Long Live the King: New is Not Enough

If you go back and read through my reviews of Disney films, you might notice a bit of a pattern – I usually love them. I’ve often wondered if I am being a little easier on Disney films than I am on others because I have always seemed to love them, and even the ones I haven’t loved I’ve at least enjoyed. Now that we’ve reached Disney’s age of remakes, I am definitely being tested – Beauty and the Beast (2017) I loved, Aladdin (2019) I appreciated. But the remake of one of the ultimate classics, The Lion King, is perhaps the most disappointing Disney movie I’ve seen in a long time. Leaving the theater, I expressed this disappointment, and the person I saw the movie with thought that I was being too hard on the movie. Maybe I was (and the current trailer for Mulan is definitely not helping), but at the same time, it’s something to consider when you walk into one of these remakes. If Disney is going to continue remaking their films, they need to add to them; there needs to be a change, a reason to remake them. Beauty and the Beast fixed a few plot holes, included a few songs, and updated a few moments; Aladdin gained a more diverse cast and strengthened its female protagonist. In this case, the change for The Lion King was supposed to be the CGI, making the characters in a new way. I’m sad to say that it’s really not enough, because the story itself does not change. I’m not saying that it should – The Lion King was a great story back in 1994 – but no matter how great it looks, creating a “live action” version of the story is not enough of a reason to redo such a beloved story. 

Toy Story 4: A Question of Necessity

Let’s just say what we were all thinking when Toy Story 4 was announced – no one particularly wanted it or needed it. Toy Story 3 had wrapped up the sagas of our heroes in such a satisfying way (wringing tears and laughs from us in full), that there seemed to be nothing left to say about Woody and the gang. The little vignettes you could catch as shorts, while sweet, were more about fun than storytelling, and it didn’t detract from the wonderful ending we already had. The thing with Toy Story 4, after watching it, is not that it is a bad movie – thankfully the Toy Story saga has no bad movies – but that if you have been following the story, it’s not really necessary. The choices made, the path taken at the end, it’s all part of the same lesson as Toy Story 3. It’s all about learning to move on. It’s ironic, really, considering that the audience who has grown up with the story has not been able to do that and clings to the story ending that we all loved. So, is Toy Story 4 a bad movie? No. Should you skip watching it altogether? That’s up to you. It’s really the first time that for those of use who have grown up with the characters must face the reality of our age – these movies, while part of our childhood, are not always intended for us.