It's official, there's gonna be a tlk remake.

[TheLionPrince]

I'm not the biggest fan of Beyoncé, and I do like a couple of her songs. However, I, too, was never really comfortable with her being cast as adult Nala. My reasons for that go back to her voice acting in Epic. For a fairy tale world, her voice as Queen Tara sounded urban and a little flat that it nearly took me out of the movie. I heard her talking, but not the character. It's different than Whoopi Goldberg's acting as Shenzi in the original Lion King where her urban sass is her character. It takes a good director to keep her in check so I'll hold off any premature criticism I have for me.

[quote="Elton John"]plus

(unpopular opinion time)

it’s not like moira kelly was that great of an actress in the original. probably the weakest link in the cast. at least beyonce can sing unlike moira.[/quote]

Why do you have to criticize Moira Kelly for not being a good singer? There were only four lines of singing for adult Nala in the original film. It hardly mattered. Pretty much her job was selling to the audience that the Pride Lands were in trouble and she needed Simba's job, and she did it quite well.

[Captain Cupcake]

He wasn't criticizing her singing skills. He meant that, due to her not being a singer, she had to have someone else do the singing voice. Depending on the similarity of the person filling in for the original actor/actress, it can result in a small or big disconnect in most instances. This usually doesn't hurt a film in a severe way (and, when it comes to TLK, Nala sang so little that it's barely noticeable), but it's preferable if the person behind the character can both act AND sing for their part. Being a professional singer, Beyoncé has an edge where she doesn't need to be replaced by anyone, so at the very least, that kind of disconnect can be avoided, especially if she's involved in more songs that weren't in the original.

[Elton John]

I never said moira kelly was bad. just that she wasn’t that great. She was just the weakest link in what is probably my favorite movie cast. but not bad. just not excellence either.

I have never seen Epic, but it’s possible that the direction she was given was junk. even the best actors can have lousy performances for a multitude of reasons.

That being said I have no clue just how well beyonce will perform in the remake.

*captain cupcake nailed it.

[TheLionPrince]

[quote="Elton John"]I never said moira kelly was bad. just that she wasn’t that great. She was just the weakest link in what is probably my favorite movie cast. but not bad. just not excellence either.

I have never seen Epic, but it’s possible that the direction she was given was junk. even the best actors can have lousy performances for a multitude of reasons.

That being said I have no clue just how well beyonce will perform in the remake.

*captain cupcake nailed it.[/quote]

I never meant to imply that you said Moira's performance was bad, but I thought you were making an unnecessary dig at her singing when it hardly mattered. That argument in which "Singer A can sing unlike Singer B" I often see is commonly used to criticize singing talent. So, context is everything so for that, I apologize if I misunderstood what you were trying to get at.

As for the Epic statement, I specifically stated she needed good direction.

[Elton John]

i wasn’t taking a dig at her singing. even broderick and jtt needed replacement singers.

i’m just saying i’m glad they went with someone who can sing.

I know this is unrelated but they got emma watson to ‘sing’ in the beauty and the beast remake. Lets just say, she was no paige ohara. For Mrs Watson, she’s not a bad actress but her singing was dreadful. I will gladly take digs at emma watson and her lack of singing talent! but not moira kelly.

[Panpardus]

Insofar as being an actual voice actor, I can see where people would be concerned about Beyoncé not necessarily acting, but just talking like herself; it's a valid criticism and hence why she's not my top pick for the role, since I haven't necessarily seen her in anything where she isn't just "being herself" in a role. (Although I have heard good things about her performance in Dreamgirls, and I personally don't think she was bad in what I saw of Epic, though that movie bored me to the point where I was only half-paying attention.) That's not to say that she can't/doesn't go through the proper emotions, but when she talks it's not necessarily always in-character.

When it comes to Nala's actual portrayal attitude-wise, I can see why Favreau was gunning for Beyoncé; when you think about it, outside of being a love interest (which itself was arguably somewhat tacked on in its execution), adult Nala really just exists in the film as someone (living) to kick Simba in the butt and tell him to get off his haunches and go help his pride, and personally the original version didn't/doesn't quite sell that for me. It's not at all a badly performed scene, but to me when I listen back on their argument, Moira doesn't quite sound as pissed as her animation and dialogue implies. Desperate, pleading, and obviously upset, yes, but not quite as pissed as I'd think she'd sound. Given that the new film version is likely to go Broadway in giving us more exposure to Nala and the pride's experience under Scar's rule and use that as a springboard into why she ultimately left the Pride Lands, her argument with Simba should certainly have more oomph than the cartoon iteration. She's grown up under a despotic king, surrounded by enemies in an environment that slowly became something of a hell-scape, presumably with no friends (Scar killed them off if you want to cite scrapped or fanfic ideas); you'd expect to naturally come out of that somewhat hardened or with more of an edge, and in turn possibly seem less forgiving of Simba's seeming lack of motivation to return and help his family. To that end, I can imagine Favreau at least seeing some elements of that in Beyoncé's natural personality, and I'm willing to trust that he's prepared to (and can) direct her accordingly.

To make a slightly greater point, something I've noticed among many more outraged Beyoncé detractors on this project is actually the same thing I've noticed in criticisms/complaints about Gabrielle Union's portrayal and even some stage versions of Nala, and that is that they feel that Nala isn't portrayed as "sweet and petite" as the original. Now, this doesn't really apply to anything I've seen here, but these comments are certainly in the vein of this general stigma surrounding black women that they are "too forward" or "aggressive" and not "gentle enough", even if the statement is based on little more than vocal quality. (All of these are phrases I've seen used in comment sections of Facebook and other social media posts.) I found it especially telling when I came across an article last week regarding Union's new autobiography; in the interview about the book, she mentions her Lion Guard gig and briefly mentions that she was occasionally told by the producers that she was delivering her lines in a manner that to them was "too angry". The interview doesn't go too much further into the details - I assume she elaborates on it a little bit more in the book - or say what the lines were in question, but I can't help but think it plays somewhat into this general backlash against black actresses in acting/speaking roles (particularly when they're relatively deeper-voiced) and particularly when it's someone like Beyoncé, who in a lot of ways is many peoples' embodiment of everything they don't like/fear about black women, and then amplified x10 because of her stardom, especially after her Superbowl "Formation" performance last year. (Perfectly typified in the Saturday Night Live skit, "The Day Beyoncé Turned Black": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ociMBfkDG1w) Again, not saying it's anything that exists here, but I know it's a sentiment that exists "out in the world" and I'm sure it's part of why many people aren't fans of Nala's new voice.

(There are also people negatively freaking out about the racial makeup of the cast and using Beyoncé as the emblem for why it's bad.)

[TheLionPrince]

[quote="Elton John"]i wasn’t taking a dig at her singing. even broderick and jtt needed replacement singers.

i’m just saying i’m glad they went with someone who can sing.

I know this is unrelated but they got emma watson to ‘sing’ in the beauty and the beast remake. Lets just say, she was no paige ohara. For Mrs Watson, she’s not a bad actress but her singing was dreadful. I will gladly take digs at emma watson and her lack of singing talent! but not moira kelly.[/quote]

I know that now, but when I made my first response to you, I didn't.

[quote="Panpardus"]
(There are also people negatively freaking out about the racial makeup of the cast and using Beyoncé as the emblem for why it's bad.)[/quote]

Yeah, I saw people complaining the almost all-black cast on Reddit.

[gothprincesskiara]

I know nothing about Beyoncé, but after hearing a sample of her voice, I think she would make a great sounding, and I think she has that wonderful African element accent in her voice.

[Panpardus]

In amusing side news, another [unintentionally] comedic group has thrown their hat into the ring to play the hyenas (even though the roles have already been casted): Migos. https://hypebeast.com/2017/11/migos-hye ... ebook_post

Obviously this isn't going to happen, but a lot of people are apparently unaware that the hyenas already have [better] voice actors including the writers of the article I linked... That said, I can kind of see Migos as being Janja, Cheezi, and Chungu if there ever were to be a "live action" sequel featuring those characters.

[TheLionPrince]

Speaking of actors and actresses that didn't make the cut, Saturday Night Live featured this work of beauty last night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69gqiLLCHak