It's official, there's gonna be a tlk remake.

[gothprincesskiara]

Wow, im still taking it all in, this really hasn't hit me yet, I thought earlier I was hearing teeny tiny rumor's about this possibility, then I thought awh thats just wishful thinking, but I wonder if they ever will, I had a feeling they would. But I am on board with it because as I have said before, The more TLK the better, some of us fans want more out of the movie we love because the lion king world is beautiful and I wish I could live in it, And if means experiencing a new version of the original then so be it.just take me to a Africa where there is Pride Rock
I'm getting tired of people complaining about these remakes. Look at what happened to Lion Guard, look at where we are at today with it, Most fans are riding it smooth and steady, and then there are the others who flat out hate it, well haters will hate. Now as the lot of us have mention while talking about TLG before it was released, alot of us said (including me) when it comes to Disney, its out with the old in with the new, and that goes for the movie animators and producers, I had to learn to except that the old movie makers and its hand drawn cartoon animation making of the 90s are gone, and they arnt coming back because they arnt getting any younger! yes I hate how Disney never keeps the original producers but we are not in charge of Disney, and technology is only gonna get better every year no matter what we say or want. We all need to have a reality check and remind each other that CHANGE-IS-HARD! (rafiki aaaaah change is good), nothing lasts forever! and it was hard to accept the changes with what they did with TLG, well its gonna happen again with this one. For all these live action/CGI remakes that Disney has done, neither one has been EXACTLY the same as the animated films, and thats exactly whats gonna happen to this one and you know it if you saw every other remake film like I have. Now the same goes for the song writers, in all the other remakes no song or voice or style of the song was the same as the original, its gonna be different in this one too. Besides why would people want the same exact story just like the original with just a different look...not me. Now I will say yes im sure Zimmer was beautiful with his work but when I think Zimmer I think... meh....Now Lebo M. Im all about his beautiful African voice, (love his voice more in Rythem of the Pridelands) and well if there not going to bring him back for TLG then why bother hoping they will for this film. But I just hope they stick with the African based musical culture vibe that we got from our originals, because lion king made me fall in love with African music. Now what I DONT want them to do is make it a musical, im getting so sick and tired of Musical films like they did with that Strang Magic movie and what they are doing with Beauty and the beast, Im still seeing Beauty and the Beast but I HATE how they turned into a musical, GRRR cause im a beauty and the beast fan for different reasons. Anyway but then I remembered they CANT turn it into a musical, cause TLK is ALREADY a musical . Anyway cant wait to hear more future news on this.

[Elton John]

After watching the jungle book remake, I hope they nix the traditional musical numbers unless they can animate them properly and get genuinely good singers. Instead, I hope they include the compositions of the musical numbers into the regular score. Seeing and hearing christopher walken sing 'I wanna be like you' was a low point in the movie.

I also hope they get a voice cast that's at least 80% black or African. I think it was fine back then for the original but the more I think about it the more it feels awkward to have so many African animals with british accents or american yankee doodle dandy accents.

Also, more lebo M music please. New Lebo music would be wonderful.

[Rollo]

I completely agree with everybody wanting to get Lebo M back. If they don't contact him for this I'll be super disappointed. If we're allowed to have one thing we can automatically link with the original movie, let it be Lebo M! He's what made The Lion King so authentically African. He's already proven that he can produce good music. If you need a shining example of that, listen to Rhythm of the Pridelands.

@EJ I think Favreau will try and get as many black or African voice actors/actresses as he can. He really impressed me with how he cast an Indian-American actor for Mowgli when he could've easily cast a white boy. That's a big move for a Hollywood mainstream director to make, though it may not seem like it. I think he'll be sensible in his casting choices. After all, he chose Bill Murray for Baloo. Can you get any better casting than that? (I'd also like to see Lupita in this remake!)

My fear with them animating songs is that it will look incredibly cringy. I don't want to see photo-realistic lions dancing. Bare Necessities worked in the JB remake because it didn't have Baloo and Mowgli swinging from vines or dancing around in something you'd use to entertain six year olds. It didn't look like something they'd edit to put as a music video on Disney Junior. Even Wanna Be Like You managed to be somewhat subtle in its cinematography, it just lacked big time in its vocals, timing and atmosphere when compared to the rest of the scene.

This has been constantly on my mind since it was announced yesterday. I really think Favreau's going to make the story darker or more serious like he did with TJB. If I'm correct, I'm incredibly excited to see where he'll take it. A reimagining could mean anything at all!

[Elton John]

Lupita Nyong'o would make a great adult nala I think.

[Panpardus]

[quote="Elton John"]After watching the jungle book remake, I hope they nix the traditional musical numbers unless they can animate them properly and get genuinely good singers. Instead, I hope they include the compositions of the musical numbers into the regular score. Seeing and hearing christopher walken sing 'I wanna be like you' was a low point in the movie.

I also hope they get a voice cast that's at least 80% black or African. I think it was fine back then for the original but the more I think about it the more it feels awkward to have so many African animals with british accents or american yankee doodle dandy accents.

Also, more lebo M music please. New Lebo music would be wonderful.[/quote]

I agree with you on both points, and I quoted you specifically because you're only the second person I've seen in any medium mention the potential casting decisions and actually advocating a mostly -- if not entirely -- African cast. It's interesting because this actually doesn't seem to be a particularly popular idea among most of the internet community and other people I've talked to about this in years past, and I genuinely don't understand why that is, or more specifically, what goes through someone's mind to make them so vehemently against the idea.

The most interesting experience I've had discussing this topic came up over the summer on the comments section of one of the videos of "My Own Way". A fairly young black girl -- based on how she referred to herself -- was pointing out how happy she was to have such a cool character voiced by a vocally talented black girl whom she could identify with, and then everyone else in the comments did the standard "You had to bring race into this..." line. I retorted with the facts that Elton John mentioned in his post, adding that The Lion King franchise is so popular that it has further reinforced -- in the mind of Americans at least, if not the rest of the Western world -- certain stereotypes about Africa, even if it wasn't in an attempt to be malicious. It was this last part specifically that irked someone, who incredulously replied "it's a show about animals mainly lions for kids. it ain't solidifying anything. its like saying I saw the little mermaid so I believe that there is a massive mermaid kingdom under the sea."

So then I wrote a brief response -- three short paragraphs and a link to the World Cup Ghana giraffe incident a couple years ago -- and brought it back to the original topic of representation. I made very clear that I don't praise "My Own Way" because Fuli's voice actress is a black girl, and the song isn't good because Diamond White is black (a bit of a funny oxymoron; more amusing when you realize Dusan Brown's last name is Brown); it's just a good song and she happens to be black and performed it really well.

Needless to say, my last, most comprehensive response is the one that got deleted, and I don't know who was responsible for it, but it really hammers home the point to me about how defensive at least some members of The Lion King fandom seem to be on this topic. This little girl who initially commented was simply expressing her delight in hearing a beautiful black voice on a show she seems to like a lot, and all these twenty-somethings have to go and rain on her parade. It's like, why? (I actually like these little smilies.) I assume that's not the case here, and I don't seek to pick fights with anyone over it, although I'm not sorry if a substantive discussion on race/ethnicity offends you.

Given all of this, I'm very curious to see how Disney decides to cast the new version and what the cultural shock will be, if any, regarding the casting decisions, especially now that Black Panther is generating a lot of hype over on their Marvel front and for their own silly reasons people are freaking out about how 'black' they fear that movie is going to be. And while we're on Marvel and Disney, I feel like Lupita Nyong'o (my celebrity crush) and Idris Elba (a man crush if I ever had one) kinda can't be in this film... I don't know, it just seems like too obvious of a choice and they get used too much when American studios need an African or a black person who is kinda foreign enough to put some distance between the character they're playing an a mainstream American audience. Plus, Idris has already played a bad@#$ big cat in a Disney 'live action' remake; it just feels really repetitive to have him do that again, even if he pulls out one of his African accents. (Which is another thing; it would be great if all of these characters had actual African accents. Apparently Timon was supposed to have a "spritely Johannesburg Township" accent in the original script, so I'd love to see that interpretation!) They should've saved him for The Lion King is all I'm saying...

[Elton John]

I think it's important that hollywood starts cultivating a more ethnically, culturally and racially diverse set of actors. I hate hollywood whitewashing...the excuses typically used for doing it upsets me.

I also want more Asian roles for characters in hollywood films that aren't martial arts wizards or scientists. Showing them as normal everyday people.

[Rollo]

While Favreau did supply Neel Sethi with Mowgli, nobody else in the cast was of Indian heritage, or at least not that I can recall at the moment, and I hope the same doesn't occur in this remake where we only get a few black voice talents instead of giving the entire production an authentic African feel. I'd very much like to see an all black and/or African cast. That could just be me though.

John Boyega would be an awesome Simba. Idris Elba would be an awesome Mufasa. Viola Davis would kick butt as Sarabi. I really hope they don't automatically consider these roles for non-black voice talents before at least considering black actors and actresses, which is the main point I'm trying to make here. I don't want to lose the cultural richness.

[Elton John]

Michael Jai White should play someone. Maybe adult Simba? Anthony Mackie could probably play Timon or Pumbaa. Chadwick Boseman as Zazu?

[Cheezi]

[quote="Rollo"]Idris Elba would be an awesome Mufasa.[/quote]
I think he'd make a much better Scar. It'd be awesome to see him in that role! Lupita Nyong’o would make a great Adult Nala IMO and Adult Simba should definitely be voiced by John Boyega. Why can't Mufasa still get played by James Earl Jones? It'd be so cool to see someone who has been in the originals in the cast!

[Sushi]

Not sure about this either way.
On one hand I most often find remakes to be less enjoyable than the original. I Don't like it when characters change voices either, well when you can easily tell its different. (Zazu in LK2 just bugs me how its not Rowan Atkinson as in the original)
If this is anywhere short of Absolutely amazing i will sit through it picking at every little detail I can.

On the other hand if it gets people interested again its good. Also they could clear up some things I've never quite gotten my head around and fix things that don't make sense between the films (Especially now the lion guard are on the scene)