Let me start out by saying that as a teen, I was obsessed with the 1994 Lion King. Everything thing about it was amazing. In fact, one of the very first CDs I ever bought was the Lion King soundtrack. It’s one of those movies I watched enough times that I can still quote the whole thing.
That said, I was not thrilled that they chose to do a live action version. The 1994 Lion King became a huge part of 90s pop culture. There is so much to live up to that if they fell short anywhere, they would disappoint millions. Including me. I’m a pretty tough customer.

Why we might have an uncanny valley problem
The uncanny valley is a phenomenon found when we try to recreate realistic humans artificially. We usually see this in CGI movies and robots. The idea is that the closer you get to recreating a lifelike human, the creepier it is until you nail it perfectly.
I’ve blogged about this before when I talked about the train wreck that is the live action Grinch movie (which is a super amusing post, if I say so myself) and again when I discuss the concept of the uncanny valley over on my writing blog. That post is far more academic and has graphs. Fascinating stuff.
With animals, the creepiness factor is different, but there is still a general unease when something is off. Finding Nemo cartoonized the characters to be cute and expressive and it totally worked. This new Lion King made the animals photo perfect. In fact, they used live action shots with real animals as much as possible, only adding in the mouth movements when they needed to talk.
For me, this flirted with the uncanny valley. Real animals don’t talk and it’s weird to see them do so in a way that’s super realistic.
Don’t get me wrong, the execution is flawless. The 2019 movie is still a beautiful story of loss and redemption. The music is still the breathtaking tracks from the original movie and has only been adapted slightly to fit this film. And because I loved the first one so much, I started disliking the new one because of the differences and limitations of using live action with CGI.
The Lion King is an emotional story. The characters need to be able to express those feelings. In a cartoon, the animator can exaggerate the facial expressions so that it’s clear what the characters are feeling. In live action using animals we lose all of that and have to infer what they might be feeling using context and body language only. This took away from the experience.

Other significant changes
There were also a few updates to make the movie more politically correct, like removing the Nazi-like imagery from Scar’s big musical number “Be Prepared” and actually having Rafiki speak in Xhosa instead of whatever nonsense words he uses in the 1994 version. I agree with these changes as it shows sensitivity to today’s audience.
But there were also a few script adaptations where key scenes were either shortened, lengthened, or removed. That insightful part where Rafiki smacks Simba in the head and then says he shouldn’t worry about it because it’s in the past – gone. The funny bit where Timon is confused about how Nala wants to eat Pumba while still being friends with Simba – gone.
That lovely five-second bit where Simba flops down and sends a swirl of seeds into the air which Rafiki then finds? They turned that into a three-minute montage where we follow a tuft of lion hair that at one point gets eaten by a giraffe, gets pooped out, and then is transported by dung beetle. Really guys?
Also, the casting. While they kept James Earl Jones as Mufasa, which was an essential choice, they didn’t keep my personal favorite casting, Jeremy Irons as Scar. I get that this might have been a move to make the cast more appropriate for a story set in Africa – but Jeremy Irons performance was amazing and I missed it.

Summing up
I wanted to love the new Lion King like I loved the old one. The story was there, the magnitude of the African landscape was stunning, the voice performances were on point. But, it didn’t hold up to the original. Instead of enjoying it, I kept trying to figure out what they changed and why it felt different. For new audiences, like my kids, this will be their Lion King and they might come to love it like I loved the original.
What are your thoughts? Have you seen it?
You can also find updates and post notifications on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – chose the one you like the most!
I haven’t seen the new one and I probably won’t. Like you I loved the old one and I hate change for the sake of change. I think the present generation would love the old one as well as you and I did. But people do like to change.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, you’re not missing out on too much. They did a good job, they just can’t match the power of the original. My kids were not super impressed, but then again, I haven’t gotten them to watch the original either. They don’t like that style of animation when compared to CGI.
LikeLike
Flirt with the uncanny valley? It lives in the uncanny valley! Creepfest. The original was a near-perfect movie, but we seem to now live in an unending IP cycle in which all the content we loved as kids will be remade, repurposed and regurgitated in strange and unsatisfying ways.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll admit, I loved Malificent because it took a story we already liked and turned it on it’s head. But, then there is the rest. I have my fingers crossed for Mulan – it was my personal favorite growing up.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I saw the Mulan preview before the last Star Wars and it actually looked like fire
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m crossing my fingers. After watching Marco Polo I’m itching to see what they’ll do with it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was just discussing remakes and sequels with someone. Why does the movie industry insist on remaking perfectly good classics, and spitting out sequel after sequel (there are at least 8 in the Fast and Furious franchise with pretty much the exact same plot) instead of grabbing a good story off a library shelf that hasn’t been adapted for film yet?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think it has everything to do with marketing strategy. A rerelease of a popular title has a greater probability of making a profit than something unproven. It makes me crazy.
LikeLike
Pingback: Confession: I did not watch the 2020 Oscars | Jodi L. Milner, Author
Pingback: 2020 Year in Review | Jodi L. Milner, Author