If I take my fan boy cap off for a while, I am able to see how Jon Favreau was able to make The Lion King (2019) his own, on a second viewing. I have argued that these Disney live-action remakes have made meaningful changes to their classic stories in their retellings, and The Lion King is no different – whether it be through Scar’s dialogue, or reshaping the elephant graveyard to appear more realistic. But I still maintain that the weight in the parable is lost in The Lion King (2019), when it is not an expressive cartoon; and moving on irreplaceable voice actors, like Jeremy Irons, or using the B-roll takes for Mufasa from James Earl Jones puts the movie in trouble. And now we have Mufasa: The Lion King, a prequel to go with it. And at the end of 2024, I have to wonder if I trust Disney to provide a moral and coherent extension to these beloved characters 🤔 Prequels have also become a very dirty word for me this year. But I already think I understand one change that baffled me in the beginning – Scar is no longer Mufasa’s biological brother! That’s to get around any future scenario, where Kiara marries her cousin!
An infant Mufasa is separated from his parents in a death-defying whirlpool, and the whole theatre holds its breath, hoping we don’t have another heartbreaking stampede situation on our hands 😢 Luckily, nothing in this movie ever comes close to the huge emotional swells of the original The Lion King 🙃 And instead, a young Tucker (Scar in training) guides Mufasa to his pride, where the pair will mature together, before a rival lion obligates them on a journey to find a safer sanctuary. Along the way they will meet some friendly faces, as the story is told from the perspective of Rafiki to Simba’s cub, Kiara, in the future, with Timon and Pumbaa listening on. This movie is directed by Barry Jenkins, from a rough screenplay by Jeff Nathanson.
Yeah, just as I first expected. Disney needs to stop hiring that dung beetle from The Lion King (2019) to write their movies. Mufasa: The Lion King is agonizing. And if for nothing else, let me put it through the following context – The Lion King (1994) wasn’t even expected to be a hit, by Disney’s own standards, as the studio had their eyes trained on Pocahontas; and they still had Tim Rice, a lyrical genius, work alongside Elton John to produce the most iconic music. The original story not only develops loveable characters but a gigantic vision for the circle of life, and not taking more than you need. The animation is rich, full of vibrant reds and greens, that enhance epic cinematic locations. Compare that to now, where Disney could be sure they’d have a family hit, considering the first CGI movie made $1B; and these songs sound like they’ve been written by a computer on easy mode 🎵 Brothaah! Brothaah! 🎵 Oh, bother 🤦♂️ The story is tiredly generic, with about as much emotional intelligence as a Cheeto; and the animation looks like it took twice as long to look half as beautiful. If that’s not a perfect summary on the state of Disney right now, it’s ‘a’ state.
And in hating this movie, it’s not really like I view The Lion King as God, and nobody can touch my precious baby. The Lion King already has a fairly decent sequel in The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride. Then there’s the Timon & Pumbaa series, and The Lion King 1 ½ which don’t need to be as serious as the main story, and have been popular. I’ve personally only ever touched based with The Lion Guard, made for preschoolers, but that seems to be a decent show too. Which is to say, there is enough The Lion King extended content out there, that found a way to exist and be admired. I really appreciate how this movie includes Kiara, and the ending with her brother, at least shows respect to the past additions to this continuing story – the final moments actually gave me chills when Kion was introduced, and I think there’s a joke about the uber successful Broadway musical performance in here too. I respect this movie’s framing, allowing for Timon and Pumbaa to be included again as well – they’re unnecessary to this overall story, but they’re fan favourites, and Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner’s voice performances were heavily praised in the first remake. I liked seeing how Pride Rock broke away, even if those sorts of reveals are usually gimmicky – like, I don’t know how many people ever watched Rafiki whacks Simba over the head with his stick, and thought, “fuck! I NEED to know where that stick came from! Did it once save Rafiki’s life? I wonder” 🙄 But I also do like the scene where Rafiki calls Mufasa his missing brother – even if most of Rafiki’s screentime before that was pretty uninspired gobbledygook. Remember when Rafiki was wise, but also whimsically enthusiastic through his passion for life? I remember.
And that’s about where my kindness runs out. There wasn’t much of it, was there? And peppered in above with insults. But the worst of all it, is the battered and beaten love triangle that’s meant to justify Tucker going rogue 🤢 I was convinced, knowing Scar, that Tucker might be tricking the giant white lion Kiros into thinking he was swapping sides, only to prove to eventually give Mufasa the edge down the line. If only this was a better movie, because there’s no acknowledgement of Scar’s cunning and conniving inclination in this movie – only his incompetence and jealousy. In fact, keep your love triangle angle if you want; just give me Tucker both-sidesing the final contest, where Mufasa ends up thanking Scar for his underhanded play, and Tucker confirms a rift in that he will never forgive Mufasa for taking Sarabi. The end. Thank you. See you later.
Sarabi falling in love with Mufasa plays out exactly as if she’s supposed to fall in love with Mufasa, because it’s how it is in The Lion King. Scar is cowardly because he’s supposed to be cowardly too – none of it is very convincing. In fact, why is Scar so cowardly? There’s one or two scenes that show Tucker’s father chooses to lounge about and lie in lessons with Tucker about how to be King, but Tucker is opposed to that. Tucker seems convinced that he knows it’s not right to be deceitful after he fails protecting his mother – HOW did he LEARN that? Tucker shows ingenuity in letting Mufasa win the race to be accepted by the pride, and he saves Mufasa’s life before that, so that’s somewhat brave. If the movie is meant to show us that Tucker’s initial internal fire has been dampened because he has been manipulated or smothered, then it has failed. He just hasn’t learnt how to do anything yet, and there’s every chance that it would make Tucker admire his brother more, for having such lifesaving skills, rather than resent him. It’s funny too, that the entire point of The Lion King is that Simba has to be King, no matter if he is ready, or wants it, or not; and Tucker is equally destined to be a king, while the movie is hellbent on showing us that he could never lead a pride even if he was allowed. Weird, weird. Also what makes Mufasa so great, above all else in this movie, is his supernatural sense of smell! Even Tucker’s mother, Eshe, Mufasa’s guiding partner, is impressed by Mufasa’s nose, and that’s how Sarabi is wooed by Mufasa in nearly every single circumstance 😃 Oh, but this story cannot resist a chance to play up misogyny, since lionesses typically provide the hunting, and the males do not. The movie has us believe that Mufasa is only so wise and mighty because he’s spent time around women, and males are lazy or cruel lions that don’t know how to listen. I love the hubris of a movie that contends that nature hasn’t figured it out, and that the animal kingdom needs to fit human’s ever changing standards imposed on them. Oppositionally, I love nature because it shows how there are many ways of doing things – seahorses, lions, spiders, cows; all arrange themselves differently to thrive and survive. I think it’s interesting that lionesses do all the hunting, while early man did all our hunting. Neither position should be viewed as particularly good or bad; just different. And so much so for respecting the circle of life.
Speaking of, I’m confused by how prominent or important the ‘circle of life’ philosophy seems to be to the animals in this movie – some seem to have heard of it, but it’s not clear who follows it 🤷♂️ Fundamentally, I would’ve been happy if this movie was simply about Mufasa and Scar learning life lessons that put them on opposing sides of philosophy pertaining to the circle of life – where the benevolent provide, and the malevolent consume. A prequel to me should not be merely an excuse to plonk recognisable characters into another action adventure, but to explore their animus and creation. It’s hard, I get it – The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes was right on the money, and I still gave that movie a negative review. And I do realise that what I want, a more intrinsic character driven pursuit, is less likely to exist, because it requires more thought, and is harder to sell than action. Instead we get this, pee-weak disposable goo, stitched together through phrases like, “he lives in you”, and “everything the light touches”. We’ve seen it done with Star Wars… famous quotes become watered-down, trampled flat, clichés, to lose all meaning, while they’re only included as callbacks because they were once so prolific in the original ☹ For example, the way this movie throws around that when a being dies, they now “live in you”, makes me feel like Simba must’ve heard that expression at least 50 times as kid, and would’ve been familiar with it by the time Rafiki ever had a chance to influence his mind… I don’t know, that’s just the way I see things.
Another personal knock I have on this movie is one Mufasa: The Lion King might not even be aware that it’s doing, but it continues a trend of modern day movies that break down well-oiled institutions, and disregard the intent of their creation. The way the pride operates in The Lion King, with Zazu as chief informant, and Sharman on the side in Rafiki, could have been the monarchial system that’s been in place for a 100 years, before this movie came along. Yet what this movie does is turn the institution as we once see it into a ragtag operation on the run, that a bunch of friends came up with on the way to a new community across a snowy mountain. This really might be a bug bear of mine that I share alone, but I prefer the wonder of Mufasa’s pride, the spectacular roles and responsibilities that enforce the notion of engrained lessons and sustained grooves, founded upon which the circle of life has informed, instead of Mufasa: The Lion King’s coincidental answer.
Even the throwaway assertion at the beginning of the movie, where Rafiki claims that Simba was once afraid of the thunder like Kiara the lightning, but Mufasa and Simba went out and roared at the sky to overcome their fear. It’s like, no they didn’t, bro. The whole first movie is about how Simba’s roar is underwhelming, a personal sore spot, and in need of practice in the gorge. How embarrassing – these creators don’t even know their own source material 🤦♂️
Anyway, I’ve really spent too much time giving this movie a second thought. It’s almost an anti-movie at this point – a movie that’s so bad that it makes you feel like movies cannot be fun again. And that’s their point; to be invigorating and enjoyable. I’m mad at myself really, because you cannot stop these nongs from writing depressing garbage, but I’m only disappointed because I actually started to imagine this could be worthwhile, a day or two out before seeing it. It’s my fault, because of the amount of prequels I’ve seen recently, so few have been good. Yes, Wicked was a good movie, but it’s still a phantasmagorical deviation from the original landscape of Oz. Most of these dudded prequels really just give a new meaning to Rafiki’s sentiment, when he says, “the past can hurt.” But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it, and I’m about ready to dust off my DVDs, sit on my metaphoric porch with a shotgun, in a rusty rocking chair, and ward off anything new that wants to offer me a backstory 😤 In the infantile lyrics of the big bad white lion – Bye-Bye.
1.5
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