Mufasa: The Lion King Parent Guide

Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter) is the princess of the Pride Lands, but her father, Simba (Donald Glover) and mother, Nala (Beyonce Knowles-Carter) are on a mysterious errand, leaving her with three babysitters: the mandrill Rafiki (John Kani), meerkat Timon (Billy Eichner), and warthog Pumbaa (Seth Rogen). A thunderstorm scares Kiara (not to mention Timon and Pumba), so Rafiki decides to soothe them with a story about Kiara’s grandfather, Mufasa (Aaron Pierre).

Separated from his parents by a terrible flood, the young Mufasa had the good fortune to be found by another pride of lions. The king, Obasi (Lennie James), did not accept Mufasa, but his mate, Eshe (Thandiwe Newton) and son, Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), refused to part with him. Thus Mufasa and Taka grew up as brothers, and when Obasi’s pride was attacked by a vicious pride of strange white lions, the two fled together. Desperate for safety, Mufasa and Taka remembered a place they had been told about by Eshe, a magical green oasis called Milele. But it would not be an easy journey for the young lions…

Much like its predecessor, 2019’s live action The Lion King, this film is digitally animated in the closest thing technology can get to photorealistic style. It’s largely successful, apart from some weird, occasional stuttering in the backgrounds – but I don’t think this technology is worth celebrating. Apart from the problem with lifelike lion faces being physically unable to display human emotions, there’s a strange uncanny valley effect when the animators force them to try. I don’t know why we can’t just respect traditional animation as an art form. For a story like this, the less realistic style helps bridge that gap between the emotive needs of storytelling and performance with the fact that all of the characters are animals.

Equally disappointing is the film’s soundtrack. I’ll bet you remember a handful of the tunes from the 1994 film – if I start naming titles, you’ll get one stuck in your head. That won’t happen with Mufasa. I saw this movie yesterday, and I can’t hum a single bar from any of the songs. I certainly couldn’t tell you any of the lyrics, since the audio mixing so overemphasizes the instrumentals (and especially the percussion) that I couldn’t figure out what half of the songs were supposed to be about. Given the high test talent recruited for this movie’s music – Lin-Manuel Miranda of Hamilton wrote the score – its blandness is itself remarkable.

Disney knows its market, so parents can be reassured that there isn’t much negative content. Obviously, there’s no sex, drug use, drinking, smoking, or profanity. The only concern comes with violence, specifically occasional bloodless fights between a variety of critters. This where the “live action”/hyper-realistic animation style can cause problems: the scary parts are scarier for little kids.

If 2019’s The Lion King was criticized for uninventively reshooting a classic film, then where does that leave the bland prequel? Yes, the story is sort of new, but the Circle of Life doesn’t feel enriched by this film; it just feels commodified. The movie is safe, harmless, and will certainly sell merchandise, but it isn’t going to revolutionize the world of entertainment.