'The Lion King' mini-review — Richard Attenborough is shook

The Lion King reimagines the 1994 classic animated film of the same name in "live-action" with Donald Glover, Beyoncé, and James Earl Jones.

90-second review: For a remake to be successful it has to have a reason for existing. And having the technology to make photorealistic animals and environments is almost reason enough for a remake of The Lion King to exist. However, instead of using the technology to tell a story, director Jon Favreau lets the technology dictate what he did. The result is less than inspiring.

Because the movie is essentially a shot for shot remake, making it “live-action” had to add something to it, which it doesn’t. The times that it works is when the movement of the characters feel cartoonish — particularly the scenes with Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumba (Seth Rogen), which are the highlight of the film. It also helps that those scenes divert from the source material. Something that needed to happen way more. The actors recorded together, which allowed the dialo…