My Lion King Forum

spirit was an ok song in the wrong place in the movie.

this movie has a new director... some (many) would say a huge upgrade over jon favreau.

moonlight was a critical darling and won best picture and 2 other oscars + he seems to be an indie darling too.

barry jenkins is quite the out of left field choice for a tlk movie, or a disney movie in general.

[quote="Elton John"]spirit was an ok song in the wrong place in the movie.

this movie has a new director... some (many) would say a huge upgrade over jon favreau.

moonlight was a critical darling and won best picture and 2 other oscars + he seems to be an indie darling too.

barry jenkins is quite the out of left field choice for a tlk movie, or a disney movie in general.[/quote]


I really enjoy the new choice of director. I agree with Spirit being in the wrong place (it should be the last song in the credits, or somewhere similarly placed).
But I still would like to see, Disney working with traditional animation, or trying something new and different (like spiderman into the spider-verse, kinda thing).

At this point I dunno if we will ever see another tlk animated movie meant for theaters unless it is like this.

The Disney sequels seem to be more for their modern canon, and even then they are slowing down on that.

my prediction is that the director is going to lean hard into the African aspects of the franchise which is fine by me. You don't get the director of Moonlight just for show and this is a movie set in Africa.

My other prediction - this movie is going to be a celebration of Africa and a love letter towards black people in a way that Black Panther was.

There's a reason why they didn't get Jon Favreau back and instead got Barry Jenkins. Disney doesn't just want a commercial success this time around, they want a critical success too and a movie that isn't heavily maligned by the moviegoing public. Probably why it isn't a direct adaptation of Simbas Pride.

to further clarify on a point. a love letter towards black people.

in black panther, t'challa was both a superhero and a king in a country that is a Utopia. Like, what if colonialism never happened and for the most part the countries of Africa worked together. They didn't seek to conquer other lands but were prepared to protect their own. This of course mostly worked out and other African countries suffered due to Wakanda being Isolationist.

T'challa as mentioned earlier, was a superhero and a king of a utopia. Not a typical role for a black actor in Hollywood. The black characters were treated with respect and dignity. It even gave us one Marvels most nuanced villains (low bar, I know...) even Martin Freemans character was treated with some dignity considering he had no idea Wakanda was the most advanced place on Earth.

The movie was unapologetically black. Not a perfect movie but it hit so many notes that other movies starring black people fail to do.

I guess my point is, what if this new tlk was a love letter to black people in the same way Black Panther was? Ok not the same exact way, but what if that's why they got Barry Jenkins on board? What if that's why they gave Beyonce a ludicrously expensive live version of The Gift?

They want The Lion King to, in a way be like Black Panther.

edit - i also need to add that Black Panther was not a guaranteed success and Disney was years into the lion king remake before bp became a ... what, over 1.2 billion dollar success?

While tlk remake made more money BP has more mindshare. Disney wants TLK to have the same level of positive mindshare as BP for a new generation.

That is why they chose Barry Jenkins. That is why this movie isn't a direct adaptation of SP. And Disney wants The Lion King brand to be relevant for a long time. They need something that will do more than make money.

That's a good theory, to be honest. However, I'm struggling with how can it be a love letter to black people, but it doesn't star any black people. It will feature talking CGI-animated animals. Sure, I do think the film will celebrate the spirit and culture of Africa a lot than the remake did.

I do wish Disney was more forthcoming about the plot details. Why would they make an announcement and not be specific if it's a direct sequel or a prequel?

dunno. i guess they are still getting a voice cast ready before announcing plot details as the voice cast would give away much of what the base of the movie is about?

and zootopia tackled human issues with animal characters. tlk can do the same.

this is just me speculating. and when i speculate i love to go big. which means i can get a lot right and a lot wrong.

I very much think, agree, and hope that Disney is very keen on capitalizing on the cultural capital invested and inherent in [i]The Lion King[/i] franchise. No doubt that's why they got Jenkins involved and he made the statement he did in the Deadline article, about wanting to tell more stories celebrating African heritage.

For better or worse, while not as much a love letter to Africa as [i]Black Panther[/i] was (since the latter was written and produced largely by black folks), [i]The Lion King[/i] as a franchise definitely felt/feels like the dedicated 'black' movie among Hollywood and Disney films for a lot of us black folk who grew up on it, same like for what [i]Mulan[/i] was meant to be for Asian (specifically Chinese) Americans, [i]Moana[/i] for Pacific Islanders, etc. I've wanted to do an in-depth piece on this topic for years now, just haven't gotten around to it. I haven't seen anybody really cover it yet, at most just in bits and pieces.

Given all of this, I'm extremely curious how they'll try to work these themes into the new film. Obviously you'll have the music (listening to [i]Rhythm of the Pride Lands[/i] as I write this, with [i]The Lion King: The Gift[/i] lined up next on the playlist), but I'm also very curious what new characters and voice actors they create/get for this. I'd personally love to hear more characters with African accents; the 2019 film expanded on the cartoon franchise by bringing that grand total up to two with Shenzi being voiced by Florence Kasumba (who I love listening to speak). Maybe they rectify their mistake and have Lupita Nyong'o involved this time.

to expand on what you just said pan i recently watched queen of katwe by disney. great movie. shame the young actress in it died so... young...

but that movie felt unapologetically African. it was made by an american company but it didn't feel like it was made for the widest american audience possible.

i will admit i am not black, i will never fully understand what it is to be black on this on this planet. but that doesn't mean i can't try and empathize with people who are different than me. to try to understand their point of view. their anger, frustration, sadness, what makes them happy, brings them joy, their cultural values, their cultural identity, etc. we are all human beings with more in common than we might think. we want to love and protect our family and friends and whatnot.

this is why these movies are important and getting people who are not only a part of the cultures to work on them, but have deep talent and understanding of said cultures....

something came to mind

i read that the initial script was already completed as of announcement.... I gotta wonder how far into production they are with this movie.

obviously changes here and there will be made to the final product, but they are likely at the casting stage for the movie. dunno if we will get any announcements this year.

i also wonder.... if this was more than just a prequel wouldn't we have gotten an announcement that donald glover and beyonce are returning?