The Lion King [Blu-ray]

Kids love watching this movie every time they come over

Wow love this movie. Keep you on your toes.

This is the cgi version with life like looking animals and terrain. So everything looks great. The songs and basic story are mainly the same as you would expect but for some reason the ending seemed a little faster, will need to watch the original again. Overall they kept it very much like the original and it was still enjoyable to watch. Pumbaa and Timon are still great but i feel all actors voices are toned down just a bit from the original. Still 5, good job!

Great movie highly recommend

I'll be the first to admit I was super excited about this film. The Lion King is my favorite animated Disney film, and with the cast and crew I felt there was no way that this could go wrong. Then the reviews started pouring out, and I found my excitement in question. So I hesitated from seeing it in theaters, and waited and waited for something positive to come out and it didn't. Watching the film in 4K helped me to see both the negatives and few positives I'd heard while the film was doing its run.Jon Favreau cares about his movies, and he has a really unique way of bringing his stuff together. He is very much about creating a family and camaraderie with his crew, and it's so evidence in his BTS stuff, and appearances as himself talking about his movies. The Lion King, simply falls flat on its own. It feels like a hollow, lifeless reproduction of a much better movie that's done completely with 2D animation. Every scene in the film makes you want to see the original so much more, and just reminds you of it without enhancing it. This is what I found to be most troublesome about the movie after its first viewing. So, I put it down for a few months and returned later with a morbid curiosity to watch the features and commentary with Favreau, because of what I know about him and his methodology.I have to say, that the special features completely changed this movie for me and made me appreciate it for what it is. It's not trying to be the original film, despite being nearly a shot for shot remake with a few additions. One of those additions is a Beyonce song that I did not find incredibly welcome in the film, but on its own it's a great track. However, seeing how they filmed this in Virtual Reality with new CG techniques and how committed the voice actors were to their respective roles was just super enlightening... everything I thought I would love about this movie, became what I love about this movie. It's hard to find these things when watching the film, because it looks so realistic, to where many called it a voiced over Nat Geo documentary, and they're not far off.This leads to disassociating the acting from the characters, and it feels like a confusing mess because of the light-hearted fun performances that are being projected over what appears to be a very serious film about lions and the animal kingdom. I highly recommend listening to the commentary track, and watching the special features to see how carefully they assembled this movie for us as fans. I'm incredibly disappointed that on one hand, it's not that great and I'll watch the animated film 9 times out of 10. But on the other, I'm happy that someone gave it a shot and everyone involved put quality work in to at least make this watchable and will be worth a revisit some time down the road again.

Loved watching this movie

Good

I LOVE this new version of The Lion King and think it’s the best of the Disney remakes so far. I was 8 when the original came out, so naturally it became one of my favorite movies. I now have a daughter and am pleased that a version meant for her generation exists. Much of the newer version is a shot-for-shot remake of the original with new voices and animation, but what makes the new movie stand out is the animators’ beautiful and painstaking dedication to accurately rendering the mannerisms and movements of real life animals while imbuing them with human emotion. What you get here is far better than what we got from Jon Favreau’s Jungle Book, in my opinion. While I was not a fan of that film, I find the mix of both animal cues and subtle human expression to be very well-done in this one. The landscape is also beautifully done, and there are many breathtaking shots. My only qualm would be that the pacing in the beginning is too fast, but it eventually evens out. Also, the final battle and end scene blow the original away.On another note, I would like to add that while I really enjoy Elton John, I think his disapproval of the remake’s music is sour grapes and is quite unfair. Perhaps he was expecting the same attention he got for the original, but the songs were just as well done as before in my opinion, with Chiwetel Ejiofor doing a particularly excellent job on an abridged version of “Be Prepared” and Beyoncé completely redefining and owning “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” as well as contributing a new and quite uplifting classic with “Spirit.” The overall soundtrack relies much more on African and African American musicians and songwriters, and, to be honest, I find it more authentic to the setting than Elton John’s music and have been listening to it on repeat since before I even saw the movie.I highly recommend this movie, with the suggestion that you watch the animals for both human and animal behavioral cues.