The Town of Odyssey

When I first saw that the trailer was out the other day, my first thought was, "I don't have time to watch it now, but bookworm will post the trailer later so I'll watch it then."

This was a beautiful little early look at the movie. Baby Simba was so cute! It looks like it could be good! I don't love the big influx of animated to live action movies that seem to be the latest rage, but this looks quite cute, and since they have James Earl Jones, it should sound good.

I'm really split on this one. Part of me acknowledges that it looks really neat to see this in 'real life' (Is this going to be called one of the live action remakes? It's not live action, there are no humans.) but the other part is saying look, this is the perfect example of why this string of remakes is dumb. This is literally shot for shot the exact same movie (at least what has been shown so far) just computer animated instead of drawn.

Yeah, maybe this isn't being called live action. You're right that there are nothing really "live" but I'm not sure what else to classify it is.

I'm assuming that the actual film will have variations from the original, but that always ends up upsetting people who think it's too close to the original and people who think it was too much of a departure. I guess we'll see!

Catspaw wrote:I'm assuming that the actual film will have variations from the original, but that always ends up upsetting people who think it's too close to the original and people who think it was too much of a departure.

There really is no winning with something like this. One side says if the first movie is a classic why would you change anything, the point should be to make the exact same thing just live so we can experience it in a bigger way. The other side says if you're going to put all the money and work into making a new movie make a new movie. And both sides are right.

bookworm wrote:

Catspaw wrote:I'm assuming that the actual film will have variations from the original, but that always ends up upsetting people who think it's too close to the original and people who think it was too much of a departure.

There really is no winning with something like this. One side says if the first movie is a classic why would you change anything, the point should be to make the exact same thing just live so we can experience it in a bigger way. The other side says if you're going to put all the money and work into making a new movie make a new movie. And both sides are right.

I generally agree with you on your whole post, but for some reason speifically still feel optimistic about this particular film, and I can't explain why. I thought the new Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast movies were both big disappointments and have only seen them both once, despite multiple free opportunities to watch them again on Netflix or TV. I don't know why I feel that The Lion King remake might still be good, since I also consider it a childhood animated favourite and it seems to be a similar style of project.

-- 09 Dec 2018 10:52 am --

One interesting thing I've heard from a couple people is the thought that it will be weird that it's an all new cast except for James Earl Jones, saying they should have gone completely new. I don't think it will be a problem, in fact I agree with the decision because that voice is so iconic to that role. I'm disappointed they didn't also bring back Jeremy Irons though, since they were open to reprisals, I think that voice is just as iconic.

-- 12 Apr 2019 12:09 pm --

A real trailer is out:

It still looks and sounds good to me! I'm really looking forward to this one. The music sounded extra epic in the trailer!

Anyone end up seeing this? I didn't, and don't ever plan to. Reviews have confirmed what I suspected, that it's everything terrible about this trend of remakes. It's a scene for scene copy of the original, adding nothing substantial and actually significantly detracting because elements that made the original work so well because it was a cartoon can't be replicated when trying to make it realistic. This is the pinnacle example of 'there was no reason (other than a cash grab) to make this' - but regardless of its quality it definitely grabbed all the cash so Disney will see nothing wrong with it unfortunately.

Did they keep the subliminal message in the dust cloud? If not, I'm out.

They did not.

I actually did go see it and really enjoyed it! I liked that they didn't change it too much. I had heard mixed reviews and get why some people want totally different stories, but I thought this worked well. It still had a sweet story, it was really beautifully done without getting too gruesome (for a realistic style and a kids movie - not bloody etc.) and the songs were geat. I love the Lion King soundtrack, and the songs were all really well done. The music in the trailer was really what made me want to go see the movie, and I was not disappointed!

Interesting to see you say that, the consensus I've seen was that the songs were one of the biggest disappointments in the whole thing.

Elton John didn't like the music, either.

We actually did start to watch it a while ago, I don't remember having strong feelings one way or the other, but only got maybe a half hour in.

bookworm wrote:Interesting to see you say that, the consensus I've seen was that the songs were one of the biggest disappointments in the whole thing.

That wasn't the case for me. I'm not sure what other people were expecting or hoping for. I liked that they were mostly the same as the original songs that I wanted to hear, with some slight variations that I noticed but wasn't overly bothered by. The new song during the credits was really fun and I liked it enough to find the soundtrack on Amazon Prime music and listened to it a few times, making me enjoy the entire soundtrack even more. I guess I am atypical?