However, it instead shatters when Zoya tells him her true feelings. With Zoya back in Benaras, Kundan's world was filled with excitement as he was thinking of finally telling her how he felt. He carries his feelings all through college and his heart flippes when Zoya came back to his town. Love, they say, is a feeling that only grows stronger with time and Kundan's love for Zoya never diminished. Time passed by and Zoya moved to Delhi to study further. She doesn't take him seriously and brushes him off. She was like a breath of fresh air to him who he would follow every day to the bazaar and back to her house till one day, he mustered the courage to speak to her and tell her his true feelings - his 13 year old heart, smitten by her simplicity. Quiet and beautiful with mischievous eyes, Zoya was the girl of his dreams. Benaras holds a special place in Kundan's heart, because not only did he grow up as a typical, god fearing, shiv bhakt-Pandit but also because it was the city that gave him Zoya.
But at the end of the day, if I ever want to see The Lion King again, I'm going to watch the original.First love in anyone's life holds a special place especially if the memory is filled with the vibrant musings of the city that you grew up in. I ultimately give it a moderately positive review because…damnit it's still The Lion King, and yeah there were enough things it did right. It's these narrative moments that make the film work. Yes the visuals are nice, but the animals don't show the personality like they did in the animation because Lions can't cry/smile/laugh in real life so what were left with is a really pretty Disney Nature CGI-fest. It's expansions like this where the film does its own thing where it really shines. I also liked how their home is inhabited by other animals and it shows how Simba became part of that community in his exile. They even have a new philosophy and debate on Hakuna Matata versus Circle of Life that's actually genuinely interesting.
They were allowed to improvise and give their own spin with new lines and humor. They're essentially the same sort of characters, but Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen bring their own personality to them. A lots been made of Timon and Pumbaa in this movie, and rightfully so, they're one of the few things that is expanded and made to live on their own. However, when it's doing it's own thing, it actually kinda' works. It was different artists with different visions. It lives under the shadow of the original often doing things because "the original did it" without really seeming to have an understanding of why that worked in the original. That's this films biggest flaw, and it really did bother me. Look I'm not saying it needs to be a shot for shot remake, but if you are going to go through the effort of doing the exact same scenes, either do them better, or do them at least as good, don't just rush through them to check off a box. Here, he just kinda looks at it, sniffles a bit, and the scene moves on. I remember in the original there was time dwelling on Simba looking at the body and begging for Mufasa to get up. Most notably, Mufasa's death scene (spoiler's I guess) feels weirdly rushed. The weird thing is despite being longer a lot of times it feels like it's rushing through the beats of the original. Really, there is a lot to admire about the movie, but still it can't escape the shadow of the original.