The Lion who would be King

Before I begin, I have a confession to make.  For whatever reason I never saw the original ‘Disney's The Lion King,' the popular and beloved 1994 cartoon musical about Simba (not to be confused with his Japanese anime counterpart “Kimba”), a young lion cub who overcame adversity and reclaimed his birthright as king of his domain.  25 years later, TLK was remade (along with a slew of other Disney cartoon classics such as ‘Aladdin,’ ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘Cinderella’ previously) as a computer-animated film incorporating cutting-edge computer-generated imagery (CGI).  And wow, what candy for the eyes it turned out to be!

 

Many of you are undoubtedly familiar with the story of Simba, a young lion cub who was left for dead after his noble and majestic father Mufasa was killed in an act of “Game of Thrones” treachery perpetrated by his usurper of an uncle Scar and his subsequent triumphant return to widespread acclamation.  The story of the usurper king is a tale as familiar as it is timeless, having been told in many guises and variations since time immemorial, but they all end the same way.  So it wouldn’t exactly be spoiler for me to divulge that TLK has a happy ending, would it?

 

TLK 2019 is old-fashioned yet entirely new, a great story retold through ultra-realistic computer animation.  The stunning imagery is so lifelike that it’s like watching Animal Planet or BBC’s ‘Planet Earth’ in ultra 4K high definition, if not for the fact that the animals possess the gift of human speech as if they’re in Doctor Doolittle.  As good as the visual effects are, what I liked the most about this movie is the musical score from famed composer Hans Zimmer and rocketman king-of-pop Elton John, who updated and reworked their compositions for this remake.  And even though I missed watching the original movie, I found all the songs to be instantly recognizable and utterly delightful.

Grade: A