The Lion King (2019) poster
2019 · adventure · drama · family · animation

The Lion King

Directed by Jon Favreau1h 58m2019
ElsewhereIMDb6.8290kRT52%Metacritic55
  • cosy
  • brisk
  • gentle
  • redemptive
  • tender
Movie DNA

Cosy, kinetic, gentle adventure / drama, inventive in texture. Redemptive, mid-stakes, tender, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

Simba idolizes his father, King Mufasa, and takes to heart his own royal destiny. But not everyone in the kingdom celebrates the new cub's arrival. Scar, Mufasa's brother—and former heir to the throne—has plans of his own. The battle for Pride Rock is ravaged with betrayal, tragedy and drama, ultimately resulting in Simba's exile. With help from a curious pair of newfound friends, Simba will have to figure out how to grow up and take back what is rightfully his.

Our read · The Lion King (2019) reads as a cosy, kinetic, inventive adventure · drama · family entry — gentle in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, tender in temperature, redemptive in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of The Lion King

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want photoreal safari spectacle with the classic coming-of-age songs.

ends triumphantyou’ll be fine aftersteady all the waygrips by minute 10attention 2/5earns its length
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upanimal harm

Skip it tonightUncanny CGI animals feel cold compared to the animated original you love.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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