People USA – July 29, 2019

PEOPLE July 29, 2019 35

READ

THIS W

EEK!

Edited by

Tom

Gliatto

FAMILYYou already know the story—little cub Simba,

bereaved by his dad’s death, must gain maturity and

defeat his scheming uncle to gain his rightful place as

king. It’s a little bit Shakespeare, a little bit Discovery

Channel and a lot of the classic Disney success for-

mula. So why see this photorealistic, high-tech

remake of the 1994 animated hit? For the visuals—

and the voices. Director Jon Favreau (who

made the wonderful 2016 update of The

Jungle Book) and his team have honed their

technique even further, giving us sweeping

African vistas, thrilling chase scenes and

animals that look almost like the real

thing—until they open their mouths and

talk. You might miss the expressiveness of

the original animated characters, but

young Simba is ridiculously cute as a computer-

animated fur ball, and Pumbaa, the happy-go-lucky

warthog, is a dirt-encrusted work of art. Pumbaa

and his meerkat buddy Timon, of course, steal the

show again, with Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner hav-

ing the time of their lives delivering wisecracks and

“Hakuna Matata.” Along with Donald Glover as the

older Simba and Beyoncé as his love Nala,

voice standouts include Chiwetel Ejiofor

as evil lion Scar and John Oliver as twit-

tering hornbill Zazu. Just don’t think too

hard about the royalist, patriarchal law of

this jungle. Nala is stronger and smarter

than Simba—she’s Queen Bey, for gosh

sakes!—yet powerless without him. Isn’t

it time to evolve? (July 19, PG)

MOVIE| The Lion King

The circle of life continues with a lush new version of the Disney classic

Donald Glover

Beyoncé

Mane event: Beyoncé and

Glover provide the voices for

Nala and king-to-be Simba.

‘Young

Simba is

ridiculously

cute as a

computer-

animated

(LION KING) DISNEY(2); (BEYONCE) STEVE GRANITZ/W fur ball’

IREIMAGE (GLOVER) STEFANIE KEENAN/GETTY IMAGES