The new Disney remake, “The Lion King,” directed by Jon Favreau made a big impact on the box office in 2019.
Although only gaining the rating of 53% and the title of “rotten status” on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a gross total of 543 million dollars in the United States and a whopping total of 1.618 billion dollars worldwide. The film also broke records for biggest PG-rated opening weekend debut and biggest animated movie opening weekend debut.
Although given a very low score on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie still broke many records and generated over a billion dollars for The Walt Disney Company. One main criterion for comparing this film to the 1994 original is the animation of the main characters within the two movies. The three main scenes being compared are the presentation of Simba, Mufasa’s death, and the final battle between Simba and Scar.
Towards the beginning of the 1994 “The Lion King,” baby Simba is hoisted up on Pride Rock by Rafiki. In both films, you can see the expressions of baby Simba as he is held in front of the entire animal kingdom. In the 1994 version, Simba has very bland and vacant expression showing his confusion.
In the 2019 version, Simba is clearly shown with a scared and nervous feeling. In most cases, the watcher will enjoy the movie if he or she can empathize with the character if the character is showing feelings in voice and body language. For this reason, the 2019 version of baby Simba has better animation than the original. The second scene being compared is the death of Mufasa.
In “The Lion King” 2019 adaptation, Mufasa’s death is very tragic and realistic due to the computer-animated animals. The scene may make you question if the film should be rated PG instead of PG-13. In the 1994 version, the scene may be disturbing but is fit for an audience under the age of 13.
The movie is meant to be a children’s movie. For this reason, animating in this scene is better in the original 1994 version than the 2019 version. The third scene of Scar vs. Simba is very similar in both adaptations which relate to the second scene about violence. The scene contains many slow-motion fight scenes in which they show violence in the way represented in real life. The ending of Scar is also shown more realistically and violently as its meant to represent how an animal fights in the wild. Although the animation is detailed and much more artistic in the 2019 adaptation of “The Lion King,” the 1994 version fits the criteria for the age group and PG-rated movie.
Another main criterion is the portrayal of the main characters and the similarities of the films. The main characters in both films are: Simba, Scar, Timon, and Pumba. In both versions of the film, there are many versions of Simba. There is a portrayal of baby Simba, child Simba, and adult Simba. In both films, baby Simba has the same look, but the 2019 version has better animation and a more realistic tone. The 1994 version has a better look for children and the speaking and mouth movements are more fit for baby Simba.
In the 2019 version, the characters are more realistic which means they can‘t make the facial expressions that were made in the original movie. The same applies to child and adult Simba. The adult Simba in 2019 “The Lion King” is more of a serious character than a slightly amusing character. For this reason, Simba in the original has a better act than the new film. Next, Scar’s portrayal was the most different of any character. Scar’s eyes in the original film were a green color. In the new film, his eyes are dark brown. Although this may seem small, any fan of “The Lion King” will observe this.
Also, the color of Scar’s fur is many shades lighter than it’s meant to be. Much like adult Simba in the new film, Scar has a more serious face, making him much more terrifying than he should be. This shows Scar was better portrayed in the original movie than the new movie.
Finally, Timon and Pumba in both films are always together. Timon and Pumba, aside from dialogue, were not given a comedic value due to their animation. Having a more realistic tone detracted from their role in the movie, comedic relief.
In conclusion, the four characters compared were all better in the original, “The Lion King,” than the 2019 remake. “The Lion King” 1994 is a musical composed by Elton John and Hans Zimmer so, which movie had better music?
“The Lion King” 1994 undoubtedly had the upper hand for the music because it came first, although the casting for the 2019 movie gave the characters a different sound that we didn’t associate the character with.
“The Lion King” 1994 had the upper hand to make it the better of the two, due to the animation, the portrayal of characters, casting, and music.
