Barry Jenkins’ prequel toes the line between Disney’s house style and his own. Here’s our Mufasa: The Lion King review.
2019’s The Lion King, directed by Jon Favreau, was, really, a totally unnecessary ‘live-action’ film. Only one, single frame in the entire thing was filmed for real and everything else was animated, raising the question why would Disney bother remaking one of their best animated movies in a different style? And why call it live-action when it’s very clearly not and never could have been, unless lions suddenly gained the ability to make very dramatic speeches.
Well, a billion dollars probably helped. But still.
Mufasa: The Lion King faces a similar problem, even if it’s not weighed down by the superb original animation quite as much as its predecessor. If you’re able to look beyond the live-action/animation argument, Mufasa is actually a rather pleasant surprise. Moonlight director Barry Jenkins helms this The Lion King prequel about the titular king’s younger years and while Jenkins has admitted that he’s not a fan of this kind of filmmaking, he manages to bring a lot of life and spirit to the film.
Without diving too much into the details of the plot, Mufasa follows the journey of the titular future king (voiced by Rebel Ridge’s Aaron Pierre) and his brother Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), who will eventually become Scar. Rafiki (John Kani) is telling the story of Mufasa and Taka’s relationship to Simba and Nala’s daughter Kiara, with some comedic help from Timon and Pumbaa. There’s a thematic reason for framing the tale like this, but every time Mufasa cuts back to Rafiki’s storytime, the film comes to a halt and the audience yearns to get back to Mufasa and Taka’s adventure.
It’s not the only balance issue in the movie either. While Mufasa acts as an origin story for the characters we’ve known for 30 years, it surprisingly shares a lot of DNA with Marvel’s Thor from 2011. Much like Thor, Mufasa is the protagonist and the film aims to tell the story of how he became the rightful ruler of Pride Rock, but Taka is a much more interesting character. Just like Loki, Taka’s evolution is much more compelling and complex than the traditional hero’s.
Thankfully, the strong voice cast helps in forgiving some of the film’s flaws. Both Pierre and Harrison Jr. are able to communicate a lot with just their voices and even manage to create a very real brotherly dynamic. Pierre’s deep tone especially is reminiscent of the late James Earl Jones’, who gets a touching tribute at the very beginning. Mads Mikkelsen voices Kiros, a villainous lion after Mufasa, and while Mikkelsen’s naturally menacing voice fits the character, Kiros rarely feels like a true threat as we wait for Taka to embrace the villainous side of himself which will turn him into the bitter, hateful lion we know Scar as.
Lin-Manuel Miranda has been hired to create new original songs, which is quite an ask considering ‘The Circle Of Life’, ‘I Just Can’t Wait To Be King’ and ‘Can You Feel The Love Tonight’ are some of Disney’s most memorable tunes. Miranda’s songs aren’t particularly of note though – in fact, I don’t think I could name a single one without the help of Google – and Jenkins is certainly doesn’t seem to prioritise them, rendering Mufasa less of a musical and more of a family drama.
For most of its runtime, Mufasa is a fascinating push-and-pull between Jenkins’ own style and Disney’s established, arguably slightly dull house style. Jenkins has always had a keen interest in his characters’ faces and what they reveal and his interest continues here. Many of the film’s shots focus on the lions’ faces and reveal a new, exciting side to the storytelling that was missing from the 2019 remake. Mufasa doesn’t quite manage to break free from Disney’s usual style, but it’s certainly an improvement.
There’s no denying that the animation itself is absolutely stunning. Every single muscle is visible as the lions move organically and Mufasa is a visual feast for sure. It still can’t quite shake the questions of whether these “live-action” remakes are necessary or add anything new to Disney’s canon, but Disney might want to think about bringing in more auteurs like Jenkins to helm these films. It definitely worked in Mufasa’s favour. Whether it’s best for Jenkins? That’s a different question.
Mufasa: The Lion King is in UK cinemas 20th December.
