Tropic Sprocket / The Lion King

Tropic Sprocket / The Lion King

By Ian Brockway

Jon Favreau’s live-action version of “The Lion King” can boast about its star power. It is executively produced by Julie Taymor who excelled in directing the terrific stage adaptation on Broadway and its music features the talents of Elton John and Tim Rice who did such memorable work on the original groundbreaking classic.

The film has some powerful effects via VR technology. These photo-realistic animals are wonderfully tangible and they are right in front of us. One believes this fluently verbal pride of lions and the realization is striking.

All depictions of the African savannah are slickly handled and well done. This is a rapidly moving, glossy rendering of the beloved, quasi-biblical story of an underdog king.

That being said, the film feels decidedly tepid, only going through its predatory pathos in second gear. This is wilderness purely by rote.

The 21st century chapter follows its leonine predecessor quite closely. Rafiki (John Kani) holds up baby Simba, the future king (Donald Glover) as the proud Mustafa (James Earl Jones) basks in joy.

But as we know, all is not rosy in paradise. The old and embittered Scar (Chewetel Ejiofar) is biding his time to strike and come to the fore. Like Satan, Scar is a fallen angel of sorts eaten by selfishness. He alone covets the kingdom.

Simba like Pinocchio before him is happy go lucky, the favored son. Then Scar whispers to him in temptation, promising illusions of bravery and valor. But he must never voyage to the land of shadows as kings do.

This is just what Simba does.

James Earl Jones is wonderful once more reprising his role as the fatherly king while Ejiofar is perfectly sinister and smarmy as Scar. Beyonce does very well as Nala. Surprisingly, the joint talents of Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner steal the show as Pumbaa and Timon, (the pacifist wart-hog and meerkat) respectively. Hakuna Matata indeed!

The comedian John Oliver is humorous also as the modest hornbill bodyguard, Zazu.

All of the voice talents are exemplary with not a dodo among them.

It is only in the standard convention of the narrative itself that the film shows its lackluster coloring. The story is such a paint by number rendering of the original film that it lacks past resonance and verve. So many of the animals move and ambulate in the same way. While there is potency in hearing these lions speak, their gestures are invariably plain with every character revealing either a blankness in the eye or a simmering hate with no other blend or variation.

The animal kingdom, I suspect, is as various as the human with all kinds of pushes and pulls of the heart. Why not highlight these vivid creatures as emotive beings? Here, they feel animatronic with little facial intensity.

Still the characters are predictably entertaining. Simba is duly a hero and Scar remains as always, the lion we love to hate. The songs are rousing and Elton John and Tim Rice bubble to the top yet again.

While the older among us will rightly feel that 2019’s “The Lion King” is a run of the mill bestiary and an exercise in routine, younger generations who have not seen earlier incarnations can purr along with those time honored songs and tread with Simba in a singularly haunting scene, as the prince walks in solitude very much like Jesus upon the desert sand, existentially alone.

Write Ian at [email protected]

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