Still catching up on my 2025 watchlist before my mid-year review for my next podcast episode and this one was a quick hour production so I thought I would check it out.
Look, if you are a "Lion King"(1994) fan and fanatic I don´t need to tell you what I think, you have already watched and loved this and that is great. So many people have this deep connection to this movie and also the stage show, rather it be nostalgic or culturally and the original movie is a milestone in animation cinema. But I don´t have this deep rooted connection with this movie as I saw it way later in my life as an adult. Does that mean I don´t see the Lion King as a masterpiece? Far from it, it is one of the best animated movie I have ever seen, but I just don´t have the same deep roots as many. This show therefore doesn't really speak to my nostalgia, but even for people it does I Think will find the show a bit lacking in places and even skipping over things like the sequels and prequels only mentioning them fast. This should have been a granter celebration and a holistic one in my opinion but I sadly never really gets to that. This will please fans no doubt and I would have been ecstatic over this had I been a Disney kid of the 90s.
A celebration of the music from " The Lion King" and its stage musical, 30 years after the original movie realised.
What I will admire here is some of the absolute insane performances and stage shows here. It took me a little while to get into the show and I was never really fully engaged but it had some moments that are incredible. First of all, incredible and engaging crewed is always welcome to me. The amazing stage shows are so fun to see with the many lights, things from the stage musical I had never really seen performed before with the costumes and actors acting animals. And the insane performances by Jenifer Hudson that kills "Cirkel of life". Jeremy Irions killing sinning "Be Prepared" sadly not in costume. Heather Headly with my favourite performance of the show, what a voice! And the lovable Lebo M, who kills everything he is sinning and a wonderful soul that just brings so much joy and talent.
The less good things were no doubt the lacking stage show at times. I get its more ballad focused songs that deserve the attention, but when you see so many great stage show things, you want that from all the songs. The performance of "Just can´t wait to be king" where nepotism sadly shine through and it overall hurts the celebration this trues to be. And the clear amount of people they could not have on stage due to; them not wanting to come/isn´t here anymore/are too old to perform, but some of it really hurt the show like the lack of Elton John that feels criminal and Beyonce that they even call out is not here. There is also some parts of it that seems less well planned like "Hakuna Matata" where the singers seem a bit off with the band and the insert of the new Timon from the remake movie(2019) There are things that could be better is all I am saying, and there are some aspects that feels more glossed over than the celebration it should be and it advertises itself to be. When you are missing core aspects you clearly wanted, why do the event at all? It doesn't hurt the overall experience but questions what they wanted with the show or if they just rushed it.
The in-between bits with archival footage and interviews works find but feels tagged on no doubt. Only Lebo M´s interviews really got to me. It is interesting to hear about the cultural impact of the Lion King and hear how transcended something like the stage musical has been. A show I have not seen myself, but clearly understand why it is so important and it looks and sounds amazing from this show where we see performances from dancers in animal costumes on stage and also songs from that stage musical that are so incurable and well performed here in native African tongues.
A overall enjoyable time and a lot of great performances of great music and a good stage show. Some things could be better and again, the show should embrace all of the Lion King mythos and not just pick and choose. I liked what I got here overall and it is easy to just pick up and watch or have in the background as the music is going.
