‘A huge disappointment’: Elton John slams live-action Lion King remake

He wrote the music, but Elton John says this year’s Lion King remake was a “huge disappointment” that made one massive mistake.

Sir Elton John has sensationally slammed Disney’s big-budget live action remake of The Lion King, three months after it was released to massive box office success but mixed reviews.

While the 2019 remake of Disney’s 1994 classic raked in the cash — it’s now the top-grossing animated film of all time — critics labelled it a “disaster”, the most common complaint that much of the fun of the original film had been lost.

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It seems Sir Elton — who penned all the music for the original film — agrees.

“The new version of The Lion King was a huge disappointment to me because I believe they messed the music up. Music was so much a part of the original, and the music in the current film didn’t have the same impact. The magic and joy were lost,” Sir Elton told GQ in a typically candid new interview.

The Lion King circa 1994 …

… and circa 2019.

“The soundtrack hasn’t had nearly the same impact in the charts that it had 25 years ago when it was the best-selling album of the year. The new soundtrack fell out of the charts so quickly despite the massive box-office success,” he continued.

He’s not wrong: 1994’s The Lion King soundtrack sold 10 million copies in the US, becoming the biggest-selling soundtrack for an animated film ever. The two albums released to accompany this year’s remake — one a “companion album” to the film, curated by star Beyonce — made comparatively little impact.

Beyonce and Sir Elton John at The Lion King’s London premiere. Picture: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Disney

“I wish I’d been invited to the party more, but the creative vision for the film and its music was different this time around, and I wasn’t really welcomed or treated with the same level of respect. That makes me extremely sad. I’m so happy that the right spirit for the music lives on with The Lion King stage musical,” Sir Elton said.

In one of the kinder reviews, news.com.au’s film guru Wenlei Ma gave The Lion King remake three stars upon release, calling it “visually astonishing but emotionally flat”.

“This 2019 version trades so heavily on the nostalgia and love for the original that it’s never able to break out and be its own film,” she wrote.

“Many of the sequences, such as the I Just Can’t Wait to be King song and dance, feel dialled down by about 20 per cent to accommodate the photorealism, and it feels flat, losing that extra sparkle that made the original The Lion King shine so brightly.”