When Disney made the surprise announcement thatBeyoncé’sBlack Is Kingwould be coming to Disney+, the company’s highly touted direct-to-consumer platform, it was described as a “visual album,” essentially serving as a lavish accompaniment toThe Gift, her tie-in album to last year’sLion Kingremake. But that is sellingBlack Is Kingshort. It’s much more than a mere “visual album” (her first since 2016’s masterfulLemonade) and is certainly more than an elaborate tie-in to an album that didn’t exactly make waves. The feature-lengthBlack Is Kingis, instead, an oversized celebration of Blackness and the ultimate statement and expression of Beyoncé as an artist. It also feels like the new version ofThe Lion Kingthat modern audiences really deserved.
As far as a narrative throughline goes, it follows similar beats fromThe Lion King(the last image is a young king being hoisted into the air, even), with a young ruler growing up in Africa and facing adversity. Beyoncé and her small army of co-directors double down on the biblical imagery and allusions of the animated film (and, to a lesser extent,Jon Favreau’s computer animated redo); the opening of the movie features footage of a basket (the kind little baby Moses was tucked into) as itwhooshesdown an African river. From there,Black Is Kingis presented as a series of kaleidoscopic, deeply mesmerizing musical numbers featuring Beyoncé and a host of her key collaborators (and an array of very special guests).
Black Is Kingis a fascinating, sometimes overwhelming mélange – of beautiful, breathtaking images, astounding musical numbers, poetic spoken-word interludes, and snippets of dialogue from the newLion King(it is admittedly jarring to hearBilly Eichner, channeling a talking meerkat in the middle of all of this). It is a staggering accomplishment, one in which all forms of Blackness form its joyous, multifaceted centerpiece. Beyoncé has been cultivating and expanding her artistic reach in recent years, from her stage shows to behind-the-scenes documentaries and her pioneering “visual albums.” AndBlack is Kingfeels like an artist working at the height of her powers, doubling down on things that she knows work very well (intricately staged tableaus, slow motion, beautiful people posing) while also pushing herself into some uncomfortable, but absolutely necessary, territory – the sheer range of Black experiences and faces is absolutely staggering and her visual palette has grown to include African patterns, iconography, and a fair amount of odes to the continent’s diverse wildlife (lions obviously included).
It’s also important to note how Beyoncé is. (Think about her walking down the street with the baseball bat, exacting her revenge.) That sense of humor has made its way toBlack is King. Yes, it is profound and profoundly important. But it’s never humorless or self-serious. There’s a moment, in maybe the most raise-the-roof sequence (set to “Mood 4 Eva”) that features Beyoncé andJay-Zsitting in front of the TV, frozen dinners unwrapped in front of them, everything in the room screaming excessive opulence. This is the same sequence that features the movie’s lone white face – a butler who brushes the young king’s teeth.Excellent.
Among the collaborators Beyoncé recruited for the project and who appear onscreen include African artistsYemi Alade,Lord Afrixana, andShatta Wale, whose appearances alongsideNaomi Campbell,Lupita Nyong’o,Kelly Rowland(late of Beyoncé’s old bandDestiny’s Child) and, of course,Blue Ivy(who nearly steals the entire movie with her multiple appearances) and Beyoncé’s momTina Knowles, don’t feel out of place or inappropriate. (Notably missing:Kendrick Lamar, who has a star verse on the album standout “Nile.”) The type of performers and faces that appear on screen, from Black albinos to dark-skinned Indians, from movie stars to family members, contribute to the melting pot eccentricity of the project and its unifying theme of Blackness being something that transcends everything else. While Beyoncé has clearly been working on this project for a very long time, given recent events, this sentiment is made even more essential.
At some point duringBlack Is King, it becomes very apparent that this, and not Favreau’s overstuffed, slavishly devoted remake, is what the newLion Kingshould have been.Julie Taymor’s Broadway production ofThe Lion Kingtook the essence of the animated film’s story and expanded and elaborated on it, incorporating more African sounds and culturally specific iconography, to create something wholly new and utterly electrifying. It was shocking and wholly unique; identifiablyLion Kingbut modernized and made more complex and specific (and therefore more universal).Black is Kingdoes the same thing, to an even more essential degree. The official Disney+ description of the project states that the superstar “reimagines the lessons ofThe Lion Kingfor today’s young kings and queens in search of their own crowns.” And while that synopsis is kind of hokey, it’s also true – throughout, Beyoncé refers to kings and queens not as specific royalty, but as any young Black person trying to make it through this cruel and ugly world. It’s an incredible sentiment and would have been a timely update of the classicLion Kingthemes. Unfortunately, they went with the eerily realistic warthog route.
The fact thatBlack Is Kingis debuting on Disney+ at all feels especially brave. It’s debuting more than a year after Favreau’sThe Lion King, so the synergistic demands aren’t as pressing (although, of course, an expanded version ofThe Giftdrops today and includes the movie’s closing credits banger “Black Parade”). And, more pressingly, this is a platform that, historically, has shied away from anything even remotely controversial. They coveredDaryl Hannah’s bare butt inSplashusing the same digital fur technology that was used onCatsand kickedLove, Victorto Hulu because they deemed its cuddly queerness too racy. But here they are, debuting a 90-minute ode to Blackness, during a time of fiery racial debate. This is a movie with bold African imagery, including some near-nudity (gasp!) and moments that, I’m sure, madesomebodyuncomfortable. Sure,Black is Kingis the passion project of the biggest pop star in the world and ties into one of the company’s most beloved properties. But it’s also a bold, boundary-pushing, occasionally cosmic ride through the continent (one review rightfully described it asTree of LifemeetsBlack Panther). It’s embracing and accepting and empathetic. And that could alienate those withnarrowerviews of what Disney+ should be. Instead,Black Is Kingrebuffs the squarish notions of Disney+. Instead, it shows us what the platformcould be. And that is pretty powerful.
