Mufasa The Lion King Hits the Theaters: Is It Worth Seeing With Your Kids?

The new project about the Disney lion, Mufasa: The Lion King, is both a prequel and a sequel to the cult animation. At the helm is Barry Jenkins, director of the Oscar-winning drama Moonlight, and the voice cast includes Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Beyoncé and more.

Five years ago, the live-action Lion King left a mixed impression, dividing viewers in half: those who were genuinely amazed by the quality of the rendering of the hair on Simba's mane, and those who discerned the questionable quality of the movie itself behind the expensive but not always good CGI.

What Is Mufasa: The Lion King About?

As the title suggests, the movie is dedicated to the youth of Mufasa, the future father of the future king, Simba.

After a tragic flood, Mufasa, still a lion cub, finds himself away from his family and meets his peer Taka (aka Scar). However, their friendship and joint fight against external threats is overshadowed by Taka's jealousy of Mufasa, which develops into betrayal.

In the best traditions of the new Disney cinema, Mufasa: The Lion King aims to reveal the backstory of the canonical villain, to find the true motivation for his bad deeds, to show that the world is not divided into black and white.

Therefore, the main character of the movie is not The Lion King itself, but Scar/Taka, who is actually very kind and honest, but unfairly oppressed by society and his father's toxic masculinity.

Mufasa: The Lion King Has a Lot of Problems But It's Still Better Than the 2019 Movie

The storyline tries to be multi-layered and complex, but often stumbles over banal clichés and plot holes. For example, Taka's family dies tragically at the hands of evil white lions, whose motivation is not revealed, and five minutes later we see Taka and Mufasa happily going on adventures without the slightest hint of grief.

At the same time, Mufasa looks much better than the 2019 movie. Firstly, the animals here have facial expressions, so you're less likely to feel like you've accidentally ended up at a screening of a National Geographic documentary.

Second, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the author of Hamilton – the most important Broadway musical of the last decade – was personally responsible for the songs. But if the music deserves praise, then there are certain complaints about the verses which sound like this: "I always wanted a brother... I still remember my mother".

Mufasa: The Lion King Isn't Colourful Enough for Kids and Too Simple for Adults

The main problem of the movie, however, is not the rhymes, but the fact that this whole Disney production simply does not work in isolation from the animation, as we are used to imagining it.

The realism means that even halfway through the movie it is difficult to identify the characters, because real animals in the wild are so similar.

The whole movie will haunt you with the question: Why? And while you ponder that question, bored kids will be whispering, throwing popcorn at the screen, or even walking out of the theater because nobody signed up to watch two hours of sad, naturalistic singing lions.