Director – Barry Jenkins, Screenplay – Jeff Nathanson, Producers – Mark Ceryak & Adele Romanski, Photography – James Laxton, Music – Dave Metzger, Songs – Lin-Manuel Miranda, Additional Songs – Lebo M, Visual Effects Supervisors – Audrey Ferrara & Adam Valdez, Animation Supervisor – Daniel Fotheringham, Visual Effects – MPC, Production Design – Mark Friedberg. Production Company – Disney.
Voices
Aaron Pierre (Mufasa), Kelvin Harrison, Jr. (Taka), Tiffany Boone (Sarabi), Kagiso Lagida (Young Rafiki), Preston Nyman (Zazu), Seth Rogen (Pumbaa), Billy Eichner (Timon), Blue Ivy Carter (Kiara), John Kani (Rafiki), Mads Mikkelsen (Kiros), Braelyn Rankins (Mufasa Cub), Theo Somolu (Taka Cub), Thandiwe Newton (Eshe), Lennie James (Obasi), Anika Noni Rose (Afia), Keith David (Nasego), Donald Glover (Simba), Beyonce Knowles-Carter (Nala)
Plot
Simba and Nala have to leave Pride Rock for a time. While away, they leave their daughter Kiara behind in the care of Timon and Pumbaa. Rafiki comes and tells Kiara a story about the young Mufasa. As a cub, Mufasa was washed away from his parents in a flood. He was befriended in the wilderness by another cub Taka who introduced Mufasa to their pride. Taka’s father Obasi was opposed to allowing Mufasa to join them but agreed as long as Mufasa stayed with the women. As the tribe came under attack by white lions known as The Outsiders and Obasi was killed, Mufasa demonstrated his strength as he came to lead the group to safety.
The Lion King (1994) is one of the undisputable classics among the Disney renaissance of the 1990s. Twenty-five years later, it underwent a remake with Jon Favreau’s The Lion King (2019) where the animals were replaced by CGI. This enjoyed great box-office (it was the second highest grossing film of 2019) but very divided critical reception. I was squarely on the side of those that hated it.
The 1990s/2000s saw Disney generating a string of low-budget video sequels to their classic animated works. Indeed, The Lion King was sequelised twice during this era with The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride (1998) and The Lion King 1½/The Lion King 3: Hakuna Matata (2004). (In a surprising touch of continuity with the former, Mufasa retains the name of Simba’s daughter as being Kiara). These animated sequels ended around 2009. The studio then focused on conducting a series of live-action remakes of their classics with the likes of Cinderella (2015), The Jungle Book (2016), Beauty and the Beast (2017), Aladdin (2019), Dumbo (2019) and others. What Mufasa: The Lion King feels like is someone now conducting a live-action remake of one of these 1990s animated video sequels.
I am not along in regarding the 2019 Lion King as one of the worst of the modern live-action remakes. As one might expect, I greeted the idea of a prequel to that with zero enthusiasm whatsoever. But then what do I know, the film earned $690 million worldwide and sits as the seventh highest grossing film of 2024. The new version is directed by Barry Jenkins, best known for the award-winning Moonlight (2016) and If Beale Street Could Talk (2019).
(l to r) Taka, Mufasa and Rafiki
Certainly, Mufasa is a leap over The Lion King 2019 in terms of technical quality. I am not really a huge fan of this photorealistic animals look, but you cannot deny that the characters and CGI work is extremely accomplished. However, that being said, the film also feels forced. There are times the African veldt landscapes seem so determinedly hyper-real that the film loses any sense of realism. Elsewhere, the film seems filled with pumped-up pieces of superfluous action – the young Mufasa being swept away in floods, races, pursuit by and fights with the Outsiders – that have no purpose other than to demonstrate the proficiency of the CGI team.
The script often feels like a schematic one that is designed to stitch together pieces of the Lion King mythos. We meet the young Rafiki, the young Sarabi, the young Timon and Pumbaa, and the young Scar, although the script has to give him another name to preserve the surprise for when he goes over to the dark side (while he is no longer Mufasa’s brother). We even see Timon and Pumbaa rehearsing for what will become the Hakuna Matata song. I mean, rewatch the original 1994 Lion King again (or even the 2019 remake if you must) and ask yourself if there is anything in this that feels it has a burning need to have its backstory told. The original was a story that was near perfect as it is. I am fairly sure the clamour for a prequel was non-existent until the Disney marketing machine convinced audiences there was.
