I am of the belief that remakes are reserved for movies that in the broad spectrum considered bad. So I was reluctant to watch this movie when it came out even though I, as a kid, hoped to see a live-action version of my favorite animated movie, which is also why this review is 4 years late.

I was wondering why this movie is almost 30 minuttes longer than the original, and I thought they might expand some before only implied tropes, such as the rules of the land, other characters relationships with the lions, but unfortunately not.

Many characters that had charisma are totally gone. The hyenas are not comic relief as they were and their dynamic between them is also missing. The voice acting is also bland compared to the original, only Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen are great as Timon and Pumba, and John Oliver also has his moments, though it was hard not to miss Rowan Atkinson.

The spectacel of the scenery is stunning, but I still feel it pales compared to the original, such in scenes as the stampede, which seem much smaller and less impactful as well as the opening scene.

The music, which to me at least, was by far the originals strong point, is sidelined with mere notes that reminds you of the original. The songs are cut short, such as Scars "Be prepared" and "Can't wait to be king", and instead we are treated with an original song by Beyoncé, which is good, but not compared to Elton John's songs.

The movie also have a very odd tempo. Sometimes we seem to dwell to much on things that could easily just be left to the imagination, and other times we don't dwell enough on what the original was so good at. Now we dwell more on Scars relationship with Sarabi whom he wants as queen, for some reason, and Shenzi, who were just another one of the hyenas, is the leader, though she has no goal or doesn't make any impact on any of the lead characters, and Banzai and Azizi(Ed's replacement), do try but their banter doesn't fit into how we think of hyenas. The original played a lot on the trope that hyenas laugh, so the movie characters constantly make fun of eachother, situations etc. It's unfortunate, since the original was great at balancing horrible sadness with funny moments.

Many of the voice actors also seem oddly cast. Disney marketed the movie by stating they would try to hire only african-americans for the leads. I know they mean well, but being from a country where English is not the mothertongue means that the will be dubbed regardless plus you can't always hear from a voice where people's ethnicity originates. The only thing that always was the same regardless where you come from was the music, which in the original, I felt celebrates Africa. The African a choir which sang in both Zulu and Swahilli as well as the African tunes were something I believe really stays with a lot of people when they remember the original.

So all in all, the best thing about this movie is the things that it copied from the original and didn't try to improve all to much on. For parents I will always recommend the original, not just because of quality, but also due to the tempo and the length of the remake.