oh well, what can I say? It's not bad as critics say, at all.

The CGI animation needs to be really talked. It's **groundbreaking** for real, the way it was "filmed" and choreographed in Virtual Reality, giving a sense of real freedom on the gorgeous computer sets created. There are scenes where _The Lion King_ simply throws at your face the ability of building scenes and shots that could easily be taken from a BBC Earth documentary.

But we need to talk about the elephant in the room, that every critic smashed, that is the bland voice animation in favor of the realism in the animals. It's not that bad for real. In fact, the movie conveniently hides some of the "would-be weird" mouth animation in some of the musical parts because of that carefulness and takes some risks with other scenes.

In terms of voice acting itself the real winners are Timon and Pumbaa, voiced by Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen respectively. They completely steal the show even with lines from the original and blends super nicely with the animals, especially Timon, because a meerkat is simply as funny real as animated. Chiwetel Ejiofor's Scar was more "villain" and less "cunning" like the original, putting a sense of danger with his plan and therefore the movie is a little darker because of that. The _Be Prepared_ was transformed into a drama and suspense "song" revealing more the horrible plan that is [spoiler] to kill his brother and king.[/spoiler]
Donald Glover and Beyoncé were a surprising combo, especially, because I thought I wouldn't be able to separate the superstar level, especially with Beyoncé, and pretend I wasn't seeing a lion being a world-star diva. But it works, most of the times. There are times where you say "oh that's so cute look at them" and there are times when you just imagine Nala belting in Coachella vibes for a hundred thousand people :sweat_smile:.

In terms of music production, it still maintains the quality associated with the original's soundtrack. Just from the beginning with Lebo M. returning with his full power for _Circle of Life_, but also passing with the obvious star vocalist Beyoncé creating a beautiful rendition of Nala's _Can You Feel The Love Tonight_ with Donald Glover as well, showing that she has a trained and connected voice, using mostly the riffs and runs in head voice mixed with that Disney's touch to it. Also the new music from her, Spirit, was a nice surprise connecting two parts of the world of _The Lion King_. (Also keep for the credits to hear a new song from Elton John which was a nice addition as well).

These are the main parts of the movie. Some will like it, some will love it and some will prefer the original afterwards. But there's no denial that it wasn't just a bland remake. There were talent involved, from the CGI animators to the music producers and performers. It's a great tribute to one of the best animated movies of all time, showing a new modern light to it and introducing a beautiful story to the younger audience.