An almost exact remake of the 1994 animated classic featuring ground breaking special effects and a stellar voice cast. The story is inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet where Scar, jealous of his brothers rule, conspires to kill the king and oust his son.

It is becoming difficult to review Disney’s “live action” remakes without repeating myself. Whilst they may feel unnecessary for someone who was the perfect age for the release of the likes of Aladdin and Lion King they are of course aimed at the children of today. So let’s start with some quick opinions…

I disliked The Jungle Book remake immensely, thought the Cinderella remake was awful, found Beauty and the Beast to be the best to date, Dumbo (2019) to be beautiful but dull and Aladdin (2019) to be a lot of fun. The Lion King probably slots behind Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin as the third most interesting remake. And if you are interested my kids think Aladdin or Lion King is the best depending on who you ask.

As an adult all I really want to discuss is how amazing the effects are in this film. Because despite the effects and the voice cast the film never quite captures the magic and beauty of the original film.

Earlier I placed the term live action remake in inverted commas and that is because this is really just another animated film. It’s just that you would not really know it. Remove the words and this looks like a nature documentary. It is simply phenomenal to look at. Although that does prevent the occasional problem given the anthropomorphic animals can not display the emotion required if they look real.

In terms of the voice cast the stand outs are probably Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumba (Seth Rogen) who create a great comic partnership to match the original team of Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella.

Watch it for its technical wizardry and then find your blu-ray of the original.