Lion king - movie review

Junior’s first theater outing. Was in two minds, where to shore out, if in case all those noise and darkness unnerve him. That too his very first movie being a 3D one was making me all the more skeptical. Needless to say, he took to it like a duck to water. Right from the time, the giraffes and zebras and other animals started making their appearance one after another, he was super excited and was calling out each of them, with the loudest cheer reserved for rhinos!! By the time the Monkey lifted Simba and announced the cub to the pride land folks, Junior was well and truly into it. Beyond a while, the 3D effect was nauseating for us and I never used those glasses. He was asking for a bit as to what was happening on screen as we had gone for an English version. Pretty sure he would’ve posed as many queries had it been in tamil as well. Especially near to the climax, he was getting scared witnessing the fights between Hyenas and the lions and turned his head away. Otherwise, he sat through the whole 2 hours and enjoyed every minute of it. All credit to wifey for pushing through for last 3 weeks to get the tickets booked. Apprehensions apart, she was keen to introduce him to theater watching experience. And considering that he did enjoy it, probably would try some more down the line as well. Idhellam naangalay pazhakki vitutu, naaliki padam paaka, avanay theater pona thitta vendiyathu. Typical parents!! Oops. Mindvoice nenachu sathama pesiten.

As a movie, even as animation, Lion king was never my favorite. Had a hard time to get over Mufasa’s demise. Story wise, it is typically Manmohan Desai territory and gels well with Bolly-Kollywood script strategies. But somehow, felt the movie was rushed in its ending as compared to the animation version. Not sure if it was a frame to frame remake, but thought the other version had a more complete storyline. Unlike this one, where in the grown up Simba, speaks to the monkey for 2 seconds and off he goes to attack scar!! Due credit to be given to those in charge of the visual effects. Even if a real lion had enacted its role, wouldn’t have been so authentic!!! Especially the dung beetle sequence, which comes for like 1 minute in the whole movie. Amazing level of sincerity and dedication with which they’ve churned out the effects. And voice overs are top notch. James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader, as Mufasa – guess no other language translators can match up to the might of his voice and for this reason alone, the English version would stand heads and shoulders above every other thing. “In the jungle, lion goes to sleep tonight” song was introduced to me by Marcel the monkey, from FRIENDS. I loved the song so much that for long it was on my playlist. “Circle of Life” is another favorite from the movie but “Hakuna matata” is forever the top one. Be it on Hindi or English, it has always remained a fan favorite one for many.

Gils verdict – I could see lot of kids, juniors age and above, laugh at all the jokes and fun moments in the movie and even clapped when the Simba junior makes an appearance. To me, those playful moments between Mufasa and Simba resonate a lot more. It was too real even as a cartoon and even more realistic in its present form. While coming back from the movie, wifey was mentioning about how costly the tea is at the chai king franchise. Junior immediately stepped in to correct – “Ma..its Lion king and not chai king”.

Circle of life it is J