First musical best left on mute.

(Yes, I meant that and actually did for a minute once. Trust me, this musical remake improves with no volume.)

Ask pretty much anyone to select their favorites of the 1989-1994 Disney powerhouse megahits (The Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King) and chances are they'll answer: The Lion is King and Beauty reins in a close second. I'm the opposite (I loved Aladdin and The Little Mermaid more) and probably one of a few humans who's not gaga over the original Lion King.

Don't get me wrong. I do LOVE it. The music's great, the voices wonderful - especially and mostly Jeremy Iron's Scar, James Earl Jones' Mufasa and literally every other character, the animation's beautiful, story's a tale as old as time and still holds up and it's pretty darn funny. It's just... compared with either The Little Mermaid, Aladdin or Beauty & the Beast, it's behind in the race.

Now, for this cash-grab "live" action, it just flat, didn't work. While it's GORGEOUS, breathtaking in almost every scene and the animals looked perfect, the voices/emotions just plain did not jibe. Whatsoever. Not to mention the actual voices themselves. Most were just passable, barely memorable.

I will give credit for Seth Rogen's Pumbaa and Billy Eichner's Timon - both were not bad and were by far, my favorite and only enjoyable characters of the movie. And it's always, always wonderful to have James Earl Jones back as Mufasa. He was definitely a highlight. But...the one that stood out the most was Chiwetel Ejiofor's Scar.

I barely mentioned the awful, boring and bland portrayal of Jafar in 2019's Aladdin in my review for those movies and Jafar wasn't even half as bad as this same year's Scar. Hard not to compare to Jeremy Iron's iconic voice/character, but what a complete letdown. In the 1994 classic, Scar was absolutely incredible and in a jungle of outstanding characters and voices, Jeremy Irons actually elevated the entire movie a few notches. Chiwetel Ejiofor made this 2019 mistake even more forgettable.

Add all that to how much the humor fell flat (for the most part; admittedly, I did laugh a couple of times) and how bad the music and musical numbers were, this does mirror the original four: both are in last place.

But, hey, at least it was MUCH shorter than the other three "live" action remakes. Still over 2 hours, but comparatively speaking, it's welcomed and not as bloated.

***

Final Thoughts: I've never been sure why Scar never killed Simba, himself. He had an amble number of chances, mostly with no witnesses and it's not like they had a CSI: Africa team to figure out who killed Simba.