This past Thursday, we were finally introduced to the first trailer of the upcoming Lion King remake film set to release July 19th, 2019. Now, before I start, I will say that The Lion King is my all time favorite movie start to finish, my first tattoo was a Lion King tattoo, to say I’m obsessed would be an understatement, so what follows is 100% biased.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s set the scene. I had just finished Thanksgiving dinner, and was watching the Cowboys-Redskins game. I hadn’t been on my phone that day because I was with family all day, so I had no idea the trailer was coming. Then it came, and I lost my mind. It was BEAUTIFUL. It was PERFECT. It was PHENOMENAL. And I loved every second of it. Twitter broke. The internet broke. It become the 2nd most viewed trailer of all time in a 24 hour span (only trailing Avengers: Infinity War). It was the topic of all of the Black Friday shopping conversations; “did you see the new Lion King trailer?” was probably asked to me about 20 times. Everything was perfect.
Then I woke up Saturday and checked Twitter moments to see that some people honestly weren’t fans of it. Now, I’m totally cool with everyone having their opinion, but this is The Lion King. Like, EVERYONE likes this movie. So, as the residential Lion King expert, I decided I should defend the film.
To start, Disney never came out and said that this was going to be a live action remake. The fans did. It got the live action title from fans, who thought it made more sense than saying “the CGI remake of The Lion King.” And honestly, it does. Because us fans didn’t anticipate that people would expect live action to involve actual real life lions, elephants, hyenas, and giraffes. Clearly, we were wrong. Because for some reason, people actually were upset that these were computer generated animals and not real ones. However, IF Disney had somehow gotten real life animals, the same people would be livid, and rightfully so, because those animals were being forced to do something they didn’t want to…not to mention PETA would probably be opposed to that idea, and Disney.
The next negative thing I saw made absolutely zero sense. Someone was upset because the new movie looked like a shot for shot remake of the original. Newsflash: almost ALL of the remakes are the same story told again. But let’s dive even deeper. Beauty and the Beast added a couple of new scenes and new songs. Alice Through the Looking Glass was a 100% original story. Cinderella added some songs and scenes. Aladdin and Dumbo will indeed do the same. And so will The Lion King. For instance, it’s been rumored that the “Be Prepared” song won’t be in the remake, yet the scene with Scar plotting to kill Mufasa will be. You can almost guarantee another song with Simba and Nala as well. So yeah, while it might be a retelling of the same story, there will be some differences. But here’s the thing: The Lion King is easily one of Disney’s most important films to the company, so to think it wouldn’t get a remake is silly. Disney knows how much people love this movie, and they know that people will FLOCK to the theaters to see this over and over again. They know that they have a film that could break Avatar’s box office record. So why would they NOT make the film? If you owned a company like that and were presented with the opportunity to remake one of your most popular films, you’d do it. I’d do it, everyone would do it, and if they say they wouldn’t, they’re lying. It’s an instant cash cow, and I don’t blame a company one bit for pursuing it.
Finally, the last thing I want to address is probably one of the most absurd things I’ve seen regarding this movie. Someone was genuinely upset that we wouldn’t be seeing Beyonce’ on screen in a lion costume. Listen, I know Beyonce’ is going to draw a lot of people to this movie, and honestly, I don’t mind her playing Nala. HOWEVER, let me be very clear in saying this: YOU WILL NOT SEE BEYONCE’ ON THE SCREEN. If you really want to see Beyonce’ in a lion costume, I’m sure there’s a picture or music video with that exact thing. If you want to see a cast in lion costumes, there’s a Lion King Broadway play that has won plenty of awards, and I have seen in person, and it’s phenomenal; go check that out. But, this movie isn’t going to feature one human on the screen. You’ve been warned.
Like I said earlier, I am 100% okay with people having opinions, but when it comes to little things like this and you haven’t even seen the movie yet, go take your opinions to Facebook or MySpace. Or troll another movie like Aladdin or Dumbo or Frozen 2 or Star Wars: Episode 9 or Avengers 4 or literally any of the tons of other movies coming out in 2019, just leave The Lion King alone, please.
Are you excited for The Lion King? Of course you are. Comment below or let us know on Twitter what you’re most excited for!
A few of my favorite things include my pet dragon (Drogon), Game of Thrones, Disney movies and theme parks, the MCU, DC movies, Star Wars, sports, and my rather large Funko Pop collection. Daenerys Targaryen is my queen, Robert Downey Jr is my man crush, and Simba is my spirit animal.
