Just five of us stayed after the film to discuss The Lion King (2019). On the positive side, we were delighted to see so many children attending. They loved every minute of the film and were really well-behaved.The technical mastery of the film was to be applauded. The scenery was beautifully rendered, if distracting from the action at times. We wondered what the future of photo-realistic computer-generated animation would hold, especially for actors’ jobs.
However, as Ben said, “What’s the point of doing it?The original Lion King was a beautiful accomplishment.”For some of us, the hyper-realistic animation was disturbing, especially in the scenes including violence.The faces of the animals didn’t convey expressions as well as conventional cartoon animation. We wanted the voice actors to have shown more emotion, sometimes even the most sentimental scenes felt flat.Although the film-makers were trying to affirm African roots, the film Black Panther had more soul and black identity.
We also discussed why so many iconic animations were being remade.It was about “using shiny new paint on a familiar brand.” Some of us had not wanted to see Tim Burton’s Dumbo for this very reason. We had such positive memories of the original film.
We looked nostalgically back at Disney’s The Incredible Journey (1963), which used real animals to tell a story. Our short films of the evening were valued and I told the story of how we came to have a personalised message from the wonderfully talented musician Benjamin Scheuer.
Our feedback team reported back on the survey they’d done that evening.100% of us loved the films and the community feel. Convenience and friendship were the second favourite reasons for coming to the community cinema.
Anne
Comments