REVIEW: ‘Lion’ — captivating tale of a young lion’s life with distracting Disneyfication
DUBAI: “Lion” is an extraordinary undertaking: a documentary filmed over four years in Kenya’s Masai Mara reserve that follows a lion named Kio from his first weeks, reared with heart-tearing devotion by his mother, Summer, to adulthood and his rise to primacy within a pride of his own.
The four-part series is exec produced by Jon Favreau (director of the photorealistic version of “The Lion King,” with which “Lion” has many parallels, some signaled a little too bluntly) and veteran BBC wildlife filmmaker Mike Gunton; soundtracked by Hans Zimmer; and narrated by British actor O.J. Lynch (who played Mufasa in the stage production of “The Lion King”).
Visually, “Lion” is flawless. The sweeping drone shots of the Masai Mara are spectacular, but it’s the incredible intimacy of the rest that really takes your breath away: you couldn’t feel any closer to these animals without physically being there.
And, of course, at its heart is a lion cub — a creature it’s surely impossible not to want to look at.
