Mufasa: The Lion King (2024)
Directed by: Barry Jenkins
Premise: A prequel to 2019’s The Lion King. Lion cub Mufasa becomes isolated from his family and grows up with Taka, the heir to a pride of lions. An invading pride of white lions chase Mufasa and Taka (voices of Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison Jr.) as they flee to a new region.
What Works: Mufasa looks great. Like its predecessor, the prequel has a live action visual style but it is technically an animated feature with these creatures and their environments mostly created digitally. The film frequently looks stunning. Its wilderness vistas are convincing and the digital creatures have a vivid visual texture. The hair of the lions looks organic and authentic. The animation is notably improved over the 2019 film especially in the expressiveness of the animals. The filmmakers find ways of allowing the creatures to emote without totally destroying the illusion of reality. Like a lot of Disney’s “live action” remakes of their animated classics, Mufasa is designed to appeal to fans of the existing films and it does that. The audiences who turned 2019’s The Lion King into a hit will probably respond to the prequel as well.
What Doesn’t: Mufasa suffers from some of the same problems as its predecessor. Both the prequel and the 2019 remake have a photorealistic style, presenting the animals like flesh and blood creatures but allowing them to talk and sing. The illusion is improved in Mufasa but it still looks silly. This realistic visual style is simply unsuited for the kind of fable-like story they are trying tell. The deficiency becomes obvious in the musical numbers which are awkward; the filmmakers imagine these creatures singing and dancing while also struggling to retain a credible animality. The music of Mufasa is competent and agreeable but there is nothing here that equals the songs of the original Lion King nor is any musical number memorable. Also like its predecessor, Mufasa never justifies its reason to exist. This film is about how Mufasa became King of the Pride Lands and it fills in the backstory between Mufasa and Taka who we all know better as Scar from the original Lion King. The prequel doesn’t add anything interesting or enhance our understanding of the existing story. Mufasa only exists because the 2019 film made a lot of money and that becomes obvious in the wraparound sequence that shoehorns in fan favorite characters Timon and Pumbaa (voice of Seth Rogan and Billy Eichner). The cutaways to these characters don’t add anything to the present story. The movie doesn’t need the wraparound and it’s just there to inflate the running time and pander to fans of the original movie.
Bottom Line: Mufasa: The Lion King is a well-crafted widget. As light entertainment, the film will probably entertain Disney fans. But Mufasa exists to fulfill a perceived market demand, not creative inspiration, and that rationale shows through the thin story.
Episode: #1030 (January 5, 2025)