The Lion King


Jon Favreau will direct a live-action version of "The Lion King." The film will include songs from the animated film. The Lion King (1994) is one of the biggest animated films of all time with a lifetime global box office gross of $968.8 million, including $422.8 million domestically. It won Academy Awards for the original song “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” (Elton John, Tim Rice) and original score (Hans Zimmer), plus two Grammy Awards, with the soundtrack selling over 14 million copies. In 1997, the stage production “The Lion King” made its Broadway debut, winning six Tony Awards; 19 years later, it remains one of Broadway’s biggest hits.

I was nervous about this movie because of how much the original owns a piece of my heart on a bunch of levels.  But it did not disappoint.  I actually thought that they did a really great job considering the animated facial reactions that they would not be able to do with the live animal CGI.  I was not a fan of pushing the BeyoncĂ© voice/character so much and it definitely fell victim a little too much to the "Me Too" pc forcing that is so prevalent now.  But that being put aside - they really did a great job with characters that I have loved for decades.

I would absolutely recommend people checking this out.  There are great iconic moments that are included and some elaborated on a little bit to put their own twist on it.  This is a very enjoyable family movie just like the original animated version.