Review of the animated movie «Mufasa: The Lion King»

From December 19th, cinemas started showing the animated adventure film «Mufasa: The Lion King», which is a prequel to the remake of the classic Disney animation «The Lion King» (1994). Reviews by film critics turned out to be fairly reserved, and in the review below, we discuss whether to trust the «high-brow aesthetes» this time.

«Mufasa: The Lion King»

Genre animation, musical, drama, adventure, family
Director Barry Jenkins
Voice Cast Aaron Pierre, Tiffany Boone, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, John Kani, Blue Ivy Carter
Premiere cinemas
Release Year 2024
Website IMDb, official site

Long before Simba’s infamous struggles, the fiery Hakuna Matata, and the drooling hyenas with cross-eyed looks, little lion cub Mufasa finds himself in a flood, which sweeps him by a strong current to foreign lands. There he meets another carefree youngster, Taka, who is the son of the local ruler Obasi. The latter is frankly not keen on welcoming some stray into his pride, but Queen Eshe convinces the proud lion to keep the cub.

Time passes, Mufasa and Taka grow up and become true brothers, and it seems nothing can shake their rock-solid bond. However, when a deadly threat from a rival pack of white lions looms over the pride, the young guys run away to save themselves. On their way to the fabled mythical lands, they meet lioness Sarabi, bird Zazu, and mandrill Rafiki, who likes to philosophize Yoda-style. This diverse and unlikely group embarks on an exciting adventure, but the white lions, led by the hateful Kiros, are hot on their heels.Surely, the 30+ audience doesn’t need to be reminded of how cool the original «The Lion King» from ’94 was. And in today’s era of a catastrophic shortage of original ideas, the soulless capitalist machine known as Disney is not shy about appealing to our very human feelings. Namely — playing on the pleasant nostalgia that surely everyone who admired Mufasa’s bravery, mourned Scar’s villainy, and enjoyed Timon and Pumbaa’s foolishness in their youth will feel.

Thoughts on modern reinterpretations of classic Disney tales like «The Little Mermaid» or the upcoming «Snow White» will be saved for other articles. But for now, let’s remember that the latest chapter of «The Lion King» saga began in 2019. When the studio, under the sensitive direction of Jon Favreau, released what seemed to be a frame-by-frame remake of the original, offering a colorful and expensive CGI spectacle and basically nothing more.The justification for creating a high-tech clone can be debated for a long time, but the audience has spoken, and with a budget of about $260 million, the film grossed $1.657 billion, becoming the second highest-grossing film of 2019, just behind «Avengers: Endgame». So it’s no surprise that today we again have new adventures in the African savannah — it was just a matter of time.

It’s simply less thrilling and dramatic, less funny; it lacks the uplift that «The Lion King» possessed, and the musical numbers here are noticeably weaker. At the same time, achieving the refreshing effect that the remake had is not possible today — we’ve already seen luxurious photorealistic lions in close-up in 2019.Mufasa himself is a tragic character and inherently has great potential for expanding the arc, as he didn’t get much screen time in the original. However, after watching, I couldn’t help but think that a more interesting backstory could have been invented for him, delivering something more original than a mix resembling «Ice Age» (even the snow in the frame aptly emphasizes the redundancy of the concept). And making the antagonism with Scar more fundamental wouldn’t hurt, not to mention that the motives for the latter’s turn to the dark side are painfully prosaic.

Also worth noting is that «Mufasa» is dedicated to the legendary James Earl Jones, who previously voiced the titular character (in the new project, this role was taken on by Aaron Pierre, whom you might have seen in the relatively recent crime thriller «Rebel Ridge»). Jones is also known for lending his voice to Darth Vader. On September 9th, he passed away at the age of 93.But let’s return to the new release. Despite numerous flaws, «Mufasa» is still worth recommending as a decent option for family entertainment. It’s still a vivid, somewhat exciting spectacle, which tries with mixed success to navigate between noisy modern animation for the younger generation and nostalgic context — for the older.

While the older skeptically grumble that the grass in the savannah used to be much greener, the younger are already glued to the screens. And there, perhaps, the elderly grumbling will give way to indulgent acceptance of the new, possibly even deriving some pleasure. And finding out how that famous rock, where the local council meetings are held, broke off — is just as intriguing as the reason why Scar turned bad.