As Pretty As It Is, The New "Lion King" Leaves Little To The Imagination

Quick Q&A before we start:
Q:   Is "The Lion King" a fairy tale?
A:   No.
Q:   Then why is it on OUABlog? 
A:   Since Julie Taymor brought her culturally-aware adaptation to the Broadway stage, it's been retold using aspects of tradition, folklore and folktale.
Q:   How?
A:   The theatrical adaptation connects us to (South) African folklore, culture and storytelling, echoing traditional folktales, in a way the original film never did.
Q:   OK but isn't the subject here the new CG/live-action film, not the stage musical?
A:   Yes - and because cultural representation is a big aspect of this remake, we're doing our due diligence to make sure we don't overlook a new folktale-based connection.

So let's get into it:

When Things Get Real
The first wave of reviews are in for Disney's live-action Lion King and they are... not great. It's opening week (the film opens in regular theaters on Thursday July 18th) and the film has already made a mint, of course, but will it be the billion-dollar baby Disney is expecting? The trailer was one of THE most viewed trailers ever online, so it's clear that curiosity is high and people are very motivated to see it (aka spend their money). But the "such-good-CG-animation-it's-hard-to-tell-what's real-and-not" appears to be both its strength and its curse.

While it does look a lot like real animals (there will be generations of misinformation for National Geographic and Animal Planet to undo!) it's not quite real enough to find the sweet spot between realistic animal expressions and anthropomorphization. (Note: The Disneynature film, Born In China, is a perfect example of how careful filmmaking with live animal footage can be both emotive and unforgettable.) With just days before the general public gets to see what all the fuss is about, a lot of 'sneak peeks' have been released, trying to "hit them in the nostalgia" and entice folks toward the box office this weekend. But no matter how you frame it, the scenes look... well, lifeless. The leaked scenes look downright flat in comparison to the animated classic. What hand-drawn animation did so very well - brought a sense of humanity and impossible expressions and sentiments to wild animals, a sense that not only told an exciting story but sparked the imagination of children and adults everywhere, it would seem that this hyper-real CG approach cannot.

Disney Represents
"But that's OK", an enthusiastic group people are saying. "Look at what it has done!"

So what has it done?

Perhaps it has pushed the technical possibilities of CG animation further but not in a way audiences are really caring deeply about. (It's unlikely it will hold the same special place in young ones' hearts as Paddington 1 and 2 has managed to do.) What people are usually referring to, however, is the casting. It is a mostly black cast - African American people creating African characters - and that is wonderful to see. Even the musicians for the updated score show a much larger diversity in their number this time around. It seems most agree it's overdue and very important.

But it's not new.
Not by a long stretch - not for The Lion King.

Julie Taymor's vision for The Lion King on Broadway completely reworked the aesthetic of the animated film, and updated aspects of the story too. Instead of trying to replicate what the film did so well, it took the characters, revealed the real - and authentically cast - actors behind them and showed us who was telling the story. It was all about storytelling and the suspension of disbelief. Suddenly it didn't matter that there was a male lion in charge of the pride, because it became a human story, told through animals, just like a folktale. And boy did it resonate!

Beautifully conceived, staged, designed, acted, puppeteered and sung, and more, it was, is -over twenty years on stage and counting- live storytelling at it's best. It's outlasted all other Broadway shows and for good reasons. The experience is unlike any other - something people will often describe as "spiritual".

The first few minutes of that theatrical titan? Holy cats. Unforgettable. Giraffes, created by humans on stilts, strolling down the aisles. A rotating “gazelle wheel,” poetry in motion. An actress manipulating a wondrous rod-puppet cheetah creation, moving so that a feline licking its paw becomes a moment vividly recalled decades later. It was the stuff of dreams, and the highest sort of commercial art. 

(Michael Phillips for Chicago Tribune)

The Human Connection in The Lion King
The human heritage of ancient storytelling is echoed in the animals speaking, personalities overlaying the actors who wear animal masks almost as headpieces. As the audience watches the animals and the humans begin to blend together in their minds' eye, they become part of that storytelling.

Taymor's vision and direction for the theatrical adaptation of The Lion King retold the same story as the film, yes, but she both adapted it for the medium in which it was told (the stage) and, very importantly, updated it (see below for the story and character modifications which have made a lasting a positive impact on the story) . The result was that it's a joyful celebration of life that stands on its own, not needing the original inspiration to validate it. It is its own, unique and separate experience and it's unforgettable.

Julie Taymor on the lasting legacy of The Lion King (emphasis in bold is ours):

Julie Taymor

“The characters in the animated film are so expressive and human,” she says, citing Jeremy Irons’s voicing of Scar, Simba’s villainous uncle. “I thought, ‘I’ll create this animal’s head to show the essence of who Scar is, but let his personality come through in the actor below the mask.’”

 Taymor was also keen to increase the presence and potency of female roles in The Lion King. She expanded the role of Rafiki, the shamanistic mandrill voiced by Robert Guillaume in the movie, making it a woman’s part and “the spiritual guide to the whole show.” She also buffed and toughened up the lioness Nala: “When you talk about lions, the females do all of it, including the hunt. So I threw out a lot of the soft stuff in the film and made Nala very strong. She’s got one of the best songs in the show, ‘Shadowland,’ which is about being a refugee, a subject that’s very topical right now.”

Indeed, for Taymor, a lifelong world traveler who has always integrated aspects of different cultures into her work, “The Lion King has lasted so long because it’s socially minded, and it has a sense of spirituality that connects with people all over. Everywhere I’ve been, there’s always something in the show that becomes distinctly political there.” 

At home, race is a particularly key factor. “You have to remember that 20 years ago, black people were mostly seen on television and movies as inner-city gangstas,” says Taymor. “And here we were, bringing Africa to the stage in this positive and powerful and beautiful way.” When tapped for The Lion King, Taymor says, she “told Tom and Peter I wasn’t going to cast white people in most of these roles. … This was way before Hamilton, before Obama. Lion King has given more presence to nonwhite performers than any show — as we now know, because many of them are now performing in Hamilton and in other shows.” (Source: Julie Taymor on The Lasting Legacy of The Lion King - Broadway Direct, Nov 2017)

The result is that the experience closes the distance between story and audience and makes the common humanity of the tale much more evident.  The actors bring the story, the audience brings their imagination - together it's a magic sweet spot.

Three Versions, Three Artforms? 
When the animated Lion King debuted, it wowed audiences with its stunning visuals, heart-stirring songs, and an epically presented setting. The impossibly-human expressions of the animals stirred hearts and made people care about the story. It was a new experience (at the time) to see animals in such an epic story (though animals as main characters in Disney films were common, a story on this scale with them was not), and audiences happily journeyed with them then relived the laughs and gasps on repeat when it entered their homes. It was animation as Art, telling a story in a way no other medium could. A live-action remake that does its best to replicate the original, without changing its form to accommodate a different medium (hyper-real CGI as opposed to hand-drawn) cannot hope to approach how unique the experience of the original was at the time.

On a conceptual level, (the 'live-action') “The Lion King” betrays the power of the hand-drawn artwork that once put the wonder into Disney animation from its earliest features. Favreau’s movie fails to grapple with how the unreality of the studio’s lush 2D artwork unlocked kids’ imagination and made it so much fun to suspend disbelief; the digital wizardry denies our minds the permission they need to dream. Julie Taymor’s award-winning Broadway adaptation is so transportive because it celebrates its artifice, not in spite of it. Favreau has likened the process of making this film to restoring an architectural landmark, but at the end of the day, he’s merely gentrified it. (David Ehrlich for Indiewire - emphasis in bold is ours)

The Power Of Nostalgia vs Imagination
But perhaps that's what the hype about the 'sound' is about. If you can, in fact, see the movie in a theater equipped to playback the full range of dolby+ surround-sound, then the vocal performances and songs might reach people in a new way, otherwise, they're relying on nostalgia being the driving force behind having people connect to - and like - the movie. It's certainly what the team keep talking about in their interviews - as if they know the visuals alone are not quite to par.

Nostalgia is not to be underestimated, of course, but the new film brings nothing fresh of lasting consequence to a now-tired story - one that was told better originally and also has a thrilling live experience as an option. In contrast, repeat visits to see The Lion King on stage make for a subtly-unique experience every time. With nothing new to say, creating a new and permanent place in people's hearts for the long term is less than likely. Perhaps listening to the soundtrack with an amazing sound system, with these new and powerful voices will create a much-needed new perspective on the story - which would be wonderful (we hope it does just that) - but then why have a whole new film? As Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune wrote:

"The new “Lion King” has every reason to exist in fiscal terms. It has no reason to exist as a movie we might take with us into our futures."

What Might Have Been

Tweet posted by @joamettegil

Once you hear the rumor that Julie Taymor approached Disney to direct the live-action (but turned down) one begins to wonder just what that film might have looked like. Perhaps, instead of a hyper-realistic CG film, it might have been a VR film, based on the idea behind the stage adaptation, with perhaps some blending of live-filmed performance with hyper-real CGI to echo the animalistic ancestral spirits invited to a traditional storyteller's fire.

Perhaps it might have been truly live-action with CG animation of the animals overlaid and intertwined as part of the story-telling, like @Joamettegil on Twitter suggested. (See pic on right.)

Either of these ideas has the potential to be breathtaking. Apart from avoiding the criticisms of hyper-real versus cartoon visuals, all the problems that come with trying to be 'too real' (and giving scientists and National Geographic a headache) are completely sidestepped, because it's clear it's not a lion story but a people story; one that you - the audience - can relate to. That could have been an AMAZING thing to see/experience! Thanks to a viewers' limited autonomy in VR, a slightly different experience for each viewer and viewing, would work to make the experience even more personal. In an era in which relevancy, representation, and authentic experiences that engage the imagination and connect with the viewer are very specific challenges, such an approach would have hit all those notes, and expanded story and legacy, still further.

Sure doing something unexpected would also have been a huge risk.

It may have been just what today's audience, stuck in the tug-of-war of "play-it-again-Disney-BUT-not-too-different-and-not-too-much-the-same" really need. 

Unfortunately, now we will never know.

Disney's "live-action" The Lion King comes to US theaters on July 18, 2019.

SOURCES REFERENCED:

• The Lion King (2019) Reviews by Metacritic
• Review: ‘The Lion King’ looks so realistic it makes the music sound fake - With visuals that are at times amazing, songs like 'The Circle of Life' feel out of place by Mike LeSalle for San Francisco Chronicle
• ‘The Lion King’ review: I cannot feel the love tonight by Michael Phillips for The Chicago Tribune
• Julie Taymor On The Lasting Legacy Of The Lion King by Elysa Gardener for BroadwayDirect
• ‘The Lion King’ Review: Disney’s Remake Is a Disastrous Plunge into the Uncanny Valley by David Ehrlich for IndieWire
• Social Media using hashtags #Lionking, #LionKing2019 & #LionKing+review
• The Lion King 2019 posters and character posters all by &  © Walt Disney Pictures, via The Source (except where noted in the caption)
• Image sources used for header box: Cloud photography: Heidi Webb, Lion cub - Getty Images

YOU MAY ALSO WISH TO READ:

• Let's Fact Check the Lion King by Naturalish - fun and light article, comparing some of the aspects of The Lion King to science (biology, ecology & species distribution - cool maps for the latter!) - great to share with kids, but with regard to the elephant graveyard myth, include this info from the University of Sussex: Research Shows Elephants "Remember" the Dead
• New article published July 16, 2019, just as this article went live on OUABlog (not used for reference). This article acknowledges the stunning visuals created but also discusses how such an approach has brought a new set of unexpected problems. ‘The Lion King’ Review: Disney’s Circle of Lifelessness by Joe Morgenstern for The Wall Street Journal

Fanmade poster of the new Lion King 2019 by aliciamartin851 on deviantArt

Theater: 'Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters' (A Zimbabwe Cinderella Story) Currently On Tour

Back by popular demand, this acclaimed production by Dallas Children's Theater is touring the US until May 2017, as well as  a couple of shows back in Dallas in July. Lively, colorful and wonderfully entertaining this 'Zimbabwe Cinderella Story', originally a Caldecott winning book, (made even more popular through Reading Rainbow) and adapted for the stage a few years ago, continues to get enthusiastic reviews.

We wish we had the opportunity to go to this!

Press Release:

John Steptoe’s

MUFARO’S BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS: AN AFRICAN TALE 

Adapted for the stage by Karen Abbott Music & Lyrics by S-Ankh Rasa 

After phenomenally successful tours in the 2008-09 & 2011-12 seasons that visited well over 60 cities, Dallas Children’s Theater proudly presents its original musical adaptation of John Steptoe’s, MUFARO’S BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS ~ AN AFRICAN TALE. This gorgeous Caldecott Award winning Cinderella tale will be touring coast-to-coast throughout the United States from September 2016 through May 2017. 

A favorite among children and adults, this African story from Zimbabwe was inspired by a folktale collected by G.M. Theal, and published in 1895 in his book, “Kaffir Folktales”. Award winning children’s author/illustrator John Steptoe had always focused on the African American experience in his work, but MUFARO’S BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS required him to research African history and culture for the first time. His book was published in 1987, and was acknowledged by reviewers and critics as a breakthrough because it inspires African American children to respect their ancestral origins. Mr. Steptoe hoped that his books would help all young people to take pride in who they are.
Every culture has its rendition of the Cinderella story, but this one’s notion of “beauty” is more than skin deep. Mufaro’s pride and joy, two daughters named Nyasha and Manyara, have very different dispositions. The names of the characters are from the Shona language: Mufaro (moo- FAR-oh) means “happy man”, Nyasha (nee-AH-sha) means “mercy” and Manyara (mahn-YARah) means “ashamed”. Nyasha, the Cinderella character, is beautiful on the inside and out. 

With energy and color the story is told through clear narration, African dance, drumming and song, as well as a splash of audience participation. Playwright Karen Abbot Mufaro, a dignified and caring African villager, has two beautiful daughters. When he leaves for the hunt and the sisters are alone, Manyara is always angry, while Nyasha is positive and kind. Chenzira, a messenger, brings word that the Great King is inviting all of the “Most Worthy and Beautiful Daughters in the Land to appear before him” so that he might choose his Queen. Mufaro is very pleased that both of his daughters should be selected and agrees to accompany them at sunrise. That night, Manyara, believing herself better and prettier than her sister, sets out alone so that she can be presented to the king first. What will happen to each girl as she responds to hooting owls, enchanted trees laughing and the other strange beings she encounters along the way? 

 

DCT’s Executive Artistic Director and director of the play, Robyn Flatt reunites the same dynamic artistic team to once again bring the enchanting folktale to vibrant life. Scenic Designer Randel Wright re-imagines an abstract African terrain where sculpted spirit poles glide across the stage to transform the setting from an open space to a lush forest. Barbara Cox continues as Costume Designer adding new flare to the already colorful African garb. Combining authentic African drums and Kora (harp), S-Ankh Rasa’s compelling original score, lifts the story to exhilarating musical heights. Pulling all the artistic elements together with majesty and grace is the classic yet modern choreography by Michelle Gibson. 

Don’t miss the splendor and energy of the stunning Zimbabwe region. With traditional African song, dance and drumming, come celebrate a rich and colorful culture along with goodness, generosity and love! 

Most enjoyed by ages five through adult or grades K through six.

Here's a promotional video from the 2011 season, to give you a taste of the show. It looks wonderful!

Check HERE to get more information on which cities they're visiting and when.

Article: Alternate Fairy Tales for Grimm Fans in 'The Girl Who Married a Lion: And Other Tales from Africa'

This recommended collection of African fairy tales, published in 2004, is by the New York Times best selling author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency mystery series. The TV series adaptation is worth a look too - wonderfully shot and acted. The way the stories are presented, both in the book and on film, it's no surprise to find a collection of tales coming from the same author. Clearly one influenced the other and, although the mystery series is not an adaptation of fairy or folktales (along the lines of Once Upon A Time or NBCs Grimm) it's a wonderful study of how fairy tales, with their ability to cross genre lines often and easily, can be inspiration for other genre styles and methods of storytelling.


But we digress.

This short article by Carrie Puckette, Staff Writer for The Clarion is wonderfully succinct and an enticing introduction to this different collection of fairy tales. These ones aren't as well known as Grimm's and Perrault's but they're just as wonderful to share with families and great alternate storytelling material. We'd love to see some of these adapted for film or theater in the same way Grimm's have been.

Being such a short piece, we're sharing a large part of it.

If you like fairy tales, but you’re bored with the Brothers Grimm, you can find a new variety of fairy tales from another culture in “The Girl Who Married a Lion: And Other Tales from Africa.” 

The book is a collection of originally oral stories from Zimbabwe and Botswana as arranged by Zimbabwean author Alexander McCall Smith. 

Appropriate for all ages, this 200-page collection contains a wide range of stories, including animal stories, mystical encounters, and moral parables.
Some of the stories within include “Guinea Fowl Child,” “A Bad Way to Treat Friends,” “Sister of Bones,” “Milk Bird,” and of course, “The Girl Who Married a Lion,” and many more, depending on what type of fairy tale you like. 

You can read the rest of the short article HERE.

Thanks to NPR, you can read a preview of a few of the stories HERE.

There's also an audiobook version available to hear with a free trial HERE, which sound worth the effort, with authentic narrators and a full cast.

Fairy Tale Bonus of the Day:

An artist named Kel McDonald, created a comic version of the title story in 2013, which is worth sharing. 

Enjoy.

You can find this and many others of McDonald's comic creations HERE.

Disney's "Lion King" Next To Go To Live Action

Why are we posting about Disney's announcement of this on a fairy tale news site? Despite it's story roots being widely acknowledged as Hamlet, Disney's The Lion King was received as a fable in the general public, and one people responded to - personally and with their wallets. (Until Frozen, The Lion King held the title of biggest money spinner for the Mouse House in history.) While fable and folklore are obviously fairy tale related, there is a more compelling reason that this interests us.

Since the Broadway re-imagining by the amazing Julie Taymor, with actors and dancers playing the parts of animals as if they were coming alive from ancient stories, the folktale representation and resonances of this story got stronger. A lot of this was aided by the representation of the characters, both in their designs, the integration of puppetry and tribal designs, but also, very importantly, the live storytelling aspect that captured audiences everywhere, instilling a love of theater and story exploration in a way the Broadway hadn't seen for a long time.


While the film has always been a family favorite, it's the stage version and blending of human and animal (along with storytelling and song) that has inspired a generation to further explore story telling, folktales, folklore, fables and representation of "world peoples" in Western pop culture. While we've met many people who loved the film, for the majority it's their experience of the Broadway play that changed their world view and inspired them in different creative fields.

The clear success - even by Executive standards - of Favreau's approach to a live action re-imagining of The Jungle Book for Disney, has inspired confidence that the company can repeat, and hopefully eclipse, that success with one of it's hottest animal properties, The Lion King.

Here's the announcement:

We can officially confirm that The Walt Disney Studios and director Jon Favreau are putting a new reimagining of The Lion King on the fast track to production. The project follows the technologically groundbreaking smash hit The Jungle Book, directed by Favreau, which debuted in April and has earned $965.8 million worldwide. 

...Like Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King will include songs from the animated film. Disney and Favreau are also in development on a sequel to The Jungle Book. No release date has been announced for either film. (Source)

With the word "reimagining" (a hot word in the media right now, if you hadn't noticed) being key to this announcement, you can be sure fable, folklore and fairy tale folk will be watching how this is done, and how it's received by the public. Will they have singing animals, similar to The Jungle Book approach? Or shall we be treated to a new blending of human and animal which has more in common with the play? While the likelihood is that they will follow the successful formula of The Jungle Book, storytellers around the world should be watching too, as rumors of using a(nother) 'unique approach' to the narrative are strongly hinted as, as well.

While this fan trailer HERE does a good job of recreating key animated scenes in live action, (with generous use of the Aslan animation from Disney's production  of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), we can expect something very different.

It's a risky step, with such a unique and beloved stage play, already so different from the animated film. It's hard to imagine that a way of telling the story so very differently from the film, as was used on Broadway, will evolve. Disney has a long history of live action films and talking animals and without the use of unique media to change the delivery method from storyteller to audience (such as live puppetry that immerses the audience and involves them in the story), it's easiest to imagine this just use similar techniques to The Jungle Book, minus humans this time, and rely on the audience wanting more.

But you never know. We've been happily surprised once - thrilled even - by how this story evolved when it moved to stage and live action is a different medium to animation, so perhaps we'll be pleasantly surprised again.

ALERT: Tomorrow we'll be posting as complete a list of fairy tale and fantasy movies in the works by Disney, both in live action and animation. Although it won't be a complete list of everything in the works (eg we won't be including Wreck It Ralph II since the fairy tale/folklore tie-ins are minimal-to-none as far as we can see), it's still a pretty long list, and deserving of it's own post. (Heck - you may want to bookmark it, just so you have the list handy!)