Mufasa: The Lion King (2024)
One of the more controversial directions for Disney over the last decade has been the push to remake their animated classics in live-action, or at least photorealistic animation, to mixed results. While some like Cinderella (Kenneth Branagh), The Jungle Book (Jon Favreau), and Beauty and the Beast (Bill Condon) have successfully added a greater context and layers to their stories, others have struggled to justify their own existence including 2019's The Lion King (Jon Favreau). A nearly exact retelling of the original 1994 classic minus a handful of iconic songs and using far less expressive animation, many rejected the feature. However, the most important part of The Lion King's reception was the historic $1.657 billion box office gross. While one cannot be sure why exactly Disney greenlit a sequel, some theories are obvious.
Now, 5-years after the original remake there is the release of Mufasa: The Lion King. Directed by Barry Jenkins (Medicine for Melancholy, Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk), the film serves as both a sequel and prequel to the 2019 feature as Simba's young daughter Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter) is forced to spend the night alone with Timon (Billy Eichner), Pumbaa (Seth Rogen), and Rafiki (John Kani) while her parents go to an ancestral birthing site to have their new cub. As a storm rages outside, Kiara is afraid and struggles to feel brave, leading Rafiki to tell her the story of Mufasa, voiced as a cub by Braelyn and Brielle Rankins and voiced as an adult by Aaron Pierre.
The film that follows this setup is a mixed bag. If there was one thing going for the 2019 film, it would be the excellent visual effects and animation that was of such quality that there was mass debate over if the film counted as animation or not. In Mufasa: The Lion King, the animation is far more inconsistent. While the main story has some breathtaking moments of animation, propelled tremendously by the thoughtful and dynamic camera movements and cinematography from James Laxton, but many of the side characters and the overall character animation can feel awkward and simply look bad. This is especially true in the film's opening which is flat-out ugly and is a jarring drop in quality from the majority of the production.
Jenkins' ideals of filmmaking attempt to push this animation further with more expressive characters and a greater emphasis on the performances behind these characters, often filling the screen with closeups of the character's faces to try and evoke something more poignant, but the animation fails this lofty goal. Photorealistic animation of animals, specifically those animals with faces that lack the expressions of the Apes from the Planet of the Apes series for example, will always result in massive constraints when it comes to performance and personality. No matter how realistic the animation looks, it cannot on a foundational level sustain the goals of Jenkins and the film.
The story itself is also one of ups and downs. The idea of breaking away from an already told story and creating something original is obviously the right move and Jenkins does his best to craft a compelling narrative for Mufasa. Left a stray after his parents, Afia (Anika Noni Rose) and Masego (Keith David), get washed away in a flood, Mufasa is taken in by another pride where he becomes brothers with a lion his age named Taka, voiced as a cub by Theo Somolu and as an adult by Kelvin Harrison Jr.. Even as Taka's father and king of their pride Obasi (Lennie James) rejects Mufasa, he grows close with the Obashi's mate Eshe (Thandiwe Newton) and learns how to hunt and use his senses, finding his place within the pride. Everything is going well until a pride of massive and vicious white lions, led by Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen), attacks with the goal of killing all other prides to have complete dominance over the land. Mufasa and Taka flee, meeting Rafiki and a young Sarabi (Tiffany Boone). Together they travel to the mythical Milele, a place beyond the horizon, that is thought to just be a myth but actually might be an actual physical location.
While the film tries to build an original story with Shakespearean drama as featured in the original film, the results are not always as compelling or moving as they are trying to be. From the immediate start, it is so obvious where the film is going to go that the film itself tries to make a joke about it with the story continually getting interrupted by returning to Timon and Pumbaa making jokes about how they know who Taka will end up being and what he will end up doing to Mufasa. While the film identifies that it is predictable, it then does nothing to actually transcend these expectations playing into the basic and standard story everyone expects. Even with a more substantial 118-minute runtime, the actual character development and evolution of characters throughout their journeys often feel rushed and forced. There is no impact or meaningful nuance to this tale or room for it to breathe.
Part of the issue is that it feels like the film has to juggle two main identities, one from Jenkins trying to tell a compelling and emotionally powerful story of two brothers torn apart by power and Disney trying to create a film that families will be entertained by and find easily digestible in a way that results in undercutting the film itself. For every scene of emotional weight, there are multiple scenes of unfunny humor and unneeded filler. The framing device of Rafiki telling the story to Timon, Pumbaa, and Kiara especially feels painful at times. Not only do their interruptions consistently slow down and break the momentum the film builds, but they also are never funny and waste some genuinely entertaining performers in Eichner and Rogen. The original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda are far from terrible, but mostly are instantly forgettable.
The film is also stopped from giving the character of Mufasa any layers or complexity. While there is hardship in the context of the character, losing his family and struggling to be accepted by his new pride, the character of Mufasa is entirely one-note with not a shadow of a blemish or fault. From him basically having superhero abilities with his intuition and sense of sound, more than any other lion ever introduced, to his moral character which is never put into question or even teased to have a crack, the character is as generically good as one can be and is painfully boring to spend time with. While the storytelling fails Taka's personal journey, the overall context of where his character goes also causes a genuine struggle for the film to truly give him the nuance and empathy it clearly wants to have. Jenkins is taking a decently gripping story and is trying to mash it into a Disney's The Lion King mold, a fit that is inherently going to be rough and uneven. For major fans of The Lion King, it is possible that the almost comedically over-the-top references and explenations for things present in the original film will bring some reward, but for anyone else these moments will feel completely unneeded and unearned. If one is going to make an original story, make an original story. There is no need to continually remind audiences of a far superior original film, much less the disappointing remake of that feature.
If there is one positive to give, it is that ultimately Mufasa: The Lion King is an innocent enough project. Few will be challenged by the film's story and the overall final message is surprisingly bold for Disney, a clear impact of Jenkins' hand in the film's storytelling. While this message is ultimately not fleshed out and is buried in a larger more cliched third act, a clear impact of Jeff Nathanson's hand on the film's screenplay, this far from the most painful thing Disney has put out over not only recent years, but even recent months. It feels like Mufasa: The Lion King is constantly scratching at a story that could be so much more than it actually is. The limitations in it's story, technical ability, character, and direction consistently pull the film down to only show small displays of its actual potential.
Now, 5-years after the original remake there is the release of Mufasa: The Lion King. Directed by Barry Jenkins (Medicine for Melancholy, Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk), the film serves as both a sequel and prequel to the 2019 feature as Simba's young daughter Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter) is forced to spend the night alone with Timon (Billy Eichner), Pumbaa (Seth Rogen), and Rafiki (John Kani) while her parents go to an ancestral birthing site to have their new cub. As a storm rages outside, Kiara is afraid and struggles to feel brave, leading Rafiki to tell her the story of Mufasa, voiced as a cub by Braelyn and Brielle Rankins and voiced as an adult by Aaron Pierre.
The film that follows this setup is a mixed bag. If there was one thing going for the 2019 film, it would be the excellent visual effects and animation that was of such quality that there was mass debate over if the film counted as animation or not. In Mufasa: The Lion King, the animation is far more inconsistent. While the main story has some breathtaking moments of animation, propelled tremendously by the thoughtful and dynamic camera movements and cinematography from James Laxton, but many of the side characters and the overall character animation can feel awkward and simply look bad. This is especially true in the film's opening which is flat-out ugly and is a jarring drop in quality from the majority of the production.
Jenkins' ideals of filmmaking attempt to push this animation further with more expressive characters and a greater emphasis on the performances behind these characters, often filling the screen with closeups of the character's faces to try and evoke something more poignant, but the animation fails this lofty goal. Photorealistic animation of animals, specifically those animals with faces that lack the expressions of the Apes from the Planet of the Apes series for example, will always result in massive constraints when it comes to performance and personality. No matter how realistic the animation looks, it cannot on a foundational level sustain the goals of Jenkins and the film.
The story itself is also one of ups and downs. The idea of breaking away from an already told story and creating something original is obviously the right move and Jenkins does his best to craft a compelling narrative for Mufasa. Left a stray after his parents, Afia (Anika Noni Rose) and Masego (Keith David), get washed away in a flood, Mufasa is taken in by another pride where he becomes brothers with a lion his age named Taka, voiced as a cub by Theo Somolu and as an adult by Kelvin Harrison Jr.. Even as Taka's father and king of their pride Obasi (Lennie James) rejects Mufasa, he grows close with the Obashi's mate Eshe (Thandiwe Newton) and learns how to hunt and use his senses, finding his place within the pride. Everything is going well until a pride of massive and vicious white lions, led by Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen), attacks with the goal of killing all other prides to have complete dominance over the land. Mufasa and Taka flee, meeting Rafiki and a young Sarabi (Tiffany Boone). Together they travel to the mythical Milele, a place beyond the horizon, that is thought to just be a myth but actually might be an actual physical location.
While the film tries to build an original story with Shakespearean drama as featured in the original film, the results are not always as compelling or moving as they are trying to be. From the immediate start, it is so obvious where the film is going to go that the film itself tries to make a joke about it with the story continually getting interrupted by returning to Timon and Pumbaa making jokes about how they know who Taka will end up being and what he will end up doing to Mufasa. While the film identifies that it is predictable, it then does nothing to actually transcend these expectations playing into the basic and standard story everyone expects. Even with a more substantial 118-minute runtime, the actual character development and evolution of characters throughout their journeys often feel rushed and forced. There is no impact or meaningful nuance to this tale or room for it to breathe.
Part of the issue is that it feels like the film has to juggle two main identities, one from Jenkins trying to tell a compelling and emotionally powerful story of two brothers torn apart by power and Disney trying to create a film that families will be entertained by and find easily digestible in a way that results in undercutting the film itself. For every scene of emotional weight, there are multiple scenes of unfunny humor and unneeded filler. The framing device of Rafiki telling the story to Timon, Pumbaa, and Kiara especially feels painful at times. Not only do their interruptions consistently slow down and break the momentum the film builds, but they also are never funny and waste some genuinely entertaining performers in Eichner and Rogen. The original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda are far from terrible, but mostly are instantly forgettable.
The film is also stopped from giving the character of Mufasa any layers or complexity. While there is hardship in the context of the character, losing his family and struggling to be accepted by his new pride, the character of Mufasa is entirely one-note with not a shadow of a blemish or fault. From him basically having superhero abilities with his intuition and sense of sound, more than any other lion ever introduced, to his moral character which is never put into question or even teased to have a crack, the character is as generically good as one can be and is painfully boring to spend time with. While the storytelling fails Taka's personal journey, the overall context of where his character goes also causes a genuine struggle for the film to truly give him the nuance and empathy it clearly wants to have. Jenkins is taking a decently gripping story and is trying to mash it into a Disney's The Lion King mold, a fit that is inherently going to be rough and uneven. For major fans of The Lion King, it is possible that the almost comedically over-the-top references and explenations for things present in the original film will bring some reward, but for anyone else these moments will feel completely unneeded and unearned. If one is going to make an original story, make an original story. There is no need to continually remind audiences of a far superior original film, much less the disappointing remake of that feature.
If there is one positive to give, it is that ultimately Mufasa: The Lion King is an innocent enough project. Few will be challenged by the film's story and the overall final message is surprisingly bold for Disney, a clear impact of Jenkins' hand in the film's storytelling. While this message is ultimately not fleshed out and is buried in a larger more cliched third act, a clear impact of Jeff Nathanson's hand on the film's screenplay, this far from the most painful thing Disney has put out over not only recent years, but even recent months. It feels like Mufasa: The Lion King is constantly scratching at a story that could be so much more than it actually is. The limitations in it's story, technical ability, character, and direction consistently pull the film down to only show small displays of its actual potential.