Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Chiwetel Ejiofor | ... | Scar (voice) | |
John Oliver | ... | Zazu (voice) | |
James Earl Jones | ... | Mufasa (voice) | |
John Kani | ... | Rafiki (voice) | |
Alfre Woodard | ... | Sarabi (voice) | |
JD McCrary | ... | Young Simba (voice) | |
Shahadi Wright Joseph | ... | Young Nala (voice) | |
Penny Johnson Jerald | ... | Sarafina (voice) | |
Keegan-Michael Key | ... | Kamari (voice) | |
Eric André | ... | Azizi (voice) | |
Florence Kasumba | ... | Shenzi (voice) | |
Seth Rogen | ... | Pumbaa (voice) | |
Billy Eichner | ... | Timon (voice) | |
Amy Sedaris | ... | Guinea Fowl (voice) | |
Chance the Rapper | ... | Bush Baby (voice) (as Chance Bennett) |
In Africa, the lion cub Simba is the pride and joy of his parents King Mufasa and Queen Sarabi. Mufasa prepares Simba to be the next king of the jungle. However, the naive Simba believes in his envious uncle Scar that wants to kill Mufasa and Simba to become the next king. He lures Simba and his friend Nala to go to a forbidden place and they are attacked by hyenas but they are rescued by Mufasa. Then Scar plots another scheme to kill Mufasa and Simba but the cub escapes alive and leaves the kingdom believing he was responsible for the death of his father. Now Scar becomes the king supported by the evil hyenas while Simba grows in a distant land. Sometime later, Nala meets Simba and tells that the kingdom has become a creepy wasteland. What will Simba do? Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
This is by far and away one of my top movies of all time and definitely a movie that I can say the lines pretty much the whole way through.
After thinking about "what I was disappointed with", I would say the following:
1. The broadway voices of Nathan lane, Ernie sambella and Jeremy irons really added that punch to the characters that you "don't know that you're missing till it's gone". Here I feel these characters fall flat with the "less projecting voices" and it was very noticeable. Seth Rogan was the best, but still, the missing "broadway aspect" these voices carried made the movie fall flat where it just could have been cast better???
2. So many of the little humorous exchanges with the hyenas and with rafiki were taken away. Part of the magic of the lion king was in the humor which was lost in this film. They did try and compensate a little, but I feel the laughter was just not there. Whoopi goldberg and cheech Marin were comedians, why was this not explored more to bring new comedians in for the hyenas roles?
Without the booming voices and humour, you realize that the movie is lacklustre where you are left with the story and the cinematography only. The cinematography is fantastic and I know this is a super hard movie to live up to the original, but I feel a lot of the magic that make this movie "a whole package" was just not there.
Did not feel the same about Aladdin remake - another movie that was with huge shoes to fill (duh, robin williams) and the Aladdin remake was absolutely fantastic.