This is the second worst movie I have watched in my many years of living only to Brazilian Football Passion, which I hope you've never heard of. I know I said the Little Panda Fighter was second to this, but things have changed since then. Unfortunately, if you are reading this, you have heard of Leo the Lion, and with that being said, there are some things you need to know. Sadly, this site's 1000-word review limit prevented me from writing all my thoughts.
The character of Leo himself is possibly the worst feature of this film in that he took the brunt of the movie's terrible script writers who clearly gave up on trying to make him a cohesive character. Leo the lion, who is set up to be a lovable but sensitive character on an emotional journey of self-identity is in fact a chemically imbalanced emotional basketcase. The purpose of his journey seems to change in his mind throughout the movie, and not in a way that conveys some "quest not the treasure" theme, but more of a "we didn't feel like looking back on what we wrote" one. He talks about finding the Heart of the Jungle, then escaping persecution for his diet, then trying to become a "real lion" (which is a direct contradiction of his original ambitions), then protecting the elephant kids. His unnecessarily dramatic speeches only further confuse the audience. Plus, his song "I'm a Vegetarian", made me want to barf due to the utterly sour rhyme scheme and recurrence of ugly facial contortions exhibited throughout the movie.
Apart from the plot holes created by Leo alone, there are many questions which may come to the minds of those attempting to watch this movie, such as, among others, 'How does an elephant cross a desert it takes other characters half the movie to cross in five minutes?', 'Why does Maximus Elefante beg for Eli Font's (very cheesy name, I might add) forgiveness and then go right back to trying to kidnap and later threatening to murder his wife and children?', and 'Was Uncle Lope just resurrected or was he really asleep?'. Also, everyone knows the first place to look for a place called "The Heart of the Jungle" is in the middle of the desert. There are also plenty of things wrong with the movie's plot that don't pertain to the characters at all, such as the fact that there's no way that a lush rainforest would just burn to the ground like that, and even worse, show no signs of having burned at the end when the wedding happens. Also, isn't it sort of impossible for a lion to live without having some source of meat? I mean, even if it were possible for that to happen, it's still not a good idea to have the line "hunting, who me? It's just not in my genes" in the song "I'm a vegetarian."
Animation, animation, animation. Where do I begin? Could it be that gross cringe those monkeys have on their faces through the entire movie? That ugly face freeze the rhinoceros gets when it looks up at Maximus Elefante? Or how about all those stiff, motionless trees and the flat, textureless ground? Indeed, the animation on this bona fide Weinstein trashterpiece is genuinely rancid and rivaling that of just about any Video Brinquedo movie I can think of. Probably the worst scene animation-wise is when they ride the rainbow into the Heart of the Jungle, making gross faces and insipid sounds that don't match their lips all the way down. The jerky camera work, looking like it could have been filmed with an actual camcorder someone dropped on the way down, only makes the animators' unprofessionalism when developing this scene more painfully obvious. Also, if you watch this film, don't say I didn't warn you about the elephant-lion hybrids.
Now, the voice acting of a movie is difficult to describe in a paragraph. The best I can try to do is give you some generic adjectives to work with. It is lifeless, emotionless, often difficult to listen to without pulling out your hair with disgust, and entirely devoid of any sufficient delivery whatsoever. I'll have to leave it at that. If you would like to experience this for yourself, get on Netflix and look this thing up. I literally dare you.
Finally, what makes the movie even more sub-par in quality is the lack of adequate music. It all sounds like easy-listening elevator music generated on a Windows laptop, if not downloaded from some free website somewhere. The instruments simply don't sound anywhere close to being in the realm of real instrumental sound. This includes the music played in Uncle Lope's "death" scene, which evokes zero emotion. Seriously, even though I straight up hated that character who literally referred to himself as 'comic relief', I bet I would have at least felt sorry for him had they played actual music in that scene.The song from the Heart of the Jungle is utterly forgettable, and "I'm a Vegetarian" is supposed to be the musical centerpiece of the movie even when Leo has clearly moved away from the 'vegetarian' theme by the end of the film.
Now, I realize I have kept you for a long time by now, but you simply need to know this stuff. I simply can't live knowing I could be putting some innocent soul through the misery I've endured. One of Weinstein's other movies, Doogal, despite having horrible reviews, holds a special place in my heart as it was the first movie I ever saw in theaters. That being said, this is terrible. I mean come on Weinstein, come on. I really thought you were better than this. This is dismal in every sense of the word. Anyway, I know which way I'm going to run if Weinstein makes "Leo the Lion 2: Maximus Returns", and I hope after reading this you do too.
The character of Leo himself is possibly the worst feature of this film in that he took the brunt of the movie's terrible script writers who clearly gave up on trying to make him a cohesive character. Leo the lion, who is set up to be a lovable but sensitive character on an emotional journey of self-identity is in fact a chemically imbalanced emotional basketcase. The purpose of his journey seems to change in his mind throughout the movie, and not in a way that conveys some "quest not the treasure" theme, but more of a "we didn't feel like looking back on what we wrote" one. He talks about finding the Heart of the Jungle, then escaping persecution for his diet, then trying to become a "real lion" (which is a direct contradiction of his original ambitions), then protecting the elephant kids. His unnecessarily dramatic speeches only further confuse the audience. Plus, his song "I'm a Vegetarian", made me want to barf due to the utterly sour rhyme scheme and recurrence of ugly facial contortions exhibited throughout the movie.
Apart from the plot holes created by Leo alone, there are many questions which may come to the minds of those attempting to watch this movie, such as, among others, 'How does an elephant cross a desert it takes other characters half the movie to cross in five minutes?', 'Why does Maximus Elefante beg for Eli Font's (very cheesy name, I might add) forgiveness and then go right back to trying to kidnap and later threatening to murder his wife and children?', and 'Was Uncle Lope just resurrected or was he really asleep?'. Also, everyone knows the first place to look for a place called "The Heart of the Jungle" is in the middle of the desert. There are also plenty of things wrong with the movie's plot that don't pertain to the characters at all, such as the fact that there's no way that a lush rainforest would just burn to the ground like that, and even worse, show no signs of having burned at the end when the wedding happens. Also, isn't it sort of impossible for a lion to live without having some source of meat? I mean, even if it were possible for that to happen, it's still not a good idea to have the line "hunting, who me? It's just not in my genes" in the song "I'm a vegetarian."
Animation, animation, animation. Where do I begin? Could it be that gross cringe those monkeys have on their faces through the entire movie? That ugly face freeze the rhinoceros gets when it looks up at Maximus Elefante? Or how about all those stiff, motionless trees and the flat, textureless ground? Indeed, the animation on this bona fide Weinstein trashterpiece is genuinely rancid and rivaling that of just about any Video Brinquedo movie I can think of. Probably the worst scene animation-wise is when they ride the rainbow into the Heart of the Jungle, making gross faces and insipid sounds that don't match their lips all the way down. The jerky camera work, looking like it could have been filmed with an actual camcorder someone dropped on the way down, only makes the animators' unprofessionalism when developing this scene more painfully obvious. Also, if you watch this film, don't say I didn't warn you about the elephant-lion hybrids.
Now, the voice acting of a movie is difficult to describe in a paragraph. The best I can try to do is give you some generic adjectives to work with. It is lifeless, emotionless, often difficult to listen to without pulling out your hair with disgust, and entirely devoid of any sufficient delivery whatsoever. I'll have to leave it at that. If you would like to experience this for yourself, get on Netflix and look this thing up. I literally dare you.
Finally, what makes the movie even more sub-par in quality is the lack of adequate music. It all sounds like easy-listening elevator music generated on a Windows laptop, if not downloaded from some free website somewhere. The instruments simply don't sound anywhere close to being in the realm of real instrumental sound. This includes the music played in Uncle Lope's "death" scene, which evokes zero emotion. Seriously, even though I straight up hated that character who literally referred to himself as 'comic relief', I bet I would have at least felt sorry for him had they played actual music in that scene.The song from the Heart of the Jungle is utterly forgettable, and "I'm a Vegetarian" is supposed to be the musical centerpiece of the movie even when Leo has clearly moved away from the 'vegetarian' theme by the end of the film.
Now, I realize I have kept you for a long time by now, but you simply need to know this stuff. I simply can't live knowing I could be putting some innocent soul through the misery I've endured. One of Weinstein's other movies, Doogal, despite having horrible reviews, holds a special place in my heart as it was the first movie I ever saw in theaters. That being said, this is terrible. I mean come on Weinstein, come on. I really thought you were better than this. This is dismal in every sense of the word. Anyway, I know which way I'm going to run if Weinstein makes "Leo the Lion 2: Maximus Returns", and I hope after reading this you do too.