The Lion King 4k Blu-Ray Review

November 1, 2019 at 3:18pm
By Tasha Locke

The Live action remake of The Lion King is a movie worth seeing. With its amazing visuals, star studded cast and the main songs from the original it is sure to be a movie the whole family will love. The movie is based in the African Savannah and Follows a young cub named Simba (Donald Glover).The movie opens up with "Circle of life" where the whole savannah comes together at Pride rock to celebrate the birth of Mufasas' (James Earl Jones) son and future king, Simba. While everyone is overjoyed for the new arrival there is one who isn't. Mufasa's brother, Scar (Chuwetel Ejifor) who was first in line "until the little hairball was born".

While Simba is learning things about the place he will one day rule, Scar is coming up with evil plans to do away with the young cub and his father. Simba and his friend (and future wife) Nala (Beyonce) venture to an elephant graveyard that Scar had told him about and are met by a pack of hungry Hyenas but Mufasa shows up just in time to save the day. With Mufasa angry at his son, Scar takes him on a little adventure to help the young cub work on his rawr. Scar ends up leaving Simba in a gorge and orchestrates a stampede that ends up killing Mufasa when he tried to save Simba.

With Mufasa dead, Scar makes Simba feel like he is the one to blame and tells him to "Run away, Simba. Run. Run away, and never return". The next portion of the movie introduces Timon( Billy Echner) and Pumba (Seth Rogan). They raise Simba into a strong adult. The past ends up finding its way back to Simba and he must decide whether he should keep running or go back and face his uncle Scar, who has taken over Pride Rock and destroyed the home he once loved.

This movie is full of adventure, amazing songs and even some dark moments, which I think makes the film even better. In conclusion the lion king was and still is my favourite movie. I like some of the things they added to the new film but I do prefer the original. When you make a live action remake of an animated movie it's hard to bring the facial expressions and true emotions through and I feel like it was missing in this film. I think they did an amazing job with the CGI in this movie with very few moments that you truly noticed.

The Lion King 4k Special Features

The Lion King 4k Blu-Ray comes with a number of special features. These are available to view on the traditional Blu-Ray disc as opposed to the 4k one. They include the following selections that can be viewed as a bundle or individually.

Watching the movie in 4k was a really cool experience. You could really notice all the little details throughout the movie, ones you probably missed if you saw it in theaters. All the Bonus extras for this movie are on the blue ray disc and it gives quite a few options. They include the following. "The Journey to the Lion King Documentary" - You get to see behind the scenes magic with filmakers and cast which I thought was really cool. You get to see the cast act out some of the most iconic moments from the film and also see how it all comes together.

I also liked that you get to see the way the director Jon Favreau creates some of the scenes and the new things that he's able to come up with like the script reading and cast interaction. They also included "More to be scene" - Peel back the layers of iconical musical moments and see what went into making our favourite songs. "Spirits" a music video by Beyonce is included as an extra. For children they will probably love the singalong version that you can choose and maybe even the audio commentary for the humour.

The Conclusion

The 4K Blu-ray package is worth picking up. From the amazing picture quality to the extras that are included, you don't want to miss a thing. I do wish they included the extras on the 4k disc, just so that way you don't have to switch over when you want to watch them. I watched this movie in theaters but I prefer to watch it on on the 4k blu-ray disk specially the colours and details that were missed the first time around.

The original Lion King is still one of my favourites but i think they did an amazing job introducing it to a new generation. I know my family (even my dogs) love the new one. There are a few dark moments in the film but I feel like that's what helps draw you in. The choice in cast was great with Beyonce surprising being one of my favourite additions. This film has everything you need, it'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry and of course, it'll make you SING.

The Lion King 4k Blu-Ray Review
Provided by Disney

Rating Overall: 7.0