by Rollo » September 28th, 2016, 6:47 pm
Yep, this was definitely inevitable after the success of The Jungle Book. I'm firm in my belief that TJB was an experiment to see if 'animal' animated movies could be remade, in the same fashion that Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast have been remade, and it seems only logical that they now tackle the greatest animated animal feature Disney ever produced. I'm apprehensive, a little worried and I'll be very cautious in judging it, but I am looking forward to all that it will bring. I have faith in Favreau. He's made some fantastic films over the years. I think he'll do the best he can.
I'm also curious to know what 're-imagining' means. I think it's likely that'll be an all-animal photorealism type of scenario that we've seen with TJB, but I would be pleasantly surprised if it took an entirely different turn, i.e it was humanised. Hamlet in Africa isn't at all a bad plotline. That would be seriously interesting and I'd welcome it far more than a remake that's basically the same story, minus a few changes, but made photo-realistic. However, if the latter is the route they take, I would love to see a darkness to the story and more expansion in areas they never touched upon in the original, like Nala growing up during Scar's reign, more of Sarabi, and more development into Simba's character. And less Timon and Pumbaa. That would be a dream.
I'd also like it to not be a musical. TJB worked well without its songs. 'Wanna Be Like You' was a disaster and I think Favreau's aware of that, so to decrease the chances of said disaster occuring again, I think it would be better to do without it. I'd like to see a new version of the Circle Of Life, but everything else I don't really mind saying goodbye to.
It's gonna take a loooong time for me to get used to new voice actors...
Also, John Debney's score for TJB was excellent and I think he did an amazing job with it, but I would like to hear someone different. Michael Giacchino seems like a likely contender to be honest, even if he's not Favreau usual partner in crime. That'd be awesome!