The Lion King 3D Blu-ray (2019) [Region Free]

[Zivouhr]

Originally Posted by that1guystudios

Saw this in IMAX 3D last night.

[Show spoiler]
I felt the film translated to the new medium fairly well. I watched the original a few days prior so that it was fresh in my mind.

I don't have any major problems with this remake. It had some really neat visuals and the animation itself was fantastic.

I had hoped for a more visually-stylized version of "Just Can't Wait to Be King" - instead it just matched the photo-realism of the rest of the film.

I felt there were issues with pacing (skipping over or rushing through important beats co yet adding some unnecessary background elements that didn't really add up to much - what was up with the unnecessarily long "hair traveling via dung" scene?) I also missed the more dusky/night look of "Can you feel the Love Tonight" in the original.

Though I casually enjoyed the Beyonce track "Spirit" on the soundtrack it felt shoehorned into the film rather haphazardly and made me long for Zimmer and Lebo M's score/vocal work. I did get a kick out of the scene that replaced the Luau/Hula scene - won't spoil it here.

I felt that John Oliver, Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner added a lot of humor and brought something new and enjoyable to their characters. I also felt the vocal work of JC McCrary as Young Simba deserves to be mentioned - his emotion and inflection was perfect in the post-stampede scene.

I've heard some state that Beyonce and Glover sound bored, but to me it felt like they were simply imitating the cadence of Broderick and Kelly from the original film at times.

The 3D Presentation:
The 3D felt very realistic but was reserved. Very similar to the 3D in The Jungle Book remake. This is medium level 3D throughout, not a lot of mild or strong shots - but it consistently helps draw you into the environment.
I'd prefer it to have been pushed a bit stronger the way that Marvel presents their more recent films, but after seeing it in 3D I doubt I'd be able to watch it in any other format.

I'll be happy to own both films and watch either one again, but if someone asks me which one I'd rather rewatch, it will always be the original. Those with an aversion to hand-drawn animation (I have a few folks in my family who feel this way) will likely prefer this new version.

Thanks for the 3D details. How do you feel the 3D in the film compares to the 3D of the trailers? Are the trailers accurate? If so, they look like mild 3D mostly, except for that medium 3D layered cliff sequence overlooking the stampede below.

I bet I'll feel the same about the original animated version being the best one to rewatch, but I'll try to go in with an open mind for this film.

Originally Posted by MercurySeven

Safe. Pleasant. Uninspired. Pretty much every aspect of the film falls under those descriptions, especially the 3-D. The only surpassing element, for me, was the stunningly photo-real CGI, but even that brought its own baggage in terms of the characters' emoting. Animals' faces can't express human emotion; animators have always had to anthropomorphise them to an extent (it's what Disney was always great at); but here they don't. The lions' faces are blank. Their mouths move to speak human words, they sing to one another, but they're stuck in that too real/ unreal paradox, and it kept distracting me. There's just something a little "off" about the whole approach. I didn't have that problem at all with The Jungle Book, probably because the animals all had Mowgli to interact with. But here it kept me at a distance, emotionally. Didn't spoil the film for me, but it did make me question what I was looking at.

The 3-D was immersive at times - it added dynamism and tactility to some sequences. It definitely wasn't a waste of time. But after the impressive 3-D in Aladdin and Dumbo, I felt it was a step back into the timid, afraid-to-be-noticed approach we've seen so often from Disney. The extended sequence with the clump of lion hair reminded of the floating ticket scene in The Polar Express. But while Zemeckis worked the Z-axis overtime - in IMAX, it's still one of my favourite 3-D sequences - here they stay comfortably in the Goldilocks zone, and it's all a bit shrug-worthy.

Oddly enough, the 3-D conversion of the original cartoon was also a let-down.

Thanks for your review of the 3D.
I agree, the 3D in the animated Lion King, which I have on blu ray 3D, is mild throughout most of it, and not nearly as impressive as the medium to high medium 3D of the animated Beauty and the Beast, and even Little Mermaid 3D animated.