- Billy Eichner, Seth Rogen, Aaron Pierre
- December 20th 2024
- 119
- Barry Jenkins
This prequel shows how Mufasa met his “brother” Taka/Scar and reveals why they became mortal enemies.
It’s been five years since the 2019 remake of The Lion King and now it’s time to head back to the Pride Lands for this prequel.
Mufasa: The Lion King, directed by Moonlight’s Barry Jenkins, begins as a sequel, with Simba’s daughter Kiara making an appearance for the first time since the 1998 straight-to-video film The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride.
Rafiki (voiced by John Kani), Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa (Seth Rogen) babysit Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter) and tell her the origin story of her late grandfather Mufasa (Aaron Pierre).
The story then switches back and forth between the past and present to play out Mufasa’s story in real-time, from his early beginnings to his becoming king of the Pride Lands.
In those intervening years, he loses his real family and another one takes him in, with Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) becoming his newfound “brother”. The ensuing story shows how Taka came to be known as Scar, why he and Mufasa became enemies and how they met Mufasa’s wife Sarabi (Tiffany Boone), her loyal aide Zazu (Preston Nyman) and Rafiki.
This new edition works best when forges its own path and tells its own story instead of trying to reference or draw parallels to Simba’s story in The Lion King. It does this far too much and there was no need to. Mufasa’s story already closely mirrors Simba’s so the callbacks, fan service moments and repeated key phrases are overdoing it.
Lin-Manuel Miranda has worked his lyrical magic for Disney before but none of his new tracks stand out. We Go Together, which he co-wrote with original 1994 songwriter Lebo M, was enjoyable in the moment and it was amusing to hear Mads Mikkelsen’s villain song, Bye Bye, but none of them come remotely close to the classics like Circle of Life and Hakuna Matata by Elton John and Tim Rice.
Out of the star-studded voice cast, Pierre deserves the most praise for taking over from James Earl Jones (RIP) as the voice of Mufasa. Those are big shoes to fill but the depth and tone of his voice make him the perfect predecessor.
When it’s not overdoing it with The Lion King references, Mufasa: The Lion King is an entertaining and visually astounding film that is so photorealistic you sometimes forget you’re watching a CGI animation.
In cinemas from Friday 20th December.
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