Friday, July 12, 2019

The Lion King 2019, Reviewed

If it ain’t broke, why fix it? That seems to be the animating principle behind Disney’s new Lion King remake, which transports the 1994 original into 2019 by translating its hand-drawn animation into photo-realistic CG imagery—and in the process, loses much of the magic, according to critic K. Austin Collins. The film displays the “fine digital craftsmanship of our new era,” he writes, “replete with all the vices it entails: nostalgic reenactments of scenes we’ve seen before; colorless voice acting by name-brand performers, the likes of Beyoncé and Donald Glover(who play adult Nala and Simba, respectively); and a color-drained visual palette befitting an early-aughts movie about war in the Middle East. Early on, it was clear I’d be able to count every ridge, sub-ridge, and micro-ridge on the trunk of every elephant, and count out the strands of hair on Rafiki’s face. But watching all this made me feel a bit like Little Red Riding Hood visiting the Big Bad Wolf, wearing the guise of her grandmother. Simba, what large, inexpressive, marble-shined eyes you have! What an uncannily post-Botox emotional range you have!”

Elsewhere in HWD, Yohana Desta reports from Harvey Weinstein’s latest court appearance; Laura Bradley digs into how another disgraced mogul, Jeffrey Epstein,ingratiated himself into Hollywood; Joanna Robinsoncatches up with Stuber star Kumail Nanjiani; and Love Island USA storms CBS.