The Lion King (Jon Favreau-directed 'live action' remake, 2019)

*"The Aristocrats!" tone of voice* "The Lion King!"

"The Aristocrats!" also would have worked at the end of Midsommer.

They're deepfake-action remaking The Aristocats now too?

Yep! And Mulan!

And Little Mermaid!

They talk, yes, which makes them likely to set up a fascistic dictatorship (the dictator dictates, i.e. speaks) but the fact that these are animals is not irrelevant to the tale.

well it cuts both ways right cuz its preshishely becaushh they are animals that the natural order of predation can be so explicitly defended (just as human fascism must wrap itself in darwinian rhetoric). and since they not only talk but all talk the same language-- and since, ed aside, they are all fully sapient (made with such large discourse, looking before and after)-- it is hard for me to read the movie as glimpse into alien landscape. intrigued tho

in fairness the hyenas are shunned due to their overconsumption - which when allowed to continue unchecked under scar destroys the ecosystem - and thus are not really analogous to subaltern populations in our world - who consume much less than the rich and powerful

counterpoint: that characteristic slots neatly into caricatures of "welfare queens", "lazy" black people etc.

or Jews as rapacious parasites etc

Oh right, Jon Favreau directed it!

xp

well it cuts both ways right cuz its preshishely becaushh they are animals that the natural order of predation can be so explicitly defended (just as human fascism must wrap itself in darwinian rhetoric). and since they not only talk but all talk the same language-- and since, ed aside, they are all fully sapient (made with such large discourse, looking before and after)-- it is hard for me to read the movie as glimpse into alien landscape. intrigued tho

It does cut both ways, no question about it, but speaking on behalf of kid pomenitul, exposure to fable-like narratives was primarily a means of encountering an otherness and strangeness beyond human ken rather than a mere mirror of adult mores. Denying their pedagogical, domesticating function would be silly, but allegories are always more (or less) than just allegories: there is an inevitable opaqueness to them that thwarts authorial and hence moral intent. Utterly transparent allegories (or symbols, for that matter) are a pipe dream and child me was mostly glad to catch a glimpse of the animal 'kingdom', irrespective of its presumed social/hierarchical structures, which I found less interesting than the individual characters on display, as well as the art and voice acting that brings them to life.

oh for sure, to be clear i watched this movie on vhs more or less daily 1995-1996 and had a crush on nala

Review: 'The Lion King' looks so realistic it makes the music sound fake | Datebook https://t.co/kJeLySJEcB

— Mick LaSalle (@MickLaSalle) July 17, 2019

Which just goes to prove ...

Lion King reviews are camp.

— Kyle Stevens (@cinementalist) July 11, 2019

watching this on TV now, how on earth did they manage to fuck it up this badly? every character looks like it's been killed, stuffed and had its lips animated with the wombo app

i saw two seconds of it, channel-hopping, and it looks even stupider than i imagined

their rules are baffling - their realism accepts lions talking and singing and believing in the divine right of kings but not dancing or emoting or being gay (disney won't rest until they've reimagined all their great villains as straight)