It says a lot about Jon Favreau’s photorealistic CG-animated remake of “The Lion King” that it’s frequently, and inaccurately, called the “live-action” version. The 2019 blockbuster is more impactful as a technical exercise than it is as a feature film. Yes, those do indeed look like realistic cats. No, they do not look like they’re acting. Favreau’s painstaking effort to transform a vibrant animated classic into a staid, simulated nature documentary where the animals sometimes warble out an awkward song was a dull, drab, drastically inferior version of the original.
It wasn’t a waste of money though. The CG-animated “The Lion King” is now one of the highest-grossing movies in history (not adjusting for inflation), so a follow-up was inevitable.