2019 film “The Lion King” is a product not so necessary in many aspects just like many of other live action versions of Disney animation films during last several years. When I watched its trailer in 2019, I was not so willing to watch it as clearly observing its limits, and it turns out that I made a right choice, when I finally watched it via Disney+ yesterday.

As many of you know, the 1994 animation film version has been one of the more well-known Disney animation films. Although this is not exactly one of my favorite Disney films (This is probably because I knew too well about the African wildlife even when I was very young), I enjoyed it nonetheless when I watched it along with my younger brother at a local movie theater in 1994, and, yes, its soundtrack, which incidentally won two Oscars, is one of the better ones from Disney animation films.

The 2019 film surely tries to emulate a lot of things which were successful in the 1994 animation films, but, alas, the result is not even as interesting as director/co-producer Jon Favreau’s previous film “The Jungle Book” (2016), which is also the live action version of a classic Disney animation film. While “The Jungle Book” has enough fun and wonder to justify its existence as well as winning its Special Effects Oscar, the 2019 version of “The Lion King” is less impressive in terms of visual qualities even compared to “The Jungle Book”, and it certainly looks and feels underwhelming compared to whatever we saw from the 1994 animation film version.

Oh, the animal characters of the 2019 film surely look quite realistic thanks to the competent efforts of Favreau and the crew members including Oscar-nominated cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, but their fairly good efforts here in this film only remind us again and again that live action film usually cannot surpass animation film. Many of the animal characters in the 2019 version look far less colorful than their respective counterparts in the 1994 version, and their world also feels less impressive in comparison.

Furthermore, the lion characters in the 2019 film looks as shabby as you can expect from African wildlife animals without much personality. Sure, Mufasa, the charismatic father of the young lion hero in the story, sounds as authoritative as required because it is voiced by James Earl Jones as it was in the 1994 animation film version, but he does not look that charismatic in my inconsequential opinion, and I must confess that I felt the constant urge to send him and many other lion characters to a local laundry.

And there is Scar, Mufasa’s nasty brother who is voiced by Chiwetel Ejiofor here in the 2019 film. In the 1994 animation film version, this villainous character was memorably performed by Jeremy Irons, and his sardonic voice performance was one of the key factors in the success of the 1994 animation film. Although he cannot sing that well as many people pointed out at that time, Irons delivers his own musical moment (“Be Prepared”) with delicious malice and gusto, and that is certainly one of the highlights in the 1994 animation film.

However, compared to Irons’ juicy villain performance, Ejiofor is too subdued in his mostly passable voice performance, and that only emphasizes what a weak villain Scar is in the 2019 film. Rather than looking evil and cunning, Scar in the 2019 version looks so sour and pitiful that the movie feels ponderous whenever he appears on the screen, though those giggling hyenas lighten up the mood to some degree.

If you are willing to overlook all those glaring flaws in the 2019 film, you will likely get satisfied as getting exactly what you expect to get. There are several good action scenes, and they are boosted well by the effective score by Hans Zimmer, who won his first Oscar for the 1994 animation film. I must point out that several new songs in the film are not so memorable compared to the old ones from the 1994 version including Oscar-winning song “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and two fellow Oscar nominee songs “Circle of Life” and “Hakuna Matata”, but they are not that bad either at least.

The voice cast members of the film did as much as possible on the whole. Donald Glover, who voiced Simba, is rather colorless compared to JD McCrary’s perky voice acting early in the film, but his voice performance still functions as a sort of blank background for the relatively more colorful ones from a bunch of notable performers including Alfre Woodard, John Oliver, John Kani, Seth Rogan, Billy Eichner, Eric André, Florence Kasumba, Keegan Michael Key, and Beyoncé Knowles Carter. While Woodard manages to bring some pride and dignity to her thankless supporting role, Oliver, Rogan, and Eichner have a number of funny moments as expected, and Kani, whom you may remember for his supporting role in “Black Panther” (2018), provides some extra gravitas to the story.

In conclusion, “The Lion King” is not so horrible as I feared, but it is pretty forgettable besides being quite redundant. To be frank with you, I only watched it as a sort of homework before watching Barry Jenkins’ upcoming film “Mufasa: The Lion King” (2024), and I can only hope that that movie will be more enjoyable, even though it looks like a rather low point compared to many of Jenkins’ acclaimed works including, yes, “Moonlight” (2016). I am keeping my expectation low, but who knows?