Watched two Disney films, Spider-Man: Far from Home and The Lion King remake.
spider-man: far from home (2019)
I’ll make the first one brief. It’s another excellent Spider-Man entry that nails each character, including the villain and the old fan-favourite whom I will not spoil.
Peter Parker and MJ have a charming chemistry, which may reflect in that the actors are actually dating. Jake Gyllenhaal is great as Mysterio, who is a nice modern update of the old time character.
Not having a signature costume in this Spider-Man allows the makers to design new ones for him, à la Iron Man.
And I was glad to see the Noir costume, my favourite.
Spider-Man’s core struggle, balancing between hero and normal life, was well written, which is not always the case in Spider-Man films and cannot be taken for granted. He constantly tries to engage with his classmates and the love interest, but is always interrupted by things out of his control or even his own mistakes.
I haven’t seen Into Spider-Verse (2018) yet and cannot compare this film with fairness, but its should be safe to say this is among the best. 8.5/10
the lion king (2019)
I’m Japanese, so I have a love/hate relationship with the original (1994).
I like the film itself, but it’s a wholesale knock-off of a famous Japanese manga that Disney touted as their ‘first original work.’ And I have not forgiven them for their blatant disrespect to Osamu Tezuka to this day.
Please do me a favour and watch this video if you are unfamiliar with the subject:
Having said that, the original Lion King tried hard to be unique and fun, in comparison to this soulless remake.
writing
The story is exactly the same, but there are a few scenes added, all of which were used to over-explain the plot points that served just fine, and made me go ‘why did you elaborate on that?’ It only serves for more detailed logistics, but never the story or character development. Have you ever wondered how adult Nara left Pride Rock?
realistic look
Much like Dumbo or Aladdin, this remake was a stark reminder of how much emotion one can add to any character in traditional animation. One cannot tell the emotion from the face of talking animals in live action films. Take Mufasa’s death for example, Simba screaming at his father’s death just looks like a screaming cat in the remake, and your emotional response have to come from anything but visual (i.e. voice acting, music, and nostalgia). In the original, you can watch it on mute and still understand exactly what Simba’s emotions are.
Animation also allows for more unrealistic expressions. The original “I can’t wait to be king” scene has its own visual style, so does “Be Prepared.” Now, both of which are just shots of singing animals with no change in tone, and so underwhelming. They no longer fit in the film but have to be present, because the original had them.
voice acting
They are fine, but felt mostly disconnected from the characters. The only good ones were John Oliver’s Zazoo, and Timon and Pumba. The latter two worked mostly because there were more jokes added (you can’t repeat jokes to be funny, so at least the writers tried to be new here).
I admit, it’s objectively not the worst Disney remake; all the Tim Burton ones dominate the bottom end (Alice and Dumbo). On the scale of creativity however, this Lion King and Beauty and the Beast (2017) are the worst offenders and most ‘safe’ ones.
It was depressing to see the other people in the theatre were eating up this 118 minute mess, which is 30 minutes longer than the original by the way (at this length, it’s no longer suited for the target audience of the original. It’s clear the new one aims to bring in more adults with the nostalgia). It is also a shocking realisation that even straight-to-video sequels – Disney’s then C‑tier projects – have tried harder than this. 4⁄10
The best part of the film was when it ended, not just because I was glad it was over, but the credits used my own ‘remake,’ Albertus Nova.
—toshi omagari
Flommist Toshi Omagari fights many things, most recent of which is the auto-correction of his title to florist. Copyright © 2019 Toshi Omagari.
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