Disney has confirmed that they are creating a live action remake of The Lion King. But wait, they did this with the Jungle Book? Sure, there’s Mowgli. They’re doing it with Beauty and the Beast? There’s human characters there also. But The Lion King? That has no human characters so what is really going to be live action?

The Lion King is a classic and as we know follows the story of a group of animals in Africa. It’s also based off of the story of Hamlet by Shakespeare. In the broadway version people use puppets to portray the different animals which is an incredibly well done and interesting concept, but, if it’s in a movie….how will it be live action? Surely if they take the broadway idea of puppets and people the movie will lose a lot of its wow factor because, on stage, you can see how intricate it is. But as a film, editing and cuts will take away a lot of that magic.

With the likes of the Jungle Book, the animals stayed CGI while Mowgli was played by an actual human boy actor. Obviously, the first Lion King is drawn, it’s not CGI so maybe they’re just updating their technology. But that begs the question why? What can some new graphics really add to the already great movie? Especially as they’re using the same music from the original soundtrack so there’s nothing new changing there either.

To me, this just seems like another cash grab that Disney doesn’t really care for as much as it may seem. Remaking old movies instead of thinking of new ideas will always be an easy option and Disney has been milking this so much recently! Where will it end? Surely the biggest cash cow Disney ever made, Frozen, will have it’s own live action alternative in a few years?!

The thing is, with things like Snow White and Beauty and the Beast they’re all a bit dated. So maybe a revamp would work in favour there, but, Lion King? Lion King still stands as an amazing movie so I really don’t understand the reasoning behind this.

What do you think of a live action Lion King?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding