History YMMV / TheLionKing2019

* CompleteMonster: [[Characters/TheLionKingScar Scar]] is a wrathful and bitter lion [[AmbitionIsEvil driven by an insatiable desire for power]]. [[DrivenByEnvy Envious]] of his brother Mufasa's position as king, Scar attempts to have Mufasa's son [[Characters/TheLionKingSimba Simba]]--[[EvilUncle Scar's own nephew]]--[[WouldHurtAChild killed]] by tricking him into entering the domain of the vicious hyena clan. When this fails, Scar allies with the hyenas and orchestrates a wildebeest stampede, killing Mufasa and blaming Simba for the tragedy, exiling him before sending the hyenas to finish him off. Taking over as king, [[TheCaligula Scar]] reduces the Pridelands to a barren wasteland by killing everything with no restrictions in addition to starving the lionesses when Sarabi, Mufasa's widow, refuses to become his mate. When Simba returns, Scar attempts to kill him personally, stopping only to tauntingly reveal his role in Mufasa's death. When his crimes are exposed, Scar orders the hyenas to kill everyone in sight, and when Simba has him at his mercy, attempts to blame them for his crimes.

** While Beyonce's musical contributions to the film have been praised, her actual performance as Nala [[DullSurprise has not been so warmly received]]. Her delivery is stilted and lifeless, making Nala's more serious moments feel boring and almost comical as a result. There are also those who find her singing in "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" (which comes complete with randomly modulating/wavering certain notes instead of just holding the note or singing the line like a normal person) to come across less like an expression of true love and more like a singer mugging for an Oscar (as is equally the case in "Spirit," except that song doesn't have dozens of previously-recorded performances by other singers to which it can be compared).

* ItsShortSoItSucks: Several scenes get chopped down to only follow the basic beats of the original but lose a lot of what made them stand out in the first place.

** Naturally, since it's a remake of one of [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 the most beloved animated movies of all time]], there's a BrokenBase between fans of the original and the remake. Plenty of diehard fans of the original have shown hostility against the very idea of a photorealistic remake, thinking that refusing to let the characters emote [[{{Narm}} kills any attempt at drama]] and argue that even beyond that, the characters and plot are said to feel like cheap imitations, rather than being new interpretations. And while most of the debate is one-sided, since many fans of the remake only watched it for nostalgia's sake, there ''are'' some who argue that the remake is superior to the original, since "photorealism is better than traditional animation since any work being animated [[AnimationAgeGhetto immediately makes it childish]]".

* CriticalDissonance: As with ''Film/Aladdin2019'', the film has earned a rotten score from critics at Rotten Tomatoes but earned better reviews from many audiences and fans alike. Specifically, it has a 52% on the critic's score and an 89% from audiences who were confirmed to have purchased a ticket. Since then, however, mass opinion among critics and audiences alike of the movie is negative.

* CriticalDissonance: As with ''Film/Aladdin2019'', the film has earned a rotten score from critics at Rotten Tomatoes but earned better reviews from many audiences and fans alike. Specifically, it has a 52% on the critic's score and an 89% from audiences who were confirmed to have purchased a ticket. Since then, however, neither many critics nor audiences seem to think very highly of the movie.

** Rafiki's introduction when he plays with Simba a little while baptizing him for the presentation is cut down to simply giving him a warm look and proceeding with preparing him, making the whole thing come off as Rafiki just going through the motions instead of doing something for his dear friend Mufasa.

** The adherence to realism results in many shots where a character who isn't speaking has their mouth open like a real animal. The problem is that these are supposed to be sentient characters with human personalities, so it looks like Mufasa, the wise king, is walking with his mouth hanging ajar; or Scar loses his menace while stalking towards the camera since his mouth is agape.
** Just before the final showdown at Pride Rock, Rafiki is shown taking out his walking stick from the original film which he subsequently uses to fight the hyenas. The film treats this as a major fanservice moment with a slow buildup and swelling heroic music - director Creator/JonFavreau has even compared the scene to Rafiki taking out [[Franchise/StarWars a lightsaber]] - but the fact that they're apparently expecting audiences to cheer [[MundaneObjectAmazement for a stick]] makes the scene feel almost like a parody.

* SoOkayItsAverage: Reviews cite it's a technical marvel in photo-realistic animation, and cite certain characters such as Zazu, Kamari and Azizi (Banzai and Ed in the original), and especially Timon and Pumbaa to still be a delight even with new voice actors and in CGI. But that's essentially ''all'' it has going for it. The story is shot for shot, word for word that of the 1994 original, and despite the extra runtime, doesn't change a lot -- in some cases even shortening certain segments such as "Be Prepared" -- and general consensus is, you're not missing much if you want to skip this movie aside from the different medium, making it something of a DancingBear.
* SpecialEffectsFailure: The audio mixing is exceptionally poor for such a high-budget film. Standout examples include the microphone peaking in several scenes (most noticeably during [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btNL1q-yU7E&t=1926s "The Circle of Life"]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btNL1q-yU7E&t=4515 "I Just Can't Wait To Be King"]]), notes being [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btNL1q-yU7E&t=1945s digitally extended]] and sounding fake as a result rather than just having the singer do another take, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIsuPdmqBUw 25 year old audio being reused]] in certain scenes despite [[Creator/JamesEarlJones the actor]] sounding ''jarringly'' different, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btNL1q-yU7E&t=4754s pitch-correcting notes to the wrong key]]. The last was noticeable enough that every audio track for the film other than the original changed it.

* CriticalDissonance: As with ''Film/Aladdin2019'', the film has earned a rotten score from critics at Rotten Tomatoes but earned better reviews from many audiences and fans alike. Specifically, it has a 52% on the critic's score and an 89% from audiences who were confirmed to have purchased a ticket. Since then, however, it's pretty much an agreement between both critics and audiences that the movie is far from good.

* MisaimedMarketing: The 2019 Academy Awards teaser is titled “Long Live the King” and uses the phrase in it. While the phrase is not original to the 1994 film, its use there as a PreMortemOneLiner for one of the most iconic deaths in cinema, only to reappear here in a high-profile teaser for the film, comes off as more than a little odd.

* AnimationAgeGhetto: Despite the film being animated, albeit photorealisticaly, Disney refuses to call it an animated film and repeatedly markets it as if it were live-action, to the point where they submitted it as a live-action film at the Oscars (it did land a nomination for Best Visual Effects... though most awards competitions put it in the animated category instead). Many viewers questioned if this was because Disney did not believe that audiences take the film as seriously if it's seen as a "cartoon" instead of a "real" film, despite the original being exactly that. This is even more egregious when you remember the Disney company was ''founded'' on the [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs ambition of taking animation to a new cinematic level]], which the film is also doing with the photorealism technically.