Like its 2019 inspiration ‘Mufasa: The Lion King’ is gorgeous to look at, but ultimately feels pointless

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Mufasa, Mufasa, Mufasa!

Synopsis

Mufasa: The Lion King tells the origin story of Mufasa (Aaron Pierre), the legendary king of Pride Rock. After becoming separated from his parents due to a flood, Mufasa finds himself part of a new pride of lions and befriends another young cub Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). The two hit it off immediately and become close-knit “brothers”.

Unfortunately, a pride of vicious, power-hungry white lions, led by Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen), kills Mufasa and Taka’s family, forcing them to flee to an alleged promised land known as “Milele”. This pilgrimage tests the bond between the two brotherly lions, as Mufasa learns that he may have what it becomes to be a king, although Taka is the rightful heir.

My thoughts

When Disney announced a few years ago that they were making a prequel to their “live-action” remake of The Lion King, I think pretty much everybody had the same thought: What’s the point? We never needed a backstory on Mufasa back when we just had the original animated film, but Disney felt like it was necessary to develop a prequel to the 2019 installment. Maybe it has something to do with the $1.6 billion it grossed.

So, the point was obvious to Disney. The Lion King remake printed them money, so they’re keen to print more by expanding on the property and giving audiences more of what they’re apparently asking for: photorealistic lions! At least it seemed people wanted that at first, as public reception to the 2019 Lion King has become tepid over time.

So, yeah, like everybody else, I thought making a Mufasa movie was totally pointless. I mean, the 2019 film that inspired it was already pretty pointless, as it’s practically a soulless shot-for-shot remake of a classic animated film, so a prequel film felt especially void of purpose. I groaned when I first heard the announcement of this film, but one thing gave me hope that it could be something special: Barry Jenkins.

Moonlit Mufasa

Barry Jenkins has only directed four films, but he’s already solidified himself as one of the best of the 21st century for just one film and one film only: Moonlight. Not only did I find Moonlight to be the best film of 2016, but the best film of the entire 2010’s decade. It’s a one-of-a-kind dramatic masterpiece that should put any filmmaker on the map for good, giving them carte blanche to do whatever they want.

Moonlight won the Academy Award for Best Picture and had a successful box office run because of that acclaim. Jenkins’ next film, the tremendous If Beale Street Could Talk, was well received but failed to reach the same awards and monetary success as Moonlight. Jenkins has since worked in television with The Underground Railroad and executive produced some projects here and there, but as far as new movies go, he’s seemed to have had difficulty getting them off the ground.

Even if this was just a director-for-hire project, you can still tell Jenkins was passionate, as his directorial hallmarks are all over Mufasa. His surreal, dreamlike atmosphere gave the plains, mountains, and other beautiful African environments the characters trek through an ethereal quality. You also get plenty of his signature close-ups of characters looking and speaking directly into the camera with a shallow depth of field.

These sorts of intimate close-ups Jenkins employs aren’t the most traditional shots to find in such a big-budget production, and they do feel a bit out of place when it’s an animated lion staring into the camera instead of a human, but I’m glad he used them. The man has such a lovely, distinct style and I was grateful that he’s able to work it into projects he doesn’t have complete creative control over.

Thanks to Jenkins’ sharp eye, his cinematographer James Laxton, and the effects work from Moving Picture Company, Mufasa is visually stunning from the first frame to the last. The environments and animals are so lushly detailed that you may as well be watching a nature documentary. It does seem like the effects on the animals are a bit more exaggerated this time to give them more personality, but this is still an incredible-looking film.

A prequel with too much pride

If only Jenkins had a crack at the script, because what Jeff Nathanson wrote here just wasn’t doing it. As far as prequel origin stories go, this is about as “prequel origin story” as it gets. There’s not one original thought or surprise to be found here. The only new main characters are the villainous white lions, so every other character is from the first film, so we know exactly what’s going to happen with each of them.

Have you ever wondered why Scar is called “Scar”? How Mufasa met Sarabi? Or perhaps you’d like to see how Rafiki got his iconic shaky stick. Well, fret not, as all of your pointless prequel questions will be predictably answered here! Look, we all expect prequels to do this obligatory backstory stuff, but it felt like Nathanson was simply checking boxes instead of working a satisfying narrative around it all.

The way it’s all structured is a bit clunky, too, as it’s not just a prequel, but a sequel to the 2019 film. Nathanson employs a framing device where Rafiki (John Kani) tells the story of Mufasa to Timon (Billy Eichner), Pumbaa (Seth Rogen), and Simba’s daughter Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter). These scenes grind the movie to a halt, don’t have a satisfying payoff, and even worse, they’re supposed to be the comic relief. I didn’t laugh once, though, which is quite unusual for me while watching something with Seth Rogen.

Lyrical lions

The songs here are also pretty lackluster, particularly by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s usual standards. The only reason this seems to be a musical at all is out of some obligatory duty because the original was. Disney made a big deal out of Miranda coming onto this project to write the songs, but I fear they’re relying on him too much and stretching him thin. His work is really starting to blend together at this point.

Miranda’s songs are basically reskinned versions of the classic Alan Menken and Elton John songs from the original film. He has his own versions of Circle of Life, I Just Can’t Wait to be King, Be Prepared, and Can You Feel the Love Tonight, none of them as catchy or emotionally impactful as their inspirations. Kiro’s villain song Bye Bye is especially lame and not as clever as it thinks it is.

The man has also reached an absurd new level of rhyming the same words over and over. If you thought Moana was egregious with how much he rhymed “island” with “island”, just wait until you hear the word “brother” rhymed with itself a few dozen times in just one 3-minute song. I don’t think the repetitive lyrics will help the songs stick in my head, though, as they’re just not memorable at all.

Final verdict

Kids and fans of the 2019 Lion King remake will definitely find plenty to enjoy about Mufasa’s origin, but just like the film that inspired it, it simply feels pointless. Why bother with any of this “live-action” Lion King stuff when you can just go back and watch the classic cartoon, which tells the same story in a much more fun and visually stimulating way? These “live-action” Lion King films just don’t have that much to offer.

I wasn’t expecting much from Mufasa: The Lion King, but I was at least hopeful that Barry Jenkins would be able to make his passion shine through a cynical commercial cash grab like this. Even if this movie only exists to make Disney another billion dollars, Jenkins treated the project with sincerity and earnestness, making for a strikingly gorgeous film.

It’s simply too bad that he didn’t have a good script or musical numbers to make Mufasa anything more than a paint-by-numbers origin story. Jenkins’ direction and gorgeous visuals were the only things keeping me engaged during this because nothing else was. This will no doubt make Disney oodles of cash, so let’s hope that they made this a “one for us, one for you” deal with Jenkins, so they can give him the freedom to do whatever he wants to do next. If any director deserves it, Barry Jenkins does.