Lion King Prequel Mufasa Roars to Life
If Disney’s 2019 The Lion King remake showcased the studio and their 21st-century fascination to transform many of their timeless animated favorites into live-action (or something superficially similar to live-action) duplicates at their most brazenly soulless, turning to Moonlight Oscar-winner Barry Jenkins to helm Mufasa: The Lion King is an equally brash (if still odd) stroke of genius.
Even though he’s working with cutting-edge technological tools that blur the line between fantasy and reality with eye-popping grandeur, Jenkins still prioritizes character over spectacle. He creates a photorealistic tale of the natural world and its inhabitants that’s worthy of discussion, and even if his film isn’t entirely successful, it still did more than enough to capture my attention, and that’s no small thing.
Unburdened by having to photocopy the 1994 hand-drawn animated classic the same way director Jon Favreau was when he made the 2019 version, Jenkins also isn’t afraid to allow his animals to take on a few human qualities. He sacrifices photorealistic perfection to achieve emotional expressionism. The filmmaker tackles this prequel as if it were an animated film and, even better, Disney allows him the freedom to do it.
In Mufasa, the characters get to have facial movements that are slightly unnatural when compared to their real-world doppelgängers roaming the windswept plains of the African wild. However, this retreat from realism is exactly what this story needs. Jenkins knows he and his talented creative team are working inside a digital environment. As such, he gives his cast of lions, primates, warthogs, and other various Serengeti creatures anthropomorphic human qualities similar to traditional animation. This is what makes his first foray into big-budget Hollywood blockbuster territory interesting.
It’s still far from perfect, and despite his best efforts, Jenkins encounters several obstacles Favreau couldn’t overcome. Chief amongst them is that, even with a talented vocal cast speaking all of the lines, an ensemble made up almost entirely of photorealistic lions remains a visual nightmare. While there are subtle color variations between the two main characters (the royal-blooded Taka and his adopted brother Mufasa), they’re not significant enough to keep the pair from frequently looking exactly alike. It’s worse for the lionesses, especially when any of them are on-screen together, and this makes keeping track of who is who at any given time a tiresome chore.
Another item that didn’t work for me was the music. As talented as composer Dave Metzger (Wish) and songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda (Encanto) are, all of the orchestral high points have everything to do with Hans Zimmer, Elton John, and Time Rice and precious little to do with them. The callbacks to The Lion King are effective, the new songs (most of which I sadly found dreadful) are decidedly not, and it doesn’t get any simpler than that.
While the screenplay is fully credited to writer Jeff Nathanson (Catch Me if You Can, Young Woman and the Sea), I’m certain Jenkins had plenty of input. The plot hits on themes familiar to anyone who has watched any of the director’s previous endeavors, most notably Medicine for the Melancholy, Moonlight, and If Beale Street Could Talk. This is particularly true as it pertains to threads involving found family, racial (species?) identity, economic disparity, and gender equality.
The difference? Unlike his more adult fair, he makes these complex topics comfortably understandable (and even more relatable) to even the youngest members of the viewing audience. Jenkins does this by not talking down to the viewer. Instead, he treats them with intelligence and respect. He breaks events down into their basic elements and, even though it’s always clear who is the villain and who is the hero, he still lets pernicious shades of grey add a layer of thoughtful ambiguity to the proceedings.
What is that story? The origin of the mighty Mufasa is told in flashback to Simba (voiced by Donald Glover) and Nala’s (Beyoncé Knowles-Carter) youngest Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter) by wise mandrill Rafiki (John Kani). When young cub Mufasa (Braelyn Rankins) is swept away in a flashflood, he is rescued by rambunctious upstart Taka (Theo Somolu), the royal son of the cantankerous Obashi (Lennie James) and the nurturing Eshe (Thandiwe Newton). The two youngsters quickly form a brotherly bond, one they assume will never be broken.
Later on, as they pair grow towards adulthood, Mufasa and Taka (now voiced by Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison Jr.) are forced to flee when Obashi’s domain is invaded by a vicious pride of white lions led by the murderous Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen). As they make their way to a fabled domain of peace and prosperity, they are joined by the lioness Sarabi (Tiffany Boone), a young Rafiki (Kagiso Lediga), and the talkative hornbill Zazu (Preston Nyman). During their journey, Taka begins to give into his fear that Mufasa will someday prove more worthy of leadership than he with his royal blood will, thus taking the first steps that will transform him into the Machiavellian traitor Scar in the future.
It’s purposefully basic, and Nathanson pulls from the story of Moses, Greek mythology, and — like the original The Lion King — William Shakespeare for his narrative designs. Jenkins keeps it clear as to why things transpire as they do, only halting the melodramatic character interactions for the insertion of a Broadway-inspired show tune or a quick bit of comedic goofiness from returnees Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa (Seth Rogen).
I admit I find it hard not to grade this prequel on a curve. The 2019 version of The Lion King was so abominable that the very thought of it is enough to make my skin crawl. I can’t stand the darn thing, so even with all its missteps and faults, the fact that Jenkins has made something even passingly watchable out of a follow-up can’t help but feel like a rousing victory worthy of celebration.
Even so, Mufasa: The Lion King has enough going for it that it stands on its own with pride. Jenkins is a talented filmmaker, and while I can’t wait until he returns to projects made on practical sets and featuring actors not constructed inside of a computer, he utilizes this collection of technological tools with remarkable skill. He cares for these characters and he has even more regard for his audience, and both of those items are worthy of a roar of enthusiastic appreciation.
Film Rating: 2½ (out of 4)
