To be region specific, Rafiki would either be an Olive or Yellow Baboon as Mandrills are not found anywhere in East Africa.
Disney probably didn't care for that when ripping off Kimba the White lion and its sage baboon Dan'l Baboon. Dan'l Baboon (Buzara)
How did Disney not get in trouble since they basically replicated that movie? You think they'd be more creative.
A little late to the party here, but I have faith. Lots and lots of faith. Of course, it could go terribly wrong, but this is the same man that directed the Jungle Book. I thought the Jungle Book was good: really REALLY good. In fact, it's my favourite movie of all time. I think people who shrug it off as a "soulless" adaptation didn't really take the time to think about it from a thematic and critical standpoint, devoid of how much they liked singing along to "Bare Necessities" as a kid or "Waah my childhood!" It was a perfect combination of the book and the animated movie, slandering neither and being respectful to both, and IMO improving on their thematic standing overall (Mowgli should stay in the Jungle, at least in this movie). Now given that Lion King was one of the "perfect" 90's Disney movies, with no prior source material (Kimba notwithstanding), it's definitely an entirely different beast from the animated Jungle Book: but it's not perfect. The treatment of the hyenas and the fact of lions being the "King" has always been under question, the second act kind of drags and the theming is a bit wonky in places. Not to say that Jon Favreau should be going in to "fix" all of these (that's what made Beauty and the Beast so horrible), but he should at least acknowledge the major ones. This isn't going to be a complete rehash of the original folks, this is reportedly an entirely different story, which I think is a good thing. Of course it can never please everyone: if it goes too far from the original, people won't like it, but if sticks too close to it, people will really not like it. I do agree that it would be better for Disney to go back to making original content again, but hey, the remakes sell, and no amount of boycotting is going to change that.
Komba very much withstanding I agree, no movie will ever make everyone happy. Theoretically there is definitely an amount of boycotting that will change the situation, though. ~Thylo
I mean wasn't the whole thing with Kimba due to that the original plan was for the Disney people were working closely with the Kimba people for The Lion King to be some kind of pseudo-adaptation? This is why the original title was "King of the Jungle" (and not because the directors didn't know lions didn't live in the jungle, as vapid internet criticism would have you believe), and why Simba has white fur in some concept art But even with that I think the whole arrangement ended on a sour note and Disney just kept all the stuff anyway. I mean yeah, the surface visual "references" to Kimba are very much there, but the two stories couldn't be more different. And yeah, it was a bit of a d**k move by Disney, but it's a multi-billion dollar company, of course it's going to be pure evil
I'm pretty sure the situation is more that some people worked for the studio that made Kimba, then came over to Disney and they just made The Lion King, denying any connection or even prior knowledge of Kimba ever since. ~Thylo
Just found this : https://www.change.org/p/the-walt-d...e-white-black-rhino-in-the-new-lion-king-film
People actually created a petition for it....lmao oh my god. Like I thought it was just a placeholder, and if it is then great. But if not then its in a single frame and it really doesn't matter that much. I know this a website full of pedantic animal nerds (including myself), but the pedantic animal nerds that feel the need to call out every time there's even a slight biological inaccuracy in a movie are kind of...exhausting That said, the trailer though!! The music!! The cheetah and the rhino!!! Rafiki's voice! ZAZU!!!! (my all-time favourite fictional character, for some reason)
I personally am not enthusiastic about this movie, or any of Disney's other upcoming remakes, for that matter. What I'm pretty sure of is that from a visual standpoint, the remake will age very poorly since what can seem like good CGI at one point can seem like bad CGI 10 or 20 years later, while traditional animation never really ages. From a story standpoint, I fear it may fall in the same trap that the Beauty and the Beast remake did: bending over backwards so far to "fix" (minute) issues in an already fantastic movie while creating problems of its own. But I suppose we'll just have to wait and see the results in July.
Agreed, the Jungle Book remake got praised for its cgi, but even then I didn't think it looked all that great (and that remake is my all-time favourite movie) And on the topic of The Jungle Book, I'm not worried about The Lion King because they share the same director. Beauty and the Beast was horrible for the reasons you said, and I'm expecting Aladdin to be horrible too, but The Lion King at least has potential to be really good, unless Favreau bucks it up
Disney gave a presentation at CineCon and showed the "everything the light touches" scene from the movie. It's reportedly breathtaking but also a near exact replica of the animated scene apart from some original dialogue. Apparently Zazu makes a joke about orangutans but that could be a misquote. ~Thylo
Based on this, do you think it might possibly confirm my fear that it will be an almost shot-for-shot remake of the whole film a la Gus Van Sant's Psycho?
This + the Indian rhino in the coronation scene = so many references to Jungle Book! Looks like Favreau is trying to create an interconnected Disney Live Action Cinematic Universe (DLACU).
Not sure. I mean the scene in question is iconic and thus would obviously be included, but then again almost everything about it except for some of Zazu's dialogue is right out of the animated movie. I think it might be too early to tell, we need more trailers. ~Thylo
