We Need To Talk About The New Lion King
Most people have watched all of the classic Disney movies when they were younger. From Snow White to Pochahontas, everyone had a favourite and everyone had an opinion. It was a unifying conversation; friendships could be made or broken from a single debate about who was the best Disney princess and why. And you best believe these people had the receipts.
But I… yeah, I just kept watching The Lion King.
I had the trilogy. I had the soundtrack on CD and on my MP3 player. I even had the picture books. When my Mum went to Disneyland Paris (I didn’t go!), she made sure to bring me back something from the trip, and I was pretty chuffed with my life-size Timon toy when she returned. Screw biology, I wanted to be Nala when I grew up. Everyone was fussing about the human princesses, but I was all about the animal kingdom.
I was initially excited to hear the first film was getting a remake…
Because why wouldn’t I be? My favourite childhood film was going to get a facelift with 21st technology. I knew it was going to look amazing. I could feel the anticipation in my bones.
And when the cast was announced, I was thrilled. Donald Glover? Chiwetel Ejiofor? Billy Eichner? And, of course–
(God bless Tiffany Pollard. Where would we be without her memeability?)
But then the reviews started rolling in.
I’m a firm believer of not following the crowd and forming your own opinion. Besides, film critiques can vary from deeply thought-out justified analysis to wildly snobby and selfish attacks on a film – and even then, sometimes you don’t watch a film to be wowed by the ethical significance of a certain scene. Sometimes you watch a film to enjoy watching a film. Sometimes, it just ain’t that deep.
And yet, what they were saying was troubling me. Remakes are always disadvantaged in that they don’t – and sometimes can’t – bring anything new to the franchise they belong to. No new script, no new characters, that sort of thing.
Instead, the creativity has to be bundled into diversifying the script, or putting new attention onto new techniques to make the cinematography or the visuals breathe a bit of fresh air into an old idea.
The problem with the new Lion King, however, is that it doesn’t manage to do even that.
I’m not saying the new Lion King is terrible, but I’m not saying it’s groundbreaking either.
It’s okay to admit that the new Lion King didn’t quite have the same magic of the original films, whilst also recognising how gorgeously breathtaking the visuals are for this one – thanks to the photo-realist emphasis this new film brings. Neither are the actors terrible at voicing their characters, either. They’re really good fits for their respective characters!
But Disney even fails at the photo-realism. It seems that, in a bid to make everything look realistic, Disney has forgotten that lions can have expressions. Watching lions sing with the voices of Childish Gambino and Beyoncé is a strange experience, especially when their faces don’t seem to be doing much else. The tragedy is that the cartoons were already beautiful.
This gifset from Tumblr shows it all.
Quite honestly, if I wanted to see a realistic lion in a blockbuster film, I’d much rather rent out the The Chronicles of Narnia. And the first film was made fourteen years ago.
But this disappointing remake is a product of a wider context within Disney. Firstly, because it’s just so damn big now.
Disney, the company, has changed an awful lot since the original Lion King trilogy was made. The company has gone on to buy what used to be its competitors and incorporate them into its business – the most famous of these, of course, being Marvel Studios.
Disney now has a dominance over the film industry the likes of which have not been seen before. It’s going to make money even if it does absolutely nothing. Disney is going to make money even if it haemorrhages money.
When you’re as big a company as Disney, you don’t have to be uniquely creative to win against your competitors. You simply don’t have as many competitors.
The company can churn out any old thing it likes, employing a ton of people, and paying little for it. People will come to see your films because they simply won’t be able to avoid them. So, still, the money will roll in.
Making great films is what every screenwriter wants to do, but Disney will want to get as much money as possible. Remakes are a great way to do that, because the nostalgia is enough for people to watch your films – generations of people. Kids will be seeing Lion King and be just as wowed as their parents. Taking a gamble on a new script just isn’t worth it anymore.
But it’s also to do with copyright for certain Disney films.
Film law can be quite difficult and complex, especially when it comes to copyright. Disney, like any film company, is restricted by what they can and can’t show. If they don’t own it, they can’t use it to make money. This includes anything from titles, to characters and their imagery, all the way up to entire franchises.
Copyright only lasts so long, however, and the identifiable unique elements of films eventually enter the public domain after a certain time. This means that anyone can claim them and then produce their own films, using the same characters as before.
This, actually, is how Disney got most of its iconic stories in the first place: they took stories from public knowledge, such as Snow White and Cinderella, and put their own spins on them.
If copyright only lasts for so long, then Disney’s chance at making money from their property is finite. Right? Wrong. Using the same elements in the films again actually extends that copyright for another however many years, meaning Disney gets to own the franchises for even longer, even when the original audiences and executive producers have long since perished from the face of the Earth.
And that’s where remakes come in.
Not only is it a useful source of income, but it’s a lining up of one guaranteed success after another. This influx isn’t just a happy coincidence – it’s a deliberate way for Disney to not only dominate the market while they’re at a peak, but it’s a deliberate way to sustain that peak for a long time.
Don’t be surprised if, in the future, we get another Lion King remake, or about thirty thousand Frozens. If it’s going to keep the intellectual property in their hands, then they will absolutely do it.
What are the consequences?
This reliance on Disney and its remakes is bad news for the film industry. Creatives are not getting the chance to use their talents, or be individuals, because the market is so saturated with Disney-owned, Disney-written content that don’t push boundaries or do… well, anything at all, really.
Not only does this frustrate creatives, it also exacerbates the monopoly Disney have over the industry. Indie film companies will struggle against the heavyweight companies, and go bust. The more people join Disney, the less accountability the company will have. Wages will go down, individuality will deplete… and our screens will be much worse for it.
It’s not just film workers that we should be worried for. What about the kids? We were insanely lucky to get so many exciting films thrown at us as we grew up. There was always something different for us to sink our teeth in. New films are being shown all the time, but even then, a significant portion of them are remakes.
Kids will not be able to have the same experience with Disney as we had. They won’t have engaged with the original films that made Disney so exciting; their characters will be remade unto oblivion.
It’s time to put our money where our mouth is.
In the wake of film’s decline against the silver screen, TV is becoming the place to be for creatives to experiment and get recognised for their individuality. But we can’t just leave film behind, either.
We can all help to stem the onslaught of Disney’s dominion if we search around for alternatives. Supporting independent film companies – ones that are much smaller and much more varied with their content – is the solution. This is probably done more if you’re a real film enthusiast, but I’d encourage anyone to try it, especially if you’re starting to feel fatigued by CGI-saturated superhero movies. I’m not saying you have to boycott everything Disney, but keeping indie companies alive will help ensure that the next generation get a little more choice than Lion King 13.
