The Lion King (2019)

(PG)  ★★★

Director: Jon Favreau.

Cast: (voices of) Donald Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Alfre Woodard, John Oliver, John Kani, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, James Earl Jones, JD McCrary, Shahadi Wright Joseph.

Which animal is going to eat the other? The answer might surprise you. 

It's either incredibly daring or bafflingly stupid to remake a perfect film - after all, there's no improving on perfection. Obviously.

Sometimes a remake can take a great film's central concept into a different direction, but usually it's best to leave things be. Unless you're incredibly daring. Or bafflingly stupid.

It's always seemed to me to be a smarter idea to re-do bad films. Bad films brim with unrealised potential, and failings that could use correcting. Not so for classic movies. Filmmakers taking on the classics have a slimmer margin for success. That's not to say it can't be done (it can), but its dangerous territory for any director.

Yet in recent times, Disney has largely found success in covering its own greatest hits, particularly with Cinderella and The Jungle Book. The notes and melodies are largely the same, but the shiny new production and orchestrations added new tones. If nothing else, these do-overs have modernised the stories, oiling up some of the creaking joints that have come with age, and enhancing elements that may have been underdone in the past.

But there are no such creaks in 1994's The Lion King. It remains a masterpiece of emotion, character, music, structure and pacing. Which means all director Favreau (fresh from reworking The Jungle Book) can do in the 2019 version of The Lion King is re-tell the same story in the same way, just with stunningly photo-realistic CG.

And the new take does look remarkable. It's nature doco worthy - you half-expect David Attenborough to start narrating. But basically this is the same emperor, just with some very, very fancy new clothes.

In case you missed the plot in the past 25 years, Simba the lion (voiced by McCrary as a cub, Glover when he's older) just can't wait to be king, but the machinations of his evil uncle Scar (Ejiofor) force Simba into exile, allowing Scar to usurp the throne. And along the way, we laugh, we learn, and we discover that hakuna matata means "no worries".

If there's one major takeaway from the new version of The Lion King, it's how right Disney got things the first time.

And that's not to say the 2019 take gets it wrong, but rather that everything about this remake that works does so because it worked back in 1994. That original script by Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts and Linda Woolverton spun its archetypal characters and story inspirations (from Hamlet to, allegedly, Kimba The White Lion) into storytelling perfection. It resulted in the peak of the Disney Renaissance, and not only one of the finest classically animated movies of all time, but one of the greatest movies of all time.

But unlike the other recent CG-heavy remakes of Disney classics, there is little to update here. Aladdin, Cinderella and Beauty & The Beast enjoyed welcome tweaks that modernised their viewpoints and broadened key characters. The Jungle Book (also directed by Favreau) had its weaknesses strengthened and teased out new and exciting story elements from the source material. Dumbo got the biggest makeover of them all, overcoming some of the original's ageing shortcomings, but unfortunately creating all new problems in the process.

But Lion King 2.0 finds no such failings in its predecessor. Whole lines, shots and scenes are reproduced, and any alterations are superficial. Which makes you wonder why they bothered.

The second major takeaway is that this looks astounding. It is visually stunning - there is no denying this. And its schtick of real-looking animals singing and talking works surprisingly well. It's believable and beautiful and a technological marvel to think that everything in the film is ones and zeroes.

But emotionally, the 2019 Lion King doesn't hit as hard as the 1994 version. This could be due to the lack of surprises, or even a personal fault that comes from not being able to watch it and feel it the same way that 13-year-old me watched the original 25 years ago. But I suspect the photo-realistic approach means the CG animals don't emote like their cartoon counterparts did. This lack of anthropomorphism is noble, but the realism undersells the emotion.

It's certainly no fault of the voice cast. Ejiofor is magnificently malevolent as Scar, swapping Jeremy Irons' pantomime villainy for something truly disturbing and unsettling, which suits the mangy flea-ridden character design. His turn is the highlight in a killer line-up.

Glover is also great, not just in the musical numbers, but in the way his vocal approach to the character shifts from Hakuna Matata-singing wastrel to legitimate heir to the throne. Knowles-Carter brings a great fire to the grown-up version of Simba's childhood friend Nala, while Rogen and Eichner fill the large shoes of Pumbaa and Timon with ease (even if Rogen's singing leaves something to be desired).

The excellent cast certainly prevents the film being heartless. It still packs a punch in places, but not as much as the original. And ultimately that is the only yardstick upon which this film can be measured - how does 2019 stack up against 1994?

By this scale, The Lion King 2019 is beautiful yet unnecessary. It's stunning and majestic to behold - unlike anything you've really seen before - but its story has been told better and with more power and finesse by its predecessor.