“And so we are all connected in the great Circle of Life.”

November 26, 2018 1:42 PM

So Disney Just Gon' Kill Mufasa Again for a Whole New Generation of Kids with This The Lion King Live-Action Remake, Huh? [The Root] “It is officially official: the live-action version of The Lion King, with all of your faves, will hit theaters in July 2019 so we can all excitedly watch Mufasa die. Again. Twenty-five years after he died the first time. There’s no two ways about it, Mufasa’s death in The Lion King is one of the most significant deaths in the black community of all time. It happened way back in 1994, and yet almost all of us who experienced it remember it like it was yesterday. Watching Simba tell his daddy to wake up...lawdt. I’m getting emotional thinking about it now. Sure, I’ve moved on, much like I’ve had to move on from Ricky dying in Boyz N The Hood, but the memories are still there, and it’s so hard to say goodbye to yesterday. It hurt then. It hurts now.” [YouTube][Official Teaser Trailer]
posted by Fizz (41 comments total)

I don't watch Disney movies because they are wholly evil, but this guy seems to have gotten only good from this one. He is clearly some sort of superior mutant. Or possibly a young person. Much the same.
posted by ckridge at 1:53 PM on November 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

As a kid, I was well aware of Elton John's work on the music. And later on, I grew to appreciate Hans Zimmer's score.

But then I learned about Lebo M! And Rhythm of the Pridelands! And oh! that music!
posted by the man of twists and turns at 1:55 PM on November 26, 2018 [4 favorites]

my emotions have still not recovered from 1994 to be quite honest

The voice talent going into this is so impressive, and the teaser trailer is beautiful, but I just can't get into the live-action remakes, somehow. They just look... wrong. The only analogy I can find would be someone doing a 4K modern graphics remake of, say, EarthBound. The original emotion and the original aesthetic are twined together so tightly. It's just not quite right.

I mean, I'll still probably see it. and i'll still probably cry again
posted by halation at 1:55 PM on November 26, 2018 [8 favorites]

For various reasons they put the trailer to this on last night in a student council observation room.

I'm not sure if it was just prevailing moods, views about remakes and capitalism or what, but it was odd to watch the whole Right side of the room chatter excitedly while the Left sat stone-faced and wary.

I think maybe a lot of people will end up going to see it anyway. The original was just too influential for my peers.
posted by AnhydrousLove at 1:57 PM on November 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

It's sad, but old lions die. Ricky was going to go to college.

Rant: How did they get all of those animals to act? It looks more like computer animation than live action
posted by ActingTheGoat at 1:59 PM on November 26, 2018 [7 favorites]

I know this is a derail etc but WILL SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHY THIS IS CALLED "LIVE-ACTION" BECAUSE I AM LOSING MY SHIT

It's CGI-- with modern rendering and procedural fur but still obvious, uncanny valley polar-expressive CGI. There are no trained animals here. It's animation! That's ok! Disney makes animation! It's what they do! Why are they calling it something else? Do words mean anything anymore? Is this just what post-truth marketing looks like? argle beenz blargle flooz
posted by phooky at 2:03 PM on November 26, 2018 [107 favorites]

I was absolutely meh on this through the trailer, and then I went and looked up the cast and... well ok FINE.
posted by restless_nomad at 2:14 PM on November 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

"live-action" now apparently means still animated, only shittier looking
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:16 PM on November 26, 2018 [7 favorites]

ActingTheGoat: "It's sad, but old lions die. Ricky was going to go to college.

Rant: How did they get all of those animals to act? It looks more like computer animation than live action"

Probably because it is computer animation.
posted by octothorpe at 2:31 PM on November 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

phooky, YES. I was going to post the same thing but I didn't want to be the first post on the FPP being all "STOP IT NONE OF THESE ARE ANIMALS THIS IS NOT 'LIVE ACTION' UGH" but yes, yes, 1000 times yes, it's driving me crazy.
posted by potrzebie at 2:34 PM on November 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

I've heard the argument that Disney are just so big now (hiya Marvel!) that they just can't make new things. There isn't enough capitalist ok'ing that can make a new thing happen there, as the returns on every movie have to so fucking huge that you literally cannot make a new thing. Which is why the Disney releases for 2018 are:

Christopher Robin
Ralph Breaks the Internet (wreck-it Ralph 2)
Mary Poppins Returns
The Nutcracker
Incredibles 2
A Wrinkle in Time
Magic Camp

I'd never heard of Magic Camp so I looked it up and it's going to be on the new Disney Streaming thing when that starts. So that's what happens to new stuff: punted out to streaming services that don't exist yet, because the return on a new thing isn't as big as Mary Poppins 2
posted by The River Ivel at 2:35 PM on November 26, 2018 [5 favorites]

I'm not sure if it was just prevailing moods, views about remakes and capitalism or what, but it was odd to watch the whole Right side of the room chatter excitedly while the Left sat stone-faced and wary.

It’s been a point of snark among woke kids for a while now that the only time black people are the protagonists of major Disney animated movies, they’re animals (or spend most of the movie transformed into animals). I love the Lion King with a deep and pure childhood love, but definitely had that “god dammit, they will never give James Earl Jones a face role when he’s playing the hero’s father” moment when I saw ads for this, ymmv.
posted by moonlight on vermont at 2:43 PM on November 26, 2018 [6 favorites]

Lion King was one of my least favorite Disney movies. Lion King on Broadway was one of the best shows I have ever seen on a stage in my life. This looks awful, because it looks "too real." So real, it's completely unbelievable. It leaves no room for magic. I felt the same way about live action Beauty & The Beast. There is a reason animation and theatre are magical, they require our willing suspension of disbelief, and thus make us participants in the magic. Sure, the voice cast looks amazing, but .... I just can't with this "live action" nonsense.
posted by pjsky at 3:04 PM on November 26, 2018 [13 favorites]

"live-action" now apparently means still animated, only shittier looking

Well, yeah, for at least 10 years now, the question is not whether a movie is animated or not, but how much of it is animated.
posted by straight at 3:07 PM on November 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

Attenborough better get on the case and do a 'live action' version of Planet Earth.
posted by Elmore at 3:18 PM on November 26, 2018

My favorite live action film is that delightful dancing baby from the Ally McBeal show.
posted by Atom Eyes at 3:23 PM on November 26, 2018 [4 favorites]

The thing that struck me about the trailer is the list of all male names (except Beyonce) at the end. I just don't have the patience for that shit anymore. (According to IMDb Alfre Woodard is in it but she apparently doesn't rate being named in the trailer.)
posted by Mavri at 3:31 PM on November 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

I whole-heartedly agree that calling the Lion King remake "Live Action" is stupid, but it's also true that virtually every movie nowadays is in some degree animated. It's not "Live Action" when The Incredible Hulk is punching Thanos, it wasn't "Live Action" when Neo was punching Agent Smith. We've had over two decades of not-actually-live-action-but-is-supposed-to-look-like-it and it's only going to get worse as time goes on, and it's been hurting, and will continue to hurt, traditional animation the whole time. The core conceit of these "live action" remakes of animated Disney moves is that live action is better than animated, and this Lion King movie really exposes how dumb this argument is.

The only redeeming quality of this movie is having a chance to make better casting choices. Fucking Johnathan Taylor Thomas and Matthew Broderick are the two least African people on earth.

Anyway, somebody looked at Lion King and thought "You know what would be good? This, but instead it looks like Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3" and that somebody needs to be shot.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 3:38 PM on November 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

re: the casting, totally agree. when I saw Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner's names come up, I was like, yes! somebody finally gets The Lion King
posted by prize bull octorok at 4:04 PM on November 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

Just because nothing is live action doesn't mean everything is live action.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 4:08 PM on November 26, 2018 [4 favorites]

As a long-time TLK music superfan, I'm so glad Zimmer is returning to do the score for this, and hope Lebo M will be joining him as well. Their work really elevated the original film and gave it a sweeping scope and almost spiritual grandeur that seems lacking in other Disney films.

It's easy to overlook when watching, but they really did a fantastic job intimately weaving the orchestral and choral cues into even the more mundane scenes. There's an excellent YouTube channel that has whole chunks of the movie with no sound effects or dialogue, just pure music, and it's really cool to see how deftly it complements and enriches the animation. My personal favorites:

Brave Like You

The Stampede

Kings of the Past

Simba and Rafiki

I really hope they lean on the score just as much this time around -- there WILL be tears if they do.
posted by Rhaomi at 4:19 PM on November 26, 2018 [6 favorites]

 The only analogy I can find would be someone doing a 4K modern graphics remake of, say, EarthBound.

Favoriting this so hard. That said, the jungle book was very good, the beauty and the beast ok and this will likely not upend the original either.
posted by ersatz at 4:38 PM on November 26, 2018

Can you have an uncanny valley for animals? Because Baby Simba's CGI'ed face is creeping me out.
posted by basalganglia at 4:41 PM on November 26, 2018 [6 favorites]

Favoriting this so hard. That said, the jungle book was very good, the beauty and the beast ok and this will likely not upend the original either.

The Jungle Book was PERFECT. That's where the should have stopped.
posted by mikelieman at 5:00 PM on November 26, 2018

We spent so much time figuring out whether we could do it, that we never bothered to ask whether we should.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:31 PM on November 26, 2018 [10 favorites]

But of course someone looked at the N it would cost to make, and the X multiplier it would earn in returns, and lo, the resulting number was large, and the king said, "so let it be written, so mote it be done."
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:33 PM on November 26, 2018 [4 favorites]

I saw “The Lion King” in the theatre with my little sister and my father’s girlfriend’s two young sons. They were all under 12. I was a freshman in college on a Comp Lit track and tried to impress upon the kids the evils of colonialism via Elton John and the Jeremy Irons-voiced bad guy, but they really liked the “no worries” song and I really hated the movie and ended up spending most of the back half walking out to smoke unfiltered Camels and try to impress the cute guy at concessions with the Arabic and Black Flag tattoos because I was 18 and (sigh)
posted by thivaia at 5:37 PM on November 26, 2018 [5 favorites]

Here's the thing with the Lion King. Their kingdom that they rule over? Their subjects? They EAT them. What the fuck are the zebras and the wildebeests doing celebrating the birth of a lion, all that bowing and scraping to their king who's going to chase down and eat their grandma the next week because she twisted her ankle. It's a horror movie, from their perspective. I don't understand this movie at all.

I think the uncanny valley animation makes it even better/worse.
posted by fshgrl at 6:42 PM on November 26, 2018 [16 favorites]

I mean, "Nobility eats the (labor of the) peasants" is sort of how feudalism works. If anything The Lion King is more honest about the class divide than most media.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 7:02 PM on November 26, 2018 [14 favorites]

What the fuck are the zebras and the wildebeests doing celebrating the birth of a lion, all that bowing and scraping to their king who's going to chase down and eat their grandma the next week because she twisted her ankle.

I don't know about the wildebeests, but the antelopes sure have some questions
posted by thivaia at 9:10 PM on November 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

This looks awful, because it looks "too real." So real, it's completely unbelievable.

The opening sequence to the Lion King is one of the most beautiful, breathtaking 2d animated sequences I’ve ever seen. The hyperrealism here made me think “why are those animals doing that?” The animation style and movement of classic Disney is so gorgeous and so special— the 2d, stylized effects animation alone im that opening— the art form is so important to the art— it’s sad to see that reduced to uncanny hyperrealism.
posted by moonlight on vermont at 10:07 PM on November 26, 2018 [6 favorites]

Christopher Robin
Ralph Breaks the Internet (wreck-it Ralph 2)
Mary Poppins Returns
The Nutcracker
Incredibles 2
A Wrinkle in Time
Magic Camp


All of these movies did not come out in 2018. I cannot believe that. I can’t, and I won’t.
posted by bleep at 10:13 PM on November 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

I've heard the argument that Disney are just so big now (hiya Marvel!) that they just can't make new things.
Historically, Disney's business model for animated feature films has been based since Snow White and Pinocchio on adapting popular stories from books, fairy tales, and historical legends. For instance, movies produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios from 1950 (Cinderella) until The Lion King (1992) are all adaptations except The Aristocats and The Lion King itself. In fact, Disney's recent track record is not that bad: the last 10 movies produced under Walt Disney Animation Studios include 4 original stories (Bolt, Wreck-it Ralph, Zootopia, Moana), 6 adaptations (The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Winnie the Pooh, Frozen, Big Hero 6) and 1 sequel (Ralph Breaks the Internet).
posted by elgilito at 2:06 AM on November 27, 2018 [2 favorites]

re: the casting, totally agree. when I saw Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner's names come up, I was like, yes! somebody finally gets The Lion King

The joke is on you guys because the trailer is a long-game head-fake and the actual movie really is live-action; literally, it's going to be ninety minutes, filmed in one take with no script, of stoned Seth Rogan and Billy Eichner recounting the plot of the original movie from memory.
posted by escabeche at 6:51 AM on November 27, 2018 [7 favorites]

For instance, movies produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios from 1950 (Cinderella) until The Lion King (1992) are all adaptations except The Aristocats and The Lion King itself.

Actually, The Lion King is an adaptation of the 1983 movie Strange Brew...

For real though, the original movie came out at just the right time in my life that Mufasa's death was literally the thing that made me realize that my parents were going to die at some point.
posted by Ragged Richard at 7:42 AM on November 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

@robtrench: I hope Disney knows what they're doing with this all-CGI remake of The Lion King
posted by Going To Maine at 7:45 AM on November 27, 2018

I didn't know "Beyoncé" needed a last name in... anything. I was watching a trailer for some terribly Pink Panther remake which she was in - it was the first time I had seen her last name. Did you she used to go just with the first name for a period?
posted by alex_skazat at 8:25 AM on November 27, 2018

The opening sequence to the Lion King is one of the most beautiful, breathtaking 2d animated sequences I’ve ever seen. The hyperrealism here made me think “why are those animals doing that?”

I was waiting for Inspector Pikachu to pop out, honestly.


In which I mean, the animation style and design is important, and when you lose it, you lose the identity of the film, totally agreed.

Perhaps with the Lion King, it looks at bit too Uncanny Valley.

I foresee zoo visits will be on the rise.
posted by alex_skazat at 8:28 AM on November 27, 2018

Did [Beyoncé] used to go just with the first name for a period?

I'm guessing she uses her last name as an actor to distinguish that career from her music persona.
(There have been other famous examples of this, but I'm blanking at the moment. Maybe Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson? Oh, and Lady Gaga.)
posted by Atom Eyes at 8:58 AM on November 27, 2018

Pfff.

Lying King 2.0.

Still won't be as good as Kimba the White Lion.
posted by MartinWisse at 1:02 PM on November 27, 2018

Magic Camp

I'd never heard of Magic Camp so I looked it up and it's going to be on the new Disney Streaming thing when that starts. So that's what happens to new stuff: punted out to streaming services that don't exist yet, because the return on a new thing isn't as big as Mary Poppins 2

@the river ivel

i'm fairly sure that Magic Camp will never see the light of day, but not because it wasn't going to be as good as "poppin' fresh fantastic trip."

they renovated my community theatre to be the camp set and filmed there for a few months...at this point i think it was almost two years ago. we've managed to keep their set renovations fairly intact since then and love what they did with the place and were very excited to have a screening there, but the movie stars Jeffrey Tambor. and, you know, well, he's now "Jeffrey Tambor" with quotes around his name.

all that to say there is a stronger chance it doesn't make it to disney streaming anything than it does. who knows if it would have made any dough otherwise, but 1000% sure MP2 has nothing to do with why it wasn't released this year.
posted by ovenmitt at 9:42 PM on November 27, 2018