I went to see the live action version of The Lion King at the cinema. Obviously it is well known that The Lion King is based on Hamlet with Mufasa and Scar playing the parts of King Hamlet and Claudius and the young Simba being Prince Hamlet.
I enjoyed the cartoon/ animation as it brought to life the humour of a meerkat and warthog being friends with a lion cub but how do you re-create this in the live action CGI? Well you use the same script, cut out a song and try your best!!! Sadly one of the key components of animation is that anything is possible, even the fantastic!!! When you try to ‘be real’ then the story doesn’t work.
In animation Simba was cute- in CGI he could be any old lion cub. The chemistry with Timon and Pumba just wasn’t there and in reality when Simba grew up they would be just dinner for him.
The differences between Mufasa and Scar were that Scar looked like a mouldy old carpet and had no ‘majesty’ even when he became ‘King’ compared to the regal bearing in the cartoon.
old carpet
As a positive the CGI was good and the songs can followed if you knew the previous film. Maybe I’m getting old but was Disney trying to pull in the fans by using “Beyonce Knowles” They could have used any actress as far as the singing for Nala was ok. To Summarise Enjoyed going to cinema with family and friends. As a story and cinematography wise it is good.
As a classic not so good. Probably comparing it to the enjoyment I had watching Aladdin.
Did I feel the love tonight??
Can be watched again but sadly ‘straight to video.”
Joseph Campling lives in Buckinghamshire, and is married with adult children.
He trained as a both a General and Mental Health Nurse in the South East of the United Kingdom in the mid 1980’s and has worked in various roles over the past 30 years.
His first authored article in 2007 was jointly written about the need to share positive research based practice amongst care teams locally which was then published in a professional journal.
He published “Mild Musings May Mitigate My Mentality” which was his first collection of poems in 2018.
He has subsequently published MERRING or is it MRS GREN?
Having written sporadically over the years (usually for friends and family) he has been writing more consistently over the past two years and has begun to recite his poetry at various Open Mic nights and Spoken Word events. He is often found ‘scribbling’ and then performing what he has just written.
He recently has also been collaborating with a jazz composer by writing lyrics which have been put to music.
His interests include watching live music, trying to play the guitar (still project in progress) and quizzing. He also likes to watch TV; mostly factual documentaries, comedy and quiz shows
He also needs to read more and swears that he will do so very soon as he has a pile of books to read.
He also ‘hangs out’ with members of the local drama club although he has no plans to act but is partial to the odd pint of orange juice and lemonade!!
He follows rugby and can sometimes be found cheering his team on (London Irish) whether they win or lose.
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Joe the poet 