Comment on “The Lion King” review: Disney’s CGI remake finds only fleeting beauty

Rating: 2 stars, 118 minutes In Disney’s latest remake of a film that has already earned it loads of money, wild animals mingle under brilliant African skies, attacking and cuddling and goading one another into familiar, still-resonant corners for the sake of entertainment and allegory. We’ve seen this before — and not just in the 1994 animated feature on which this new “Lion King” is based. Using photorealistic, computer-generated imagery, the new “Lion King” takes technical cues from recent “Jungle Book” adaptations, the rebooted “Planet of the Apes” trilogy, and even Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy in portraying imaginary creatures in stunning, often disorienting detail. It’s a fully CGI film that’s meant to look as graceful and organic as the “Planet Earth” miniseries, all taking place in director Jon Favreau’s (“Elf,” “Iron Man”) 360-degree virtual world.