The Lion King (2019) Teaser Trailer (but more a rant on Disney Remakes)

So the funny story behind this was that I was at my annual Thanksgiving get together with my family when this trailer aired during the Football game. I remember I woke up a little bit in a daze and looked over to the TV just as it was airing. I knew exactly what it was for and got excited, but there was a part of me that thought I was still dreaming. But no I saw some beautifully designed CGI animals similar to the ones I saw in The Jungle Book a few years ago, and I knew immediately that this was the highly anticipated Lion King Trailer.

And its not surprising that this is such a highly anticipated film. The Lion King is a beloved film that a lot of people love from their childhood, nostalgia alone would make this movie break box office records. When you hear James Earl Jones' voice and then the Elton Jone classic "The Circle of Life" it makes a lot of sense why this trailer gave people chill.

But then you add this awesome cast. And yes, it is awesome. Donald Glover, Beyonce, Chewtel Ejofor, Aflie Woodard, the list goes on. And furthermore you get a lot of people excited that this is a strong mostly black cast. In the time we live in and the history of film, this is becoming a trend that is not only long overdue, but also a trend that we've seen from Black Panther to be profitable.

So why, despite the trailer being really good and intriguing me on the film, make me very nervous that this movie is not going to be that good?

I should talk a little bit about where we came from and how we got to this point that we're expecting to get this summer event that could end up being very profitable, but also not that great of a movie.

And before I go on, I should say that I'm not hoping for this movie to fail. I love this story and I will more than likely be the first in line to see it, again totally based off that nostalgia. I want it to surprise me and succeed. But I do want to point out the trend we're seeing that makes me nervous that I'm going to be disappointed with this film. I have no doubt its going to make Disney a crap ton of money, but I'm not as sure that it's going to be a great movie because... we've been down this road before.

The Lion King was released in 1994 and essentially reimagined the story of Hamlet in a gorgeously animated cartoon story about a young Lion cub named Simba who is next in line to take the throne and the responsibilities that come along with that. There are no humans, it's all talking animals.

Lion King is often considered the peak of the "Disney Renaissance" when Disney was producing some of the most memorable and quality driven (and profitable) animated films in their history. It was one of many movies that defined a generation. I am apart of that generation that grew up on these films and again, it's why remaking these movies in "live action" makes total sense. This movie as well as other animated films that have been and will be remade in live action like The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, and Maleficent, are all quintessential parts of a lot of people my age's childhoods. The minute people heard James Earl Jones saying, "Everything the Light Touches, is our Kingdom" Disney probably made a million dollars right there, at least.

But I also want to talk about these remakes that Disney has been doing lately.

Cinderella, Maleficent, Beauty and the Beast, Alice in Wonderland, Pete's Dragon, The Jungle Book. And that's just the movies that have come out. There's a whole slew of movies in the pipeline that are going to be remaking those classic Disney animated films. Obviously this, Mulan (2020), Aladdin (2019) Dumbo (2019), even an eventual Lady and the Tramp remake staring Justin Thoreaux and Tessa Thompson. These remakes are not dying down quick.

Now I don't know if The Lion King was always in the pipeline from the beginning, but I remember first hearing about it not long after Jon Faverau's The Jungle Book. I imagine it be naive to think that it wasn't as this animation probably takes a lot of time and 3 years might not be enough time to produce the quality animation. I know Faverau wasn't involved until the success of Jungle Book so who knows.

The Jungle Book was a commercial success and garnered a lot of its fame from phenomenal production stories of how the entire thing was filmed on a sound stage. It looks amazing. So I guess it makes sense that people saw that and thought, I want this nostalgia to continue and it would be amazing to see this CGI used in a more beloved remake like The Lion King.

But there are three issues I have with this remake and the first has to do with that logic.

The Jungle Book was so intriguing because the kid who played Mowgli was the only real actor in the movie. Everyone else was motion captured into these animals on a soundstage. It was a life action movie because of that kid.

The Lion King doesn't have any humans or anything (that I know of) real in it. By definition, we're not getting a "live action" remake of The Lion King, we're just getting a CGI version of it.

And yeah. The CGI we see in the trailer looks amazing but to me it just seems like a weird movie to remake if its just going to be a different style of animation.

I am by no means an expert when it comes to animation but hear me out as I butcher this nuanced look at the types of animation. Different types of animation are able to accomplish and make you feel different things. The animation you see in Sponge Bob is a lot different than the animation you see in the new animated Spider-man movie. The new Spider-man movie is able to achieve results you can't do in a live action movie while maintaining some reality. Meanwhile Spongebob is so removed from reality that the characters can do anything and it feels natural. Remember the times where Bugs Bunny would have his eyes spring out of their socket or have hearts in them, that worked with the style of animation and would feel weird in the new Spider-man animated film.

Think back to "I Just Can't Wait to Be King", remember how colorful and crazy that song gets. Now try and imagine that song done in "live action". I can't imagine a scenario where that song gets as animated and fun with animated Lions that are supposed to be acting like real lions because it's "live action". What you get is a watered down version that they will need to reimagine because they can't do it the same way as they will not be able to achieve that same animated results with the style they're going with.

I hope they reimagine it and I hope I enjoy it. I'd love to hear Donald Glover and Beyonce's voices in Can You Feel the Love Tonight, but I do think the movie is hamstringing itself into a more "live action" style.

And that leads me into the second issues I can for see happening with this movie and that's that it's just doing a shot for shot remake.

I've already talked about the way this movie hamstrings itself by creating a more grounded animation. If the movie decides to go just for a shot for shot remake of the film, it's just going to be disappointing.

The teaser trailer is pretty clever because they manage to find a lot of shots that appear to be 1 for 1 recreations of the original film in "live action". This looks great for a teaser trailer but makes me very nervous that I'm going to be paying money to watch the same movie I watched as a kid, just in more "realistic" that hamstrings it. I don't care how cool it is that they were able to get Beyonce to play Nala, why would you recreate a movie that is almost perfect?

Now this is going to be my shortest section because the reality is, I know it's not going to be that. As surprised as I am that there were a lot of shots from the teaser trailer that looked exactly like the animated film, I know they're not going to do that because again, we've been down this road before.

Remember when we got SOOOO excited for Beauty and the Beast because Emma Watson, Ewan McGregor, Ian Mckellan, Luke Evans, and a lot of other really great actors were involved with a nostalgic classic from our childhood? I have really soured on that movie since its release. I think I still like it, but even in the moment when I was at the height of the hype around this movie, I was still pointing out glaring issues in my review.

But something I've noticed from this film and the other Disney remakes is that they set out, not only to be faithful to the original animated film, but also fix some of the "problems" with the original.

Now some of these "issues" are small, frankly stupid things. These are usually plot holes that internet culture has exploited because pointing out little things like the Beast being a child in the prologue or the fact that the village Belle lives in just forgot there used to be a Prince that lived not too far from them is funny material to talk about on Youtube. It's really annoying that pointing out these plot holes have grown from just funny observations to glaring issues that Disney and larger culture feel the need to address them in multimillion dollar movies but the bigger trend comes from modern Disney films in general.

The new trend in Disney movies is to create meta commentary on previous Disney movies. In many movies like the new Wreck it Ralph movie and Moana, it's played quick laughs  but also kind of suggests that we should be holding older movies made in the past to the same standard we hold movies today.

Frozen often felt like that's all the movie was, a meta commentary on how Princess's in Disney films automatically fall in love with their prince's after 1 day. Cinderella in the 2015 film becomes more strong and independent, having conversations with the Prince allowing for them to actually have chemistry before falling in love. It's almost happening so much that they have started repeating themselves. Maleficent basically had the same resolution as Frozen.

And this long detour from the Lion King (yeah you kind of forgot I was talking about that) isn't to say this trend is always bad. If you're going to follow the money and remake these movies, it's good to try and update the characters to create better role models. I think Cinderella in the 2015 is a stronger and more interesting character than the old movie. I think taking a unique look at a character like Maleficent is interesting (though not really executed well).

The parts where Disney fails at this though is when they try and shoehorn in social trends that they think will win them the approval of modern thinkers but instead is just poorly done.

Remember when LeFou was gay?

My point in all this is that while I would hate the idea of Lion King doing a shot for shot remake in "live action" I'm also worried about what their reimagining of an almost perfect movie is going to be. Some of it might work out. I doubt they're going to get Beyonce in the film without beefing up Nala's part in the second half of the movie. The original movie is only 88 minutes long and they're probably get that up to 2 hours as least so it will need to be expanded. I just don't know if Disney's past has been shown they're able to not only pay proper tribute to the previous film, but expand on it. 

Beauty and the Beast is a great example again. There are a lot of scenes that try to recapture almost shot for shot the magic of the film but due to the live action, the emotion doesn't come across the same way as it did in the animated film even if the shot is exactly right. Furthermore, the stuff they added filled some of the plot holes, but then opened up even more. Overall the movie suffered. 

I think the main point of this is less to say The Lion King is going to suck, and more warn Disney that they need to learn from their mistakes, not only in The Lion King, but for their future endeavors. 

We're going to keep on getting these remakes, there's no question about it. I think it's too much to expect these movies to be better than the animated films but wouldn't it be great if these movies felt like they were trying to do something different instead of feel like they're just cash grabs?

I hope this rambling made at least a little bit of sense. I think it's important to restate that I am excited for The Lion King. I'm going to go see this new movie when it comes out next year and I'll probably see Aladdin... and Dumbo... and Mulan... and every other film. I just expect more out of my Disney films. We all should. 

But what did you think of the Lion King Teaser Trailer? What do you think we should expect from this new film? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog. 

Thanks for reading!