“You must take your place in the circle of life.” Mufasa

Synopsis:With the arrival of a new cub, King Mufasa, celebrates it with his kingdom. The future of his kingdom is born and Mufasa is delighted.

However, Scar, Mufasa’s brother, doesn’t approve of the thought of the cub, younger than him will be his king someday.

Scar planned to take down Mufasa by using Simba. He attempted to put Simba in danger which led to Mufasa’s death. Still young and naive, Simba, believed that he was the reason for his father’s death and so he obliged to Scar when Scar told him to hide from everyone and go somewhere where they cannot find him.

After the years, Simba have grown and Nala, his childhood best friend, seeking for help as Scar ruled their kingdom but did nothing but to destroy it, she accidentally saw Simba and had to convince him to go back and claim his throne.

At first, out of fear, he didn’t want to come back home because he still thinks that he is the reason of his father’s death.

Simba came back and discovered that Scar was the one who killed Mufasa. He fought Scar, he claimed what is rightfully his.

Well, that’s the short summary of the whole story. Let’s talk about the Film itself. Everyone was surprised when the trailer of a real-life adaptation of Lion King surfaced the world wide web. Everyone was so excited because not only the most sought-after cartoon in 1994 is now going to be made in live action but also because the cast are some of the award winning singers and actors.

Here’s the list of the cast;

• Donald Glover as Simba (voice)
• Beyoncé as Nala (voice)
• Seth Rogen as Pumbaa (voice)
• Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar (voice)
• John Oliver as Zazu (voice)
• James Earl Jones as Mufasa (voice)
• John Kani as Rafiki (voice)
• Alfre Woodard as Sarabi (voice)
• JD McCrary as Young Simba (voice)
• Shahadi Wright Joseph as Young Nala (voice)
• Penny Johnson Jerald as Sarafina (voice)
• Keegan-Michael Key as Kamari (voice)
• Eric André as Azizi (voice)
• Florence Kasumba as Shenzi (voice)
• Billy Eichner as Timon (voice)
• Amy Sedaris as Guinea Fowl (voice)
• Chance the Rapper as Bush Baby (voice)
• Josh McCrary as Elephant Shrew (voice)
• Phil LaMarr as Impala (voice)
• Lee J. Lee as Hyena (voice)

Who doesn’t love to hear The Queen Bee herself, right? Yes, since it is a musical, then it is just worthy that they choose the one that can justify the story by singing.

The movie is as good as the cartoon, thanks to the story board, all the camera angles and shots are almost identical. There’s no good and bad to compare with how the story went because both were just made smoothly good. However, since this review is also a comparison from the previous one, I found the biggest fail in this movie.

I know this is a real life adaptation but is it just me or the movie felt as if I was watching a documentary from National Geographic Channel. The animals were so realistic that it made the movie somehow realistic but not relevant. This is my opinion but I think they should’ve made it a little more comic because it looked boring at some point and I’m not saying this because I watched it but because when I was in the cinema, children were watching but I don’t think they enjoyed it.

I was expecting a little more comic like a little animation on their faces and all, but yeah, I think since it is a realistic adaptation then they wanted to stick on showing how The Lion King would look like in the real life. It’s not bad, I just expected more.

The adaptation is a justification that even animals have their story and choosing the characters to be realistic unlike the cartoons, it is so relatable for the people who loves animals. The film is for family and I’m so sure that even kids or young at heart will love it. Whatever the cartoon had made us feel, the film had given us the same feeling.

I will give this a 80% wonderroanne rating!