So, with news of the full cast of the live action Lion King dropping Wednesday I decided to take a look at just who is going to be in the movie and I feel like we should talk about if Disney needs to stop with all the live action remakes.
Let’s just get straight to the biggest name on the whole list, Beyonce. Yes, Queen Bey is going to be playing Nala, Simba’s love interest. (Spoiler alert? Can something be spoiled 23 years later?) Now, this is awesome. And I’ll give you my honest opinion of the live action remakes later, but this is awesome. Who doesn’t love Beyonce? Like honestly, I don’t know ANYONE on planet earth that doesn’t like Beyonce. She’s Beyonce.
Speaking of Simba, Donald Glover will be playing the iconic lion. Again, this. is. awesome. I love Donald Glover, and I secretly hope he starts rapping mid movie.
Now, I’m white (Surprise!). So me saying this probably doesn’t carry weight, but I love that all but 3 of the characters are played by people of color. That’s the politically correct term right? I didn’t want to say black, although I just said it, but yeah. It’s awesome and it makes sense. The movie takes place in Africa. So…culturally…yeah you get what I’m saying.
Let’s quickly go through the rest of the actors in the movie. Now there’s a lot, so I’ll just talk about the ones that stand out to me. And right off the bat, the hyenas look like 3 great choices. Keegan-Michael Key (of “Key and Peele” fame), Florence Kasumba (who honestly I only know from her brief role in Captain America Civil War but she seemed awesome) and Eric Andre…well he’s Eric Andre. I really look forward to their portrayal of the hyenas.
Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner will be Pumba and Timon, respectively. Honestly I think they will be PERFECT for the roles, but let’s just get this out of the way, they will be no Billy Crystal and Ernie Sabella. But Rogen and Eichner are both hilarious in their own ways and I think their individual brands of comedy will go great with the characters.
John Oliver as Zazu will be another GREAT choice. I mean he LOOKS like he should be Zazu.
And lastly, James Earl Jones. Yes Darth Vader himself, or i guess more fittingly MUFASA HIMSELF WILL BE MUFASA. LIKE HELLO THIS IS AMAZING. He plays two of my favorite characters in movie history, and I think it’s great they got him to come back and reprise his roll as Mufasa.
Now I didn’t go through every character, and I’m sure we all have our opinions on different actors picked to play different characters. But let’s quickly talk about Disney’s incessant need to remake all of their classics into live action movies.
First off, there’s been what feels like 10 different “Snow White” live action movies in the past few years. “The Jungle Book” got remade (and it was pretty awesome). “Beauty and the Beast” was JUST remade. We are heading towards a time when Disney releases animated and live action versions of the same movie back to back. Like, it’s going to get there. PICK ONE DISNEY. COME UP WITH ORIGINAL IDEAS AND STOP REMAKING CLASSICS INTO LIVE ACTIONS. IF YOU MESS UP LION KING WITH THIS LIVE ACTION REMAKE I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU (until I do because I love Disney more than most things in my life).
So, what do you think? Is Disney going overboard with all of the live action remakes? Do they need to start coming up with fresh ideas rather than recycling what they already have? Check out my video on the topic below and let me know in the comments what you think!
Lasersgo 