Unlike Favreau’s awe-inspir-
ing The Jungle Book, which seam-
lessly mixed up Kipling’s original
tale with dashes of Disney’s ani-
mated classic and a few original
elements, The Lion King sticks
firmly to the plot of the original.
To be fair to the house that Mickey
built, some of Disney’s remakes
have been worthwhile. Along
with the aforementioned Jungle
Book, Maleficent gave us a heart-
warming new take on Sleep-
ing Beauty, and with his update
of Pete’s Dragon, director David
Lowery was allowed to apply his
particular brand of Americana.
Most have simply been point-
less, none more so than Kenneth
Branagh’s Cinderella, which added
nothing to the centuries old tale.
Others, like Beauty and the
Beast and Christopher Robin, com-
pletely lost their charm in the trans-
lation from 2D animation to live-ac-
tion. In the case of the former, the
live-action rendering heightened
the problematic element of its cen-
Watch the trailer for The Lion King
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