Mufasa: The Lion King Review
- Juan-Pablo Pina
- 21 hours ago
- 6 min read
by Juan-Pablo Pina
Mufasa: The Lion King has been the talk of the movie town for a while with discussions about it not being a remake but rather an “expansion”, the music written by Lin Manuel Miranda and the low bar set by the last few realistic Disney movies. But is it good? And if it is, then what’s good about it?
*Mild Spoilers Ahead*
CHARACTERS
Mufasa: The Lion King tells the story of Mufasa and his brother Taka and how they became the way we see them in the classic The Lion King. To start off, the character designs were pretty spot on!
Mufasa and Taka have designs that fit them almost perfectly. Taka’s paler coloration, shorter mane, and more gaunt appearance help give him this offsetting look that is only slightly noticeable at first but really comes into play later on with his villainous future. Mufasa, meanwhile, looks like the classic idea of a young African lion, sporting a short yet prominent golden mane and beautiful brown-gold fur.
Meanwhile, the other characters were also very well-designed. Obasi’s role as a lousy king and father fits his hefty build, Kiros’s muscular yet nimble body lives up to his ruthlessness and the other characters like Rafiki and Sarabi look as you would expect them to. And the voice acting was also incredibly well done.
Aaron Pierre did a fantastic job as a young Mufasa before he became the grand and deep-voiced king played by the late James Earl Jones. Meanwhile, Kelvin Harrison Jr. played Taka wonderfully, portraying both the happy and naive side and the sinister and conniving side. However, it felt like he was a younger version of the eccentric 1994 Jeremy Irons Scar (which I thought was very good) rather than the militant and jaded 2019 Chiwetel Ejiofor Scar. Tiffany Boone (Sarabi), Kagiso Lediga (young Rafiki) and Mads Mikkelsen (Kiros) also played their parts very well and nailed it when it came to the music (which was written by Lin Manuel Miranda, the writer of the acclaimed musical Hamilton).
However, there is a character that I feel was severely underdeveloped: Eshe. Eshe, who was Mufasa's foster-mom and Taka's biological mother, played a big part in giving the characters the motivation to go to Milele, the "Promised Land" that ends up being the Pridelands we see in The Lion King. Eshe was very nurturing to Mufasa when she found him and sounded very convicted when she mentioned the fact that Mufasa's parents were still alive and that Milele was real. Aside from that...that's kind of it. Obasi mentions that Eshe "adopts every lizard [and] speaks to passing grasshoppers", implying she has a sort of "kumbaya" mentality about the Circle of Life in line with what Mufasa tells Simba later on. But we don't really see that. I, personally, would've loved to see Eshe actually show this "hippy" side of her by reading the signs of nature like the sun's positions or sounds of some distant bird, even if they turned out to be nothing but superstitions.
As for the characters in the modern day (the story is told in flashbacks), I’d say they’re fine at best. Rafiki’s design and voice are good while Simba and Nala are just decent enough to do their job and then move out of the way. And I’d say that the same goes for Kiara and the dynamic duo of Timon and Pumbaa. I honestly think that just having the movie be about Mufasa rather than shoving in modern characters would actually have been a better decision.
ELEMENTS
Speaking of which, the music was really well done. The funky jazz based in African rhythms fits really well and also honors the music of the original film.
Going in chronological order, the first song is Ngomso, sung by African artist Lebo M. and the vocal cast of the animated Disney series The Lion Guard. It felt like a good homage to the iconic Circle of Life, but it was a little lackluster, probably because of how short it was. The next song, Milele, is special because, according to songwriter Lin Manuel Miranda, it “was the hardest song to write”. Originally I thought it also fell into the lackluster category, but it has grown on me with the swelling choir and instruments along with the amazing singing of Anika Noni Rose and Kieth David. Following up is I Always Wanted A Brother, an incredibly catchy and vibrant song that feels like a nearly perfect spin on I Just Can’t Wait To Be King. The next two songs, Bye Bye and We Go Together, unfortunately, do fall into the lackluster category. They’re not “bad”, just not living up to the previous three songs. As for the final two songs, Tell Me It’s You and Brother Betrayed, I felt that they did recapture that magic. Tell Me It’s You really did feel like a classic Disney love song while the dreadful sinking feeling of Brother Betrayed fits the dark path Taka eventually goes down.
The visuals, to absolutely no one’s surprise, were stunning. But something that caught me off guard was how much more it “popped”. Rather than have muted colors and solely be focused on realism like the 2019 remake, the visuals in this movie are far more vibrant and fantastical with vivid flowering fields, scorching and pale colors for Mufasa’s desert home and the frigid whites and blues of the mountains. It makes sense, too, considering that the director Berry Jenkins said that the movie goes through almost the entire African continent which a bonus feature would later confirmed with the start of Mufasa's journey being in Namibia, followed by Botswana (where he meets Taka), then Zambia and Zimbabwe (the latter being where the waterfall sequence took place), then Tanzania (which is where we meet Sarabi, Rafiki and Zazu) followed by Uganda (which is where the snowy mountain was) then finally ending in the savannas of Kenya.
As for the story, I do have a few gripes. Aside from removing a few of the Timon and Pumbaa interruptions (which were not as funny as they were intended to be) and slowing down the abysmal pacing in the beginning, the overall writing is very well done. However, I would like to see some more of Taka's turn into an envious and petty villain (a perfect chance was after the first encounter with the Outsider lions). Some decisions feel like ones made without a purpose, like how Taka's betrayal was done apparently because Mufasa stole Sarabi from her. Heck, even saying that it was Mufasa stealing Taka's parents would've been better than essentially chalking it up to the reason being because of a girl. Another problem is that not only does Kiros want to expand his territory, but he also wants to get revenge for the death of his son. However, we never really spent time with him or his son, so this motive comes off as extremely hollow.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
As good as this movie is, it does fall flat on some great opportunities. I'll name a few I've thought about after my watch-throughs.
The song We Go Together is sort of a travel/plot device song, working to show each character's motivations and relations while also showing them all bonding and moving through their journey. Near the end of the song though, Rafiki says some lyrics that opened the door to a great opportunity:
"My brother tends to lose his way and go astray. Say, if you see my brother please remind him it's much easier with a friend."
This is supposed to be a reference to Mufasa's thinking throughout the movie which, though selfless, also means he sort of looks over his own thoughts and feelings. This could've been an amazing way to show elements of mental health through the lens of these charismatic African animals, but it was unfortunately lost. It would've made sense, too, since Mufasa has had to deal with both the loss of his biological parents at a young age and also having a lousy and uninvolved foster-dad for the majority of his life.
Another missed opportunity is to delve into the history of the lions that Obasi briefly mentions. Not only is the "Valley of Kings" never explained, but we never hear about the different prides the Outsiders apparently came from which could've easily been fixed with maybe a scene or two.
But I think the most widely agreed and biggest missed opportunity is not having the movie be 2D animated like the 1994 original. Not only would it add a whole new visual flavor to the film, but people from all over would be fawning over Disney and practically throwing their money at the studio.
CONCLUSION
I think the best thing about Mufasa: The Lion King is how it all comes together. At some point, I started to get the feeling that this wasn’t just Mufasa and Scar’s origin story but instead a recreation of a popular legend the animals of the Pridelands might tell each other. The variety of locations, musical motifs and color palettes create a sense of great scale that the main journey greatly benefits from. Plus, the almost medieval vernacular, along with the frequent use of African-based music and languages add to this foreign and ancient feeling that really makes it feel like a myth brought to life.
In the end, I think that this was the absolution Disney needed. After dozens of failed remakes, Mufasa: The Lion King comes in and proves that these kinds of movies still have a lot of potential and deserve a chance.
Comments