By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1 cat
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Beyoncé | Donald Glover | Seth Rogen
Country: south_africa, united_kingdom, united_states
Year: 2019
Running time: 118
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6105098
Thom says: “To be perfectly honest, I knew there was no way I was going to like this film. I had already suffered through the 1994 animation smash hit and hearing about its enormous success as a Broadway legend under the direction of the almost always excellent Julie Taymor. But, hush my mouth, this useless endeavor has made over $1 billion at the box office, so my opinion is mostly my own. I’ve seen thousands of animated films with talking animals, substituting human traits, and even quite a few films with one of two talking animals with live action backgrounds with the surprise factor taken into “uproarious” effect. Well, this film goes beyond the pale using mostly the original script from the animated version but having live shots of animals reacting to the tired dialogue and singing the overwrought songs. The admittedly attractive photography has to be accepted as forced as the animals are put in scenes that would never happen in a natural setting, & I found it remarkably off-putting. Maybe I’m just an old fogie, but almost no original thought was forthcoming. 1 cat“