expressed

in the still-mighty Can You Feel

the Love Tonight, strongly sung by

Beyoncé and Glover – has aged

better than any of Disney’s goofier

asides, but it’s not long before the

digital weirdness throws the mood

out again. Always effortful and

desperate to impress, let’s hope it

never replaces its 1994 forebear

as a passport to something far

more sublime. Joshua Rothkopf

The Lion King



WHAT IS IT...

The realistic digital

remake of an

animated classic

WHY GO...

Mainly for Donald

Glover’s turn as Simba

DIRECTOR

Jon Favreau (G)

RELEASE DATE

Out now

5 58 - 59_FILM LEADER_10033054_10770801.indd 58 8 - 59 FILM LEADER 10033054 _ 10770801 .indd 58 21/07/2019 11:24:24 AM 21 / 07 / 2019 11 : 24 : 24 AM