When you look up the word Nostalgia in the dictionary, it will redirect you to Disney, Nintendo, and “Only 90s Kids will remember this”. It also mentions something about “a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition.” Either way, it can be used very effectively by a variety of different mediums. The recent trend of live-action Disney remakes are almost entirely based on Nostalgia factor, relying heavily on you pointing out and screaming “I remember that song!”. And I sure remembered those songs from Disney’s recent “The Lion King”.
I remembered them being so much better.
This is a not so subtle segue into my review of two films I recently watched that both are based on my childhood memories: Disney’s 2019 “The Lion King” and “Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus”. One of them I absolutely loved, while the other I absolutely despised. You can probably tell which one is which. This does contain spoilers for The Lion King.
Lion King, the original, was one of my favourite and still is possibly one of the greatest animated Disney films of all time. It has an incredible soundtrack, striking and memorable visuals, heartbreaking moments, humour and more. Possibly one of the most emotionally stirring and traumatic of all the Renaissance Disney films, I had concerns going into the cinema that the new one would lose the emotion to embrace realism. This turned out to be the case. As expected, if you have seen the trailers, the visuals are absolutely gorgeous. Possibly the best CGI in a film to date, with photorealistic animals and landscapes that made it look like a documentary.
It begins with a shot for shot opening as from the original, the sun rising over the African savanna as animals gather towards Pride Rock to see the new baby Simba. This is the start of the Lion King’s problems, the looks are impressive, but something is missing, hard to pinpoint. Rafiki half-heartedly holds up baby Simba, unlike the original’s powerful thrust into the air, the lack of energy and emotion a warning for things to come. Then the animals started speaking. While not completely jarring or unnatural, in fact Disney manages to make it appear authentic the way they can communicate unlike the Netflix film “Mowgli”, the lack of expressions makes the delivery fall flat. Characters will have to almost explain their emotions, otherwise appearing dull. Mufasa, still played by the amazing James Earl Jones, feels more like a tired, distant king compared to the original’s powerful, fierce yet kind ruler. Scar suffers the most, his voice and appearance reducing him from a moustache-twirling, fabulous villain to a boring, stilted and generic, gravelly-voiced cat.
The most famous scene arguably in The Lion King is (spoilers) Mufasa’s Death. A heart wrenching moment as the king is betrayed by his brother, with the sinister lines of ‘Long live the king’ whispered to him, as his own son watches and screams in terror. Visually, the new film recreates the shots almost tee to tee, the lines delivered in similar ways, although Scar chooses to shout angrily than whisper menacingly, but without any emotions physically by the characters. As Simba nudges the cold lifeless body of his father, it is effectively a cat nudging at a rug. I cry every time I watch the original, the pain in both Simba’s face and voice selling the scene. An actor’s arsenal is not just their voice, in fact pretty much all acting is done through the face and eyes. Take away that and you are not left with much.
The second issue with the realistic visuals and storytelling meant that the songs, while both sung well and still just as catchy, lose the important stylised appearance. “Just Can’t Wait To Be King” is now simply a walk through the savanna, compared to the colourful, explosive original. “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” is set during the day, no feelings shown at all between the two “lovestruck” lions, perhaps is should be re-sung as “Can you feel the love this afternoon”?
The third issue, again stemming from the extreme realism, was the comedy. Excluding the noticeable addition of more fart jokes, the humour was more centred around fourth-wall breaks and meta jokes which I felt was an odd choice for a film going for realism. Once again it removed you from the experience, reminding you that you are indeed an audience watching a film, a remake of a film no less.
Let’s move on to the good stuff.
Oh I don’t mean good stuff about The Lion King, I mean the good film I watched.
“Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus” is a brilliant, funny, dynamic and perfect fit to the Invader Zim universe. For those who don’t know, Invader Zim was a cartoon on Nickelodeon in the early 2000s about an alien boy told that he has a top secret mission to enslave / destroy Earth when in reality he was lied to and banished just to stop him messing up his leader’s plans. Hysterically incompetent, Zim poorly disguises himself as a human which fools everyone except his classmate Dib, a boy obsessed with the supernatural and paranormal. Each episode is a dark, hilarious and often disturbing thrill, often pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable for children’s television. Unfortunately, it was cancelled due to poor ratings. Until now.
Coming straight to Netlix, retaining the original cast and similar yet updated artstyle, this new movie is a perfect encapsulation of the series and a love letter to the fans. Genuinely laugh out loud moments caught me so much by surprise, as I thought I would have grown out of the humour from it. Apparently not. The plot is simple, yet it relies so heavily on the excellent cast of characters and their growth that all it needs is something basic to keep it going. Side characters also got bigger roles, such as Professor Membrane who always had amazing lines yet little screen-time in the original show. I never felt bored while watching, a testament to the fast paced delivery of both dialogue and action that the show was famous for. I feel they briefly toned down the darker side to the show, perhaps to appeal to a wider audience, thought it wasn’t too noticeable or took away anything from what made Zim, well, Zim.
Unfortunately, I have not too much else to say about Invader Zim, I often find myself being able to criticize longer than praise, so the best thing I can say is definitely check out the new Invader Zim movie, and if you haven’t seen the original series do please give it a try. It still holds up well and thanks to its almost non-child friendly feel it will still appeal to adults.
Don’t watch the new Lion King though. Just watch the old one.