Mufasa: The Lion King (2024)

What to do after you've already remade the movie and want to bleed more money out of the IP? You make a prequel! Mufasa, the original King of the Pride Lands (and father to Simba), gets his own backstory and of course all it does is succeed in undermining the original film. We've been down this road before. It plods along like a dull roar, with original songs from Lin-Manuel to help keep the action moving. I found it a bit too sycophantic and strangely politically motivated, although it ultimately managed to win me over (but just barely).

2½ Milele out of 5

The Lion King (2019)

For some reason, they thought they'd remake the seminal classic The Lion King as a "live action" film with photorealistic animals. It's about as pointless an exercise as remaking Psycho, in my opinion. Trying to add emotion to an animal's face is foolhardy, so the bulk of the performance comes through the all-star voice cast. It's basically made for the latest generation of kids who grew up on CG movies rather than traditional cel painted animation. It gets good marks for essentially replicating the exact same plot and layout of the original (with some additional fluff), but you might as well just stick to the classics. While competently made, I have no desire to see this version again.

3 circles of the Hollywood machine out of 5

EPIC [2013]

Ice Age director Chris Wedge brings Rise Of The Guardians' creator William Joyce's The Leaf Men & The Brave Good Bugs to the screen in the dully titled Epic.
Playing like a Lord Of The Rings-esque version of Ferngully and Avatar, the film is a fast-paced, high-spirited adventure that might be entertaining at the time but ultimately proves to be quite forgettable.  It's filled with enthralling visuals, an enthusiastic score from Danny Elfman and some genuinely funny moments but unfortunately it gets bogged down by an uneven script and too many enticing possibilities it just begins to explore before it gets distracted by something else.  In short, it's perfect for a Sunday morning or a sick on the couch sort of experience.

3 legged dogs out of 5