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DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2018
I just got back from seeing The Lion King (2019) and I have very mixed and contradictory feelings about it.
Visually, it's incredible and it's probably one of the more interesting animated films I've seen in a long time. However, it felt very much like a tech demo. I felt the same way about The Good Dinosaur in that it was a great way to show off what you could do with the latest version of Renderman, but not much else. I'm not entirely sure what software they used for this, but it's very impressive. If you're a nerd and that kind of stuff fascinates you, then go see it for that. Technologically, I think the biggest failing is in the eyes. It's so hard to ever get those right.
Overall, I think this film’s biggest problem is that there's already two versions of The Lion King that are incredible and that are beloved by many. The original 2D animated film and the broadway show. This 3D version does very little to differentiate itself from either of them. It's not a line by line, shot by shot remake of the original, but it's pretty close. The stuff they do add is great (with exception of the random Beyonce song) and I would have liked to see more original content.
If the reported budget of $260 million is correct, then it's probably tied for the most expensive animated film ever made with Tangled. I’m not sure if the budget made it impossible to really go beyond the runtime they ended up with, but it just felt like a missed opportunity to do something more. It was 10 minutes or so longer than the original, but I think that’s only because it kind of dragged in spots.
With that said, it’s still The Lion King. I’d put it below the original 2D animated film and the broadway show, but above the SNES version. I don’t think anyone is missing anything if they wait for it to hit Disney Plus, but I’m still glad I saw it in theaters.
Visually, it's incredible and it's probably one of the more interesting animated films I've seen in a long time. However, it felt very much like a tech demo. I felt the same way about The Good Dinosaur in that it was a great way to show off what you could do with the latest version of Renderman, but not much else. I'm not entirely sure what software they used for this, but it's very impressive. If you're a nerd and that kind of stuff fascinates you, then go see it for that. Technologically, I think the biggest failing is in the eyes. It's so hard to ever get those right.
Overall, I think this film’s biggest problem is that there's already two versions of The Lion King that are incredible and that are beloved by many. The original 2D animated film and the broadway show. This 3D version does very little to differentiate itself from either of them. It's not a line by line, shot by shot remake of the original, but it's pretty close. The stuff they do add is great (with exception of the random Beyonce song) and I would have liked to see more original content.
If the reported budget of $260 million is correct, then it's probably tied for the most expensive animated film ever made with Tangled. I’m not sure if the budget made it impossible to really go beyond the runtime they ended up with, but it just felt like a missed opportunity to do something more. It was 10 minutes or so longer than the original, but I think that’s only because it kind of dragged in spots.
With that said, it’s still The Lion King. I’d put it below the original 2D animated film and the broadway show, but above the SNES version. I don’t think anyone is missing anything if they wait for it to hit Disney Plus, but I’m still glad I saw it in theaters.
