In fact, from the trailer released at the beginning, you can smell a strong film industry atmosphere. A successful script, plus mature special effects, and a delicious meal produced by a good team in a familiar assembly line mode. It is said that there should be no low artistic effect, but after reading it, it still makes people feel that something is missing and dry. And I feel that what is missing is the performance. Furthermore, there is a disconnect between visual language and content meaning.
The animated version of "The Lion King" 25 years ago continued the naturalistic style of "Bambi". There was no human intervention in the story, no human costume props, and no human-like body movements. The dialogue is all done by the expressions of the animated characters. This has also created Disney's distinctive facial features and a set of stylized performance language of winking. This always reminds me of many characters in the 86 TV series "Journey to the West". Because of wearing headgear, it is difficult to change their expressions, so I made a lot of exaggeration and artistic designs on their limbs to balance the lack of expressions. This is like a traditional stage opera performance. Because there is no close-up like a TV series, it is difficult for the audience off the stage to see the subtle changes in the actors' expressions. Therefore, the actors must work hard on their body movements and polish them carefully. Therefore, regardless of the form, the performance is to convey the content and emotion as much as possible.
In a feature film, "acting" is an important part of it. The plot of the feature film is designed, and the occurrence and promotion of the plot depend on the performance to gain credibility and identity.
Returning to the film, based on the original naturalism, expressions and possible body language have been further weakened in order to conform to the realistic painting style. The lens gives a panoramic view, it is a documentary, the lens gives a close-up, it is still a documentary, there is no effort in the whole process, and the lines are pale and the plot is blunt. The realistic style of painting even blurs the distinction between characters, such as Simba and Nana in childhood, or Nana and Sarah in adulthood. What is even worse is the musical part that the film retains. The original exaggerated anthropomorphic bridges are matched with the realistic lens expression. The audio-visual is seriously disconnected, which completely magnifies the defect of the film's language and connotation.
A "Hamlet"-style theme with a strong humanistic color, even if it is deduced by animals in a naturalistic style, the role of animals is still anthropomorphic. When this anthropomorphism is weakened to a certain extent, the transmission of the theme will inevitably encounter obstacles.
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PS: I still like some small changes in this film. For example, the song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" has changed some lyrics, adding Nana's preoccupied emotions to the song, enriching the level, combining Nana's before and after The escape and the confrontation with the hyena leader Sanqi added to the thickness of Nana's role.
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