The Lion King Review
by Rob Furr (r DOT furr AT genie DOT geis DOT com)June 27th, 1994
THE LION KING
"What's Old Is New Again"
A film review by Rob Furr
Copyright 1994 Rob Furr
I went to see THE LION KING last night; it was hot, I had six dollars to burn, and that was the only new movie in town, or so I thought.
In reality, THE LION KING is a fairly old movie, or, more precisely, a whole bunch of old Disney movies tossed in the Mixmaster and poured into a mold. I'm sure that there was a plot in there, somewhere, but most of the movie concerned itself with Disney's trademarked cutting-edge animation, Warner Brothers-style comedy, and some of the most forgettable music this side of your local elevator.
As far as I was able to discern, the plot dealt with the efforts of one Scar, the obligatory bad lion, to become king of the savannah by killing the current king and attempting to kill the prince, and Simba's (the prince and, later, king) eventual victory over Scar. I'm a little vague on the details of this supposed plot, because every time the movie turned its attention that way, I kept having flashbacks to other Disney movies. With a few stripes and a couple of weeks with Body-By-Jake, the nefarious Scar would be indistinguishable from THE JUNGLE BOOK's Shere Khan. The rightful king's death tossed me into Bambi's mother's death scene, I'm sure Simba's exile differed from Mowgli's time with Baloo only because Phil Harris is dead, and so on and so forth. Furthermore, even though what plot there was wasn't original, there wasn't enough of it. Even THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER had more twists and turns to its plot, and I'm not even including THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER in that. In point of fact, much of what passes for the plot is actually written in shorthand, with plot twists becoming acceptable not because that there's any meat to them, but because they're such cliche'd events that the movie doesn't need to flesh them out.
There's also a problem with the music: It's less than twelve hours since I saw the movie, and the only music I can remember from it is "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." "Forgettable" is a kind way to describe the musak that Tim Rice and Elton John have presented us with. Even the giant production numbers don't remain in memory: It's over a year since I last saw BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and I can still sing most of "Be Our Guest" from memory ... but I cannot for the life of me remember anything about "The Circle of Life" except the title and the chord that they brought the title card of the move in on. This isn't going to win the Oscar for Best Song, kids.
However, that's not to say that there isn't a great deal to like in THE LION KING. When the plot isn't getting in the way and causing flashbacks, there's an awful lot of comedy in this movie. Rowan Atkinson's avian major-domo provides several of the largest laughs in the movie, from his long-suffering shepherding of the young Simba in the first few minutes, to his tour of duty as Scar's stereo system towards the end. Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin and "Ed," the lead hyenas, are quietly amusing ... they completely lack any *menace*, but they're amusing ("I just *gotta* get me a wildebeest!"), and there's that rendition of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" that rivals any comedic moment Disney's had in years. However, my personal favorite comedy sequence occurs during the climactic battle, beginning with a meerkat doing a slightly revised version of Spike Jones' "Hawaiian War Chant" in drag, and ending with a baboon fighting off about eight hyenas in perfect cheap-martial-arts-movie style, complete with sound effects.
The animation is incredible, with the wildebeest stampede as the possible high point of Disney's animation so far. There are more colors, more backgrounds, more of everything. On a purely visual level, THE LION KING is rivaled only by FANTASIA, and even FANTASIA cannot compete with THE LION KING when Disney's latest decides to get serious about its animation. Words like "Breathtaking," which are usually used by reviewers to indicate mild amusement, really *do* apply to the absolute mastery of animation which Disney presents us with.
Still, THE LION KING is a thin and weak structure covered with strong comedy and beautiful animation. It may have grossed $42 million over its first weekend, but I can't imagine that it'll have the staying power of ALADDIN.
On the Furr Scale, THE LION KING is a two-and-a-half star four-star movie. (In other words, it's *trying* to be the next BAMBI, but it only manages to be the next GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE.) Go see it, in a THX theatre, if possible, but don't pay full price.
(As a final note, I was annoyed by this movie in another way: After the traditional THX and Dolby Digital wallop-the-audience commercials, it went straight into the movie. No trailers at all. Bummer.)
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
