Mufasa: The Lion King tries to address the criticism levelled at its predecessor, the photorealistic animation film The Lion King based on the traditional animation drama of the same name. The characters in The Lion King (2019) were faulted for not having convincing enough expressions. Mufasa goes to the other extreme: its players are far too expressive.
While Barry Jenkins’s prequel can’t overcome the strangeness of watching realistic-looking animals move their mouths, grin or weep and even sing, Mufasa has stunning visuals and a peppy score by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Jeff Nathanson’s screenplay retools its source material’s themes of courage, responsibility and leadership. The film is framed as an origin story for Mufasa, the father of The Lion King’s hero Simba.
The mandrill Rafiki (voiced by John Kani) tells the lion cub Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter), the warthog Pumbaa (Seth Rogen) and the meerkat Timon (Billy Eichner) about the formative years of Kiara’s grandfather Mufasa (Aaron Pierre).
As a cub, Mufasa is separated from his parents. Mufasa is adopted by a pride of lions and befriends Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr) despite protests from Taka’s status-conscious father Obasi (Lennie James). The mean-spirited albino lion Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen) and his harem of lionesses force Mufasa and Taka to set out on a perilous journey, which tests their friendship.
The anthropomorphising of animals and birds worked just fine in the animated film from 1994, but became a problem in the photorealistic remake from 2019. The weirdness of watching animals emote or break into song is only enhanced in the new movie.
The 118-minute Mufasa sags ever so often, with heavily underlined exposition for a simple plot. The characters have far too much dialogue and too many tunes to deliver, nearly eclipsing the movie’s other achievements.
Apart from ensuring richly detailed backgrounds, Barry Jenkins crafts thrilling action set-pieces, including a flood that opens the narrative and a lengthy sequence set on a snow-filled mountain. Jenkins’s eye for visual splendour is backed by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s rousing score. Mufasa: The Lion King would have been perfect if its characters had fewer lines, and if the songs were in the background rather than emerging through the mouths of clearly computer-generated figures.
The disruption of the natural order of things means that there are very few scenes in which the animals, particularly the lions, behave as they might in the wild. How do Mufasa, Taka and the lioness Sarabi (Tiffany Boone) whom they both befriend survive?
A lion that doesn't sink its canines into flesh or has anxiety attacks is fine only in a cartoon. Mufasa creates an immersive and enchanting world, but undermines itself by treating its characters just as it would humans.
