THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
The Lion King has been my favorite animated movie of all time and when Disney chose to remake it, it was a given they would continue to franchise off of it thanks to its billion dollar success. That alone finally gave us the origin of the original king himself, Mufasa.
PLOT
The 2024 film follows Kiara, firstborn to King Simba & Queen Nala (Donald Glover & Beyoncé). With her mother prepared to give birth to another cub, her father has close friends Timon & Pumbaa babysit until they return from the birthing grounds. On a rainy night, the mandrill Rafiki visits the princess and chooses to tell her the story of how her grandfather became king of the Pride Lands. The remaining story shows said origin and reveal that Mufasa was born to a small pride, previously growing up with his parents Afia & Masego who believed a mythical land called Milele to exist. He would be separated from his family after being swept from a flood. Days later, he’d find himself in a whole other jungle and meets another pride of lions. He would be adopted by Queen Eshe as she and her son Prince Taka save him from young crocodiles. They quickly welcome him as family, although King Obasi was neglectful towards him being a stray. As he grew up with a new pack, Mufasa would learn to hunt with the females. When going out with Eshe, they would defend themselves from an outcast pride of white fur lions. Mufasa would kill one via impaling one to a tree, whereas another retreats to its personal king Kiros. Taka would see this from afar, but would fearfully run away rather than help. His parents don’t hold it against him, but insists him to leave for his own protection. Mufasa would also be assigned to go with him when realizing Kiros would return to avenge the fallen that turned out to be his son Shaju. By next morning, both brothers escape into a river as their family gets slaughtered by the Outsiders. As they continue making haste, they meet a stray lioness named Sarabi and her hornbill scout Zazu. They almost meet Rafiki who was banished from his own troop of baboon due to them believing his visions to be evil. The lions follow him when the mandrill claims to find Milele and a brother he saw in past visions of his. As the animals travel together, Taka develops feelings for Sarabi and Mufasa helps him win her over by claiming to recognize the scent of duck flowers that originate from her pride. He even gives him credit of saving her from an elephant stampede that she started to keep the Outsiders from following them. As they recover at a snowy mountain range, Zazu covers their tracks to continue keeping Kiros from finding them. By night, Sarabi confronts Mufasa that she’s deduced he was the one who saved her and he recognized her flower instead of his brother. The reveal causes both felines to fall for each other, but Taka grows jealous when watching afar. His jealousy causes him to make a deal with Kiros to kill Mufasa in exchange of joining his pride. The next morning, he gives him marks to follow when reaching Milele. Rafiki finds the tree he also saw in his visions and calls Mufasa the brother he was waiting for. Shortly after, Kiros arrives with his pride and reveals what Taka did. This leads to a fight between both lions and in the midst of it, Mufasa encourages all the animals in the jungle to fight off the Outsiders. Kiros does overwhelm in their battle and as Taka notices, he tries to redeem himself when intervening, causing him to be scarred from a slash by the white lion. With the commotion going on all over the Pride Lands, it causes a cave-in that also starts a flood which kills the Outsiders. Kiros does drown as well from a falling rock that plummels him, whereas Taka hesitantly saves Mufasa from the same fate. As all of Milele celebrate victory together, Mufasa reunites with Afia who sadly shares Masego died in the previous flood that caused their separation. As he becomes king of the Pride Lands, Mufasa allows Taka to stay. But due to his betrayal, he refuses to call his brother by his birth name, hence being called SCAR for the rest of their lives. As Rafiki concludes the story of Mufasa, Kiara would be so moved of it that she wished she met her grandpa but the mandrill assures her his spirit will live in him the way it does in her dad. As her parents return, she meets her newborn brother and the film ends with her excitingly about to hell him about their grandpa.
THOUGHTS
Since I know for sure the majority of fans did not ask for a Lion King remake, it’s crazy we had to wait 30 years for a prequel to come around. Nevertheless, I’m relieved to get what I wanted as it entered the majority of questions I wasn’t sure if they would be answered in advance. This is a big departure of what Barry Jenkins is all about since he previously directed gripping award winning dramas like Moonlight. It’s not the worst thing to happen though because it was an interesting animated adventure to sit through. 5 years have gone by between this and the remake, which can be a lot in this industry because the technology used to make movies changes a lot. With that being said, the visual effects to make the talking animals and the jungle around them so lifelike is as insane as before with all the details put in. And the editing/cinematography combo makes it feel surreal from scene to scene. Add this with an impressive score, you’re hooked because it was an interesting perspective of something that we last learned from the first film but has a stronger presence to be embraced: Leadership is built on responsibility instead of power and if you can’t tell the difference, you’re not meant to lead the way you think you will. This is the lesson we get to learn from a sibling pair who were completely different from one another more than they already thought. No one will ever top the legacy that the late James Earl Jones made as the ideal voice of Mufasa beforehand, which made it hard to imagine who would ever play a younger version of the character. In my opinion, the children Braelyn & Brielle Rankins and young adult Aaron Pierre reached my expectations in how I remembered the character to be, stoic & humble no matter what as he seeks acceptance instead of control. Leadership calls to him rather than the other way around because he always does what he thinks is right rather than think about what he’ll gain from his decisions. Him constantly doing that rather than think about himself is all that was needed to prove his worth as his life went through many changes because all the setbacks never drove him to do wrong. Of course, his humbleness does not become possible had it not been for the most nurturing parents he got out of Afia & Mesago, who were voiced beautifully by Akina Noni Rose & Keith David. All of this is what exactly differed him from those who tried to claim what they felt entitled to. Mads Mikkelsen was easily a menace as Kiros due to letting fear be his tool, which only became temporary the longer he chose that mindset as he embraced through his villainous song ‘Bye Bye’. Then there is Taka who became a villain he was raised much differently from his brother. At first, the child Theo Somolu showed the optimism he learned from his open minded mother Eshe. But then, Obasi chose to be a simple minded father & leader due to the need to keep enemies at bay. In one way, you can say Lennie James made him lazy compared to his wife. He gave his son the wrong advice to use deceit over bravery because that is what paves the way for his downfall. That mindset is what triggers his entitlement & jealousy despite starting out as a loving brother Mufasa because once he sees Sarabi, he feels that he deserves her just for feeling something before someone else does. Seeing his joy embrace through “I’ve Always Wanted A Brother” vanish when having his breakdown in “Brother Betrayed”. The only thing that can validate his anger is that Mufasa’s self defense led to losing his parents. All of this inner conflict was beautifully captured from a magnetic voice performance by Kelvin Harrison Junior because we finally understand he didn’t want to be selfish but was just raised to be that way. That is why he chose to save Mufasa rather than kill him sooner because he still wanted to be good. But once he was appropriately punished for his mistake, he chose to live on with hate because he wouldn’t stand letting the world define him for his flaws rather than his attempt at redemption. Had anyone predicted he would hold that against the king, the biggest tragedy could’ve been prevented. Although Mufasa lost family in more ways than one, it was still a beautiful situation that he still gained family when he wasn’t even trying. He found common ground with Zazu because Preston Nyman showed him to be a bird who may be mostly anxious yet is loyal enough to find his way to be helpful. He found a stronger brotherhood with Rafiki because despite being eccentric with his gift, Kagiso Lediga makes him wise enough to give him much needed guidance, thus being a great young counterpart to the older John Kani who teaches Kiara with this story to respect the past & embrace the future. He even proves the point of living life to the fullest with the song “We Go Together” much like Hakuna Matata. And last but not least, Sarabi became Mufasa’s equal because they match each other’s courageousness when it mattered most, which is felt through Tiffany Boone’s voice performance. She ends up choosing Mufasa over Taka because he was genuine with his selflessness in comparison and the protagonist gives their love a chance through their song “Tell Me It’s You”, a great companion song to ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight”, because he realizes she’s genuine about it as well. Had Taka tried harder to be himself, things likely would’ve gone his way. Because he never thought outside the box at the right time, he set up his own downfall and didn’t even know it yet. And hearing this story gives Kiara the motivation to avoid making the same mistakes or she’ll likely fail like he did. I don’t hate this movie compared to the other stuff Disney has retold, but there are still moments that confused me as I look back. Like why exactly was there a segregation between the hyenas and the rest of the Pride Lands? You had a few in the background of the opening and the climax and they couldn’t foreshadow that? That’s just crazy to not make time for. Moving on, why would Simba think it’s a bad thing for Timon & Pumbaa to tell stories to his daughter? I know they exaggerate when it came to how Scar was defeated, but it’s way better than being bored. And another thing, how come Obasi doesn’t have one of the adults watch over the race by following the cubs? Had he done that, he would’ve seen his son let Mufasa win and would’ve found an excuse to keep him out of the pack. Hell, he also could’ve had a scout watch over Taka if he didn’t want him to hunt with his mom. Had he not followed her, his cowardice would’ve not been revealed. Mufasa was even smart to try lying to Kiros that Taka was a stray but if he really wanted to protect him, he could’ve just owned up for what he did. Even if he had died, there would be no rivalry. Also, why didn’t the baboon Junia (Thuso Mbedu) go with Rafiki? If she was so worried, they’d better chances together. And why did that elephant herd ignore Mufasa? Considering most animals in this franchise seem to tolerate lions, it’s a surprise they chose to this one time. I can excuse Mufasa & Sarabi being in the moment that they weren’t thinking about Taka, but why didn’t Zazu fly high to double check being followed the following morning? I mean they totally would’ve came up with a plan had he noticed the Outsiders. Lastly, Taka made no sense saying Obasi chose Mufasa over him when that isn’t true. He showed respect to him before separating, but that never meant he chose him so he took his anger too far when saying that. Ignore these issues however, then you’ll appreciate what they were going for. In short, Mufasa: The Lion King was a solid prequel that pleases the audience in showing them what they wanted and then some. If you love this Disney franchise, see this whenever you can.
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