From the Oscar-winning director of Moonlight comes a live-action Disney animated movie. It’s a surprise to anyone familiar with Barry Jenkins, whose work has previously been prestigious awards-worthy films like If Beale Street Could Talk. But he’s surprising us all with the family film of the holidays with Mufasa: The Lion King. This film is a sequel/prequel to the 2019 live-action remake that nobody really asked for, but when you gross over $1.6 billion worldwide, you’re going to get a follow-up. Unlike Disney’s recent live-action movies, this film is not a remake. We have an original story that follows how Mufasa became a brother to Scar and how he became king.
Mufasa manages to be an improvement over its predecessor, with Jenkins providing a stronger directorial voice than Jon Favreau. His themes surrounding connection, brotherhood, and betrayal are all over this film, but it still feels like a mediocre attempt at an emotional, heartfelt story. This movie is not funny or tear-jerking enough to earn any reaction besides, “Wow, that movie looked great.” Let’s be honest: The CGI in both of the new Lion King movies is superb. Everything looks photorealistic, but this movie makes one key upgrade from the last one: facial expressions.
While the 2019 film suffered from making the animals a bit too realistic and depriving them of having any emotions (even when they’re supposed to), Mufasa improves on this. We see them smile, we see their fear, and it’s all done while keeping the animals relatively realistic. However, it’s frustrating because while this is perhaps the most technically marvelous film of the year, you may find yourself missing 2D animation where there are no bounds to what we can see. The fact that this movie is still aiming for photorealism means the musical numbers cannot pop the way they should. Since we can usually only have realistic animals performing realistic actions in realistic environments, the energy feels restrained.
There’s something that fundamentally does not work about watching what looks like a nature documentary, but the animals open their mouths and speak English. Despite how amazing it looks, there’s vibrance that you get from 2D and even 3D animation that’s lacking here. But beyond that, Mufasa manages to provide a new perspective on the characters that we’ve known for 30 years. This film provides an origin story for Mufasa and reveals that he became adopted brothers with Taka, the lion who would come to be known as Scar.
This film has a few great ideas here. There’s an iconic moment between the brothers in the original Lion King movie that gets referenced early in Mufasa: The Lion King. Since this is set before The Lion King, it adds an extra emotional layer to their relationship that gives a moment that’s been well-known for decades a greater context. Tragedy strikes Mufasa early on, which makes his newfound brotherhood with Taka so much more heartwarming. Since we know how their relationship ends in the future, it’s bittersweet, but seeing how they got there is occasionally interesting.
Something that does not work is the framing device. This is partially a sequel, so the main story is set after the first movie, where Simba and Nala have had a child named Kiara, a reference to the name of their child in the 1998 direct-to-video sequel, The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride. Kiara is voiced by Blue Ivy Carter, the daughter of Nala’s voice actress, Beyoncé. This nepotism hire wouldn’t sting so much if Beyoncé had a larger role in this film, but with her amount of lines, she could not have been in the recording booth for more than two hours. Carter does an acceptable job as Kiara, but nothing about this framing device works as an emotional thread, especially when it tries to be at the end.
Timon and Pumbaa are back, once again lovingly voiced by the perfectly cast Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen. Their humor is not as funny in this movie compared to the predecessor. Their job is to be your loudmouth friends who interrupt and comment on every detail of a story while you tell it. It ends up being trite after a while. Rafiki tells the story of Kiara’s grandfather to her, but hearing the story of how your grandparent grew up never feels as impactful as it was in White Bird, another 2024 movie that had a similar framing device. Kiara never feels like a character that is defined enough at the beginning for us to latch onto.
But what about the main story? It’s acceptable. The songs are written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, a superb songwriter who has been one of the most booked and busy musicians of the past decade. In my opinion, there’s “Great LMM,” which we heard in Hamilton, In the Heights, and Moana. And there’s “Mediocre LMM,” which we heard in Vivo and 2023’s The Little Mermaid. And there’s The Scuttlebutt, which we all try our best to forget about. Miranda’s work in Mufasa occupies “Mediocre LMM” territory, which means this is not his best, most memorable work, even if the musical arrangements are pleasing to hear from time to time.
Jenkins directs the camera well from time to time. He often frames his animals in closeups, and there are a few moments where he tries to make the camera’s placements feel a bit more grounded to sell these animals’ existence. It works from time to time, and it often works best when Mufasa: The Lion King delivers exciting action sequences. The voice work from Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison Jr., two actors reuniting after co-starring in Genius: MLK/X, is superb, and they work very well as younger, more naive versions of James Earl Jones and Chiwetel Ejiofor. A very impressive cast member is Preston Nyman as Zazu, who brings the spirit of the character to life to perfection.
There’s so much in this movie that’s excellent, but there’s a lot that does not work as well. The storyline offers little surprise. When you’ve seen enough of these prequels about how friends became enemies, whether it’s X-Men: First Class or even this year’s Transformers One, you know where this movie is going to lead. Mads Mikkelsen has had a hell of a career, playing roles in Star Wars, Marvel, James Bond, the Wizarding World, Indiana Jones, Hannibal, and now, The Lion King. He’s perfect for villainous roles and he does a good job with what he’s given, even if I didn’t find his character too compelling. Tiffany Boone does whatever she can, but Sarabi can’t help but feel like a dull character.
The 2019 Lion King planted the seeds for a greater history between Scar and Sarabi, so seeing where their relationship goes here makes sense, even if you do not always feel the emotions. It can sometimes feel like the characters are going places because the screenwriter needs them to, rather than of their own volition. While Nicholas Britell turns in a good musical score, and there are a few moments that work, Mufasa: The Lion King can’t help but be a mixed bag, uneven at times, and filled with songs you won’t remember too well.
SCORE: 5/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 5 equates to “Mediocre.” The positives and negatives wind up negating each other, making it a wash.
Disclosure: ComingSoon attended a press screening for our Mufasa: The Lion King review.
