{"id":10455,"date":"2024-12-21T08:56:15","date_gmt":"2024-12-21T13:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=10455"},"modified":"2025-02-17T18:11:49","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T23:11:49","slug":"mufasa-the-lion-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/12\/21\/mufasa-the-lion-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Mufasa: The Lion King"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Mufasa: The Lion King<\/strong> (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Disney\/Drama-Musical\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 118 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (action\/violence, peril, some thematic elements)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Barry Jenkins\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jeff Nathanson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Dave Metzger, Nicholas Britell (score) and Lin-Manuel Miranda (songs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: James Laxton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 20, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr., John Kani, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Tiffany Boone, Donald Glover, Mads Mikkelsen, Thandiwe Newton, Lennie James, Blue Ivy Carter, Beyonce Knowles-Carter, Preston Nyman, Anika Noni Rose, Keith David, Joanna Jones, Folake Olowofoyeku.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s been a good year for Disney with both Inside Out 2 and Moana 2 cleaning up at the box office. The twin successes helped pull Disney out of a multi-year slump. Of course, it has less to do with quality than the numbers at the end of their titles. Those in the know call them cash-grab movies. They were made purely for financial reasons. I realize it\u2019s a cynical viewpoint of children\u2019s entertainment, but the truth is the truth. The studio knows that kids and their not always thrilled parents will show up en masse for follow-ups to their favorite animated films no matter how weak.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I love The Lion King, the original 1994 animated version to be exact. I\u2019d even say it\u2019s my favorite Disney movie. It moved me immensely. I still tear up when I think of the beautiful \u201cCircle of Life\u201d opening. I like the 2019 live-action remake. It\u2019s good, but CGI animals don\u2019t have the same effect. Nevertheless, it made over $1.1B globally ($543.6M domestic). With those figures, it was only a matter of time before it got its own cash-grab. In this case, it\u2019s a prequel.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As you can surmise from the title, Mufasa: The Lion King<\/strong> tells the story of Mufasa, the father of future Lion King Simba, voiced by the late James Earl Jones in both previous versions. This is Mufasa\u2019s origin story. It\u2019s where we see how he became the first Lion King. It\u2019s framed as a story being told to Simba\u2019s daughter Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter, daughter of Beyonce who lends her voice to Simba\u2019s wife Nala) by wise mandrill Rafiki (Kani, Black Panther) while her parents are away from the den. By way of comic relief, Simba\u2019s childhood friends Pumbaa (Rogen, The Super Mario Bros. Movie) and Timon (Eichner, Bros) are on hand to riff track with jokes about their trademark number and Disney taking legal action.<\/p>\n

\u00a0After he loses his parents in a flood, Mufasa is taken in by Eshe (Newton, Mission: Impossible 2) who teaches him to hunt and see with his heart. He becomes close to his brother Taka (Harrison, Genius), the future king of his pride. The dad Obasi (James, The Walking Dead) doesn\u2019t want him around because of his prejudice against \u201cstrays\u201d. However, there comes a time when he\u2019s glad Mufasa is there. He saves Eshe\u2019s life when a rival pride of white lions attack them while they\u2019re hunting. Taka runs away like a coward, embarrassing Obasi.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s also Mufasa (Pierre, The Underground Railroad) who warns Obasi that their enemies are coming back. He tasks Mufasa with protecting Taka after sending them away for their own protection. Mufasa\u2019s plan is to find a mythical place called Milele where they\u2019ll be safe from the bad pride led by the vicious Kiros (Mikkelsen, Casino Royale). It\u2019s a long journey fraught with danger at every turn. They pick up a few companions along the way- stray lioness and future lion queen Sarabi (Boone, Hunters), her hornbill protector Zazu (Hyman) and a young Rafiki.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on this year, but I have not been impressed with this holiday season\u2019s cinematic offerings. For the most part, they\u2019ve been these empty, soulless vehicles that leave me feeling hollow and indifferent. Mufasa: The Lion King<\/strong> continues this trend. I wanted to like it and I did, just not a whole lot. It tells a pretty good story, but it meanders a lot, especially in the middle section. It should have a bigger emotional impact considering whose story it\u2019s telling and its big themes of family, betrayal, love and power. One could even say it\u2019s Shakespearean. It tries to go big with its emotional reach, but it never really gets there, not like the OG.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I have mixed feelings about the visual effects in Mufasa: The Lion King<\/strong>. The African landscapes look great and the CGI animals don\u2019t look as fake as the ones in last week\u2019s Kraven the Hunter. However, it still doesn\u2019t look all that real to me. I\u2019m sorry, I know I sound like a broken record, but CGI is no substitute for traditional animation, especially when it comes to talking animals and their expressive faces.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, while pleasant enough, are completely forgettable. I didn\u2019t hear a one that has Top 40 potential like \u201cCan You Feel the Love Tonight\u201d. There\u2019s no show-stopping number like \u201cI Just Can\u2019t Wait to Be King\u201d either. It\u2019s only been a few hours and I can\u2019t recall a single tune or melody.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The voice talents do a good job although the bits with Pumbaa and Timon feel forced and shoe-horned in. They\u2019re an amusing duo, but they\u2019re trying just a little too hard. Harrison does a good job as the treacherous future Scar while Pierre doesn\u2019t have quite the same regal quality to his voice as JE Jones to whom this film is lovingly dedicated. Boone has just the right amount of spunk and strong-mindedness as Sarabi. As for Nyman as Zazu, he\u2019s no Rowan Atkinson.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Barry Jenkins (Moonlight), Mufasa: The Lion King<\/strong> has ambition written all over it. He\u2019s going for something on an operatic level, but falls short. I hate to say it, but I was actually bored at times. In the end, it just left me lukewarm. It\u2019s not the worse I\u2019ve seen from Disney, but they\u2019ve sure done better. Maybe it\u2019s time to knock it off with all these live-action remakes.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mufasa: The Lion King (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Disney\/Drama-Musical\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 118 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (action\/violence, peril, some thematic elements)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Barry Jenkins\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jeff Nathanson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Dave Metzger, Nicholas Britell (score) and Lin-Manuel Miranda (songs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: James Laxton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 20, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr., John Kani, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Tiffany Boone, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure","category-musical"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Mufasa-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C918&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10455"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10464,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10455\/revisions\/10464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}