Improved, but still not as good as the original

It’s strange that the premise of exploratory pop culture still exists among Hollywood filmmakers. There has been a recent trend to tell a very specific type of origin story that neatly catalogs how certain familiar commercial characters came to be. The goal of these stories is not to expand on a character’s complexity, introduce a new mystery into their lives, or critically re-litigate their function, but to powerfully reinforce feelings the audience already has. As a metaphor, audiences have been addicted to the same pop culture drug for years, but repeated viewings and general commercial ubiquity have caused them to build a tolerance. Hollywood responded by adding the metaphorical cocaine to the drug, hoping to provide the same level of euphoria, but with a slight twist.

Euphoria is crowd-pleasing, but it rarely delivers great new ideas. There have been several versions of this phenomenon in the year 2024. There was the movie “Alien: Romulus” which introduced the same monsters and used CGI to revive a deceased actor. There was “The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim” which taught us how Helm’s Deep got its name. There was the rather good “Transformers One,” which explored how Optimus Prime first transformed. There was the legitimately creepy “First Omen.” Even the word “punk” is important, even though it is a popular phenomenon in itself.

Now we have Barry Jenkins’ “Mufasa: The Lion King,” a prequel to the movie Remake of Jon Favreau’s 2019 digital animation 1994’s The Lion King. It’s hardly the first prequel/spin-off/spin-off film to the Lion King – it follows 2004’s direct-to-video film The Lion King 1½, and 2017’s The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride. 1998, and the 2005 TV series “The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride” “Lion Guard” – but Jenkins again pointed out that knowing the source of the iconography Pop isn’t that interesting in the first place. Seeing how Mufasa grew up from “The Lion King” is nothing more than pop music filler. It’s Disney’s Silmarillion for adults. It’s ultimately kind of useless.

Jenkins at least addresses the central issues of Jon Favreau’s “The Lion King,” which is that lions are not very expressive animals. Favreau animated his 2019 film to look as realistic as possible, and was largely successful, but the result left the animals’ faces static and unemotional. Jenkins gives his lions a bit more of a facial appearance in Mufasa, and is clearly freer to extend them with some hair beyond what lions can do in real life, allowing them to express facial emotions. However, there remains a frustrating visual uniformity throughout Jenkins’ film, retaining an element of Favreau’s general visual flatness. By the end of the 118-minute film, you’ll be quite bored looking at the same computer-generated hair textures and grinding lion jaws. You will strain your eyes when seeing the same types of stone and dirt. You may even hate black.

But the fundamental sin of “Mufasa” is its terrible pacing. The story takes place in flashbacks, with the elderly mandrill Rafiki (John Kani) telling a story to the meerkat Timon (Billy Eichner), the warthog Pumbaa (Seth Rogen), and the baby lion cub Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter). Simba (Donald Glover) and Nala (Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Which made its own semi-spinoff movie, if you remember) from the first movie. The two lions are away on an important mission during the storm, and Rafiki spends the time telling the story of Simba’s deceased father, Mufasa.

Mufasa’s story is a vast saga that rushes as fast as possible through every detail. Mufasa (Braelyn Rankins as a cub, Aaron Pierre from “Rebel Ridge” as an adult) was born in a remote part of the country, and his parents told him about the circle of life. He can’t wait to be king. However, a flood will separate him from his parents, before we really get to know them or what his life was like when he was young.

A rapid and unexpected flood deposits Mufasa before Taka (Theo Sommolo as a cub, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as an adult), a proud, detached prince. Taka’s father, Obasi (Lennie James), is afraid, and tells his son that lying is acceptable when a king does it, and that protecting pure bloodlines is key to maintaining integrity. It’s a collection of dark and topical themes that all feel surprisingly relevant. Taka, who is innocent, just wants to play with Mufasa, and enjoys the fact that he has a new adopted brother. No need to guess that Taka will change his name by the end of the movie.

Then, in the blink of an eye, Obasi’s pride comes into conflict with an even more sinister clan of white lions ruled by Kyros (Mads Mikkelsen), upset that Mufasa killed his son(!). Kiros and his lions will crush the pride, chasing Mufasa and Taka across the landscape as they flee to the magical paradise they feel is on the horizon. On their journey, they will gather a young man, Rafiki (Kageso Ledija), a lioness named Sarabi (Tiffany Boone), and a bird named Zazu (Preston Nyman). They will travel across snowy plains and mountains, talk, fight, fall in love, develop resentment, and re-enact roles. The cliff jumping scene from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Mufasa’s story is a story of bad lineage, the dangers of hatred, and what heroes and villains are like. The lessons one learns as a child can lead to toxic adulthood or noble maturity. These are all good, if predictable, messages for a Disney animated film.

But Mufasa gets bored with himself along the way. The action frequently reverts to Timon and Pumbaa making colorful, “comic” comments that aren’t funny at all. Considering how haphazard the film’s editing already is, the cuts add a surprising element of narrative chaos that pulls audiences away from the events. Jenkins seems to be aiming for a saga, but he doesn’t take the time to simply look around, pause for breath, and let the audience bask in the grandeur. He seems to be telling the story as quickly as possible before he forgets it, like trying to remember a dream after waking up. “Mufasa” is supposed to be a story about how The Lion King came to be, but it keeps seeming to dissipate.

Lin-Manuel Miranda delivers new songs for Jenkins’ film, and they’re energetic and buzzy. I was particularly fond of Kyros’s sinister song “Bye Bye”. Trying to recover The magic of the movie “The Lion King” in 1994 (With Oscar-nominated songs by Elton John and Tim Rice), Miranda, however, draws direct musical analogues. “Bye Bye” serves the same function, and comes in the same place in the narrative, as the original “Be Ready,” for example. Likewise, there are parallel songs to “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King”, “Hakuna Matata” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”. Miranda is a fantastic songwriter, and has worked actively with Disney on multiple occasions, but this is the first time he’s felt constrained by the constraints of the pre-movie ethos; He recreates more than he creates.

“Mufasa” will satisfy, but it also seems useless in the end. It’s as if Disney is going around again, trying to extract billions of dollars from old ideas while introducing new ones. Fans of “The Lion King” may be a little impressed. At the very least, you’ll finally know how Rafiki got his wand.

/ Movie rating: 5.5 out of 10

Mufasa: The Lion King opens in theaters on December 20, 2024.