So Disney released the Kiba white lion cartoon (without giving proper credis), then released it again in a remake? It is taking lack of originality to a whole new level. As if the world lacked fresh stories. Feels like drinking a glass of water which was already drunk before, twice. For me, the CG animation also looks disturbing. Uncanny. Weird. The same strangeness I feel seeing the CG Dumbo elephant. I did not have this feeling in other movies showing crowds of animated animals, like Chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Rings.
Full trailer is out: I've watched it a few times now. Watch #1 was all awe and nostalgia, right from the first notes of the soundtrack. All 100% familiar Zimmer and Lebo M scores. Chills. On later watches, I started feeling like it's just TOO similar to the original. Shot for shot. But let's see how it plays out. Hopefully the Scar dialogue in the beginning hints at more of a fully fleshed out "haves vs. have-nots of the savannah" storyline exploration. I'm not in love with the visuals or voice for Scar, though. But there's time. Something also feels weird about seeing a cub of Simba's size run from hyenas and stampeding wildebeest. It's just short clips right now, but it looks a little weird. In all those shots, it feels like there's no way he's credibly escaping either threat. Guess we'll have to wait and see how those scenes play out.
I’m sorry to say, but whoever is playing Scar sounds really freaking dull. He sounds just as wooden as Russel Means as Chief Powhatan in Pocahontas. And just like Pocahontas, it looks like the attempts to make the characters more realistic-looking have come at the cost of making them expressive. So yeah, not impressed. I’m sorry if it seems like I’m needlessly complaining, but I’m sorry, I’m just sick of this Disney remake trend. If they’re going to keep doing this, I think they should target movies that actually have remake potential, like The Black Cauldron, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, or Meet the Robinsons; movies that had good ideas but needed better execution.
I think The Lion King has remake potential, but it really does seem like they've decided to just make a shot-for-shot remake of the animated film... And yeah, the realism does make them less expressive it seems. I thought The Jungle Book did a good job of leaving in expression while also providing more realistic looking animals and I'm surprised the same studio and director don't seem to have captured that same effect here when supposedly the technology has improved since then. Of course, you don't want to make them too expressive, otherwise you end up with animals looking more like that other Jungle Book movie... Timon and Pumba look like they have absolutely zero expression from the short shot we saw of them, though. And why is Timon singing In the Jungle?? I'm just looking forward to the inevitable Emperor's New Groove remake where they turn Michael Peña into an expression-less Llama and have to pretend John Goodman is native. ~Thylo
It might be just me who is being overly optimistic but I feel like they won’t let us down with this one (Looking at you Aladdin) ,but eh we can’t really judge it now until it comes out,but for me personally it looks great! I’m a Visual Guy so the film looks beautiful to me,it might not look like that for some of you..... I can see why some people are sick of the Disney remake trend calling them cash-grabs and soulless recreations but honestly I don’t see them that way at all....I see them as a new movie that I consider watching or not and this one happens to be a movie I want to watch soon but each to their opinions in the end.
Very true, we won't really know until the movie's out. Don't get me wrong I'm looking forward to this, I'm just cautiously optimistic. The film does undoubtedly look incredible, though incredible visuals should never be the best part of a film (looking at you Last Jedi). Evidently they're not even finished with the visuals yet. Well, the thing is all movies are cash grabs. At least the major pictures are. These films are made in order to make the studios tons of money. Obviously that doesn't mean they don't care about the quality, but they're definitely all cash grabs. I do plan on seeing this and I'm sure it'll be good, but I just don't want it to be a complete retelling of the original story (not that the original story was the original story) ~Thylo
I really liked the trailer. The music was good, Scar's design is amazing, Rafiki's facial "acting" was incredible, and I disagree, I think Timon and Pumbaa did look decently expressive in the snippet we got (At least Timon, who is very clearly "smiling") But my least favourite thing about this trailer has to be the response. If I have to scroll past one more twitter/tumblr/facebook/whatever post about how people are disappointed with Scar's design I'll go mad Because like I don't know what they were expecting?? Lions can't be bright orange?? I'm sorry this cgi lion isn't sufficiently "sexy"???
Baby Pumbaa is portrayed wrong, since warthog piglets have no stripes. Probably inspired by this pic with 'Tiny warthog' title
Yah, when I saw little Pumbaa, I thought the same way as well. I have seen wild boar in Latvia and that is definitely based on a European Wild Boar piglet. Maybe Pumbaa changed species somewhere?
Also there were some mistakes in Russian dub. Nala says "I'd rather marry an anteater" instead of aardvark, the antelope Simba talks with is mentioned as impala, and Timon calls Zazu a puffin.
Timon calls Zazo a puffin in the English version too. Somehow, a meerkat who’s presumably lived his whole life in the Serengeti region is aware of a Subarctic seabird...
That's the kind of minor for-the-audience joke I don't care about though. Like, Timon also knows the lyrics to 'Be Our Guest', I don't think it's supposed to be taken too literally (I always heard him saying 'puppet' though?) Anyway year-ago me was wrong, the movie was horrible and I'm so let down I still think about it daily a year later. But it COULD'VE been good and that's what's the most frustrating thing
I think it was good. Not great though. There definitely could've been more originality and they should've replaced James Earl Jones with another actor (preferably with his blessing).
I've actually had the same thought. For one thing, it's weird to recast the entire cast except for one person, and secondly, JEJ is far from the actor he was in the 90's. I don't blame him, because that is like almost thirty years of aging, but still. So my pick for Mufasa would have been Broadway veteran Norm Lewis: And while I'm recasting, I liked Seth Rogen as Pumbaa fine enough, but if it were up to me I would've had him played by Tituss Burgess:
