In the last couple of years, animated classics spanning from the 90’s to the early 2000’s have been remade into glorious live action pieces of art. However, there are critics who hold the original versions of the movies on such a high pedestal, that the new live action films are a dumpster fire in comparison.

All fans were dying to know if the new live action remake of The Lion King would be identical to the old one, or would a new spin be added on the movie for a taste of uniqueness. If you were one of the fans hoping to see a breath of originality breathed into the film, odds are you would have been thoroughly disappointed, because the remake of the movie was nearly identical compared to the original 90’s animated version. Aside from a few scenes that were so short, that if you blinked then you wouldn’t even know the scene was added while another was taken out.

Jumping to the defense of the new movie, both fans and critics alike would be “lion” if they said that seeing some of their favorite animated characters immortalized in live action on the big screen wasn’t exuberating. I can’t lie, seeing the great lion king Mufasa perish at the hands of Scar on an IMAX screen was much harder to watch than seeing a cartoon lion fall into a valley of stampeding bison on a junky video home system. Not to mention the up’roar’ of the audience when fan favorites Pumba and Timon first popped up on the silver screen.

The music in the movie was absolutely without a doubt on par if not better than the original. Not only were the vocals on point, the cinematography and dances were incredible. The time skip during the Hakuna Matata song was one of my favorite scenes in the original and seeing it remade into was awesome and I loved every second of it. Not to mention, we got to have popular artist Donald Glover being the singing voice of Simba and it was probably the best casting choice they could’ve made. 

Though the new Lion King had its faults, nobody can deny that the emotions are much more intense when the animals look real. For example, the elephant graveyard scene was much more nail biting and nerve racking when you can identify and sympathize with a very realistic animal CGI. 

This movie however is one in a long line of new animated classics being reborn into live action masterpieces. We already got a live action Aladdin movie, and we are awaiting a live action Mulan movie, as well as the very exciting Little Mermaid remake coming in 2020.

The new remake of The Lion King was a smash hit and with the new animated remakes looking amazing, I feel they will get the lion’s share at the box office.