The original Lion King to this day is still one of Disney’s best-received animated masterpieces and achieved many accolades in common with its Disney Renaissance brethren. Winning two Oscars for Best Original Song and Original Score the movie did well in the 1995 award season and remains popular so many years later holding a Rotten Tomatoes score of 93%. It is no doubt that the latest addition to the chain of remakes will be successful as the majority have, barring the notable exceptions of Pete’s Dragon and Alice Through the Looking Glass. The question that lingers is how the new “live-action” completely CGI remake can improve upon the original classic. Following the model of the successful remakes of Disney classics which have been produced in the last eight years, there are a few areas where the film will find success over its predecessor.

The first area where the film will likely be more successful is the box office totals. While box office numbers do not make for a good movie it drives Hollywood and leads to trends, shocking I know. When the original Lion King released, 1994, the landscape of the film industry was entirely different. The original Lion King was Disney’s highest grossing animated film at the time, having since been passed by Frozen and Zootopia, pulling in $968.5 million. Though international box office numbers accounted for more revenue than domestic, it was an anomaly for the early-mid 90s. Granted the domestic percentage of the box office was already on the decline at this point with an increasing share of international markets, but North America still accounted for the majority of revenue. Fast-forward to today and the roles have been reversed and international markets are the leading source of box office numbers. With the emergence of films into China and Saudi Arabia, the 2019 version is likely to break the original’s gross reaching one billion in the process.

Another area where the reboot can find success is the improvement in the graphics category. This is by no means a disparaging comment on the original as the 2D animation was groundbreaking for its time being led by the art director Andy Gaskill. What the photorealism of the CGI provides is more of an immersion into the world of the movie if the viewer is able to suspend disbelief. This was already shown to be successful when Disney produced The Jungle Book in the same concept they are producing The Lion King in. Winning an Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects the Jungle Book provided a full immersion into the world of Mowgli.

There is no doubt the remake of The Lion King will be successful as the reputation of its predecessor is carrying it. Disney executives are living the “Hakuna Matata” life with no worries as this film is another cash cow playing to the present nostalgic media landscape. This film will be very similar to the Jungle Book remake but hopefully with a better reception as Jon Favreau’s remake of a Disney legend is only slightly above average.

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