Mufasa: The Lion King Review - Disney's Prequel Roars With Promise But Stumbles

A musical prequel that reveals the untold story of how two famous rivals used to be friends, and how they fell out. If "The Lion King" was pitched as "Hamlet" in Africa, then "Mufasa: The Lion King" was likely designed to be the "Wicked" of the animal kingdom, as we hear through song how a pair of adopted brothers grew up together before growing apart. Considering the staggering success of the "Wizard Of Oz" prequel at the box office, there's no better time for Disney to dive further into the back stories of two of their most famous characters in the same manner — that it arrives just a few weeks later after several years in development is both a happy accident and a curse.

Director Barry Jenkins has made the best conceivable prequel to a cash-grab CGI remake already forgotten in the cultural consciousness, outshining its predecessor simply by not feeling like passionless, by-the-numbers storytelling. The fact that the 2019 "Lion King" felt that way, despite being a beat-for-beat retread of one of the definitive films of Disney's '90s renaissance, is still surprising. Despite the much-hyped advancements in technology that could bring characters to life with photorealistic CGI, looking more like a David Attenborough film than a typical Mouse House fairytale, it felt lifeless, the vibrancy of the hand-drawn animation missing in translation. It made over a billion dollars through brand name recognition, but satisfied few; watching musical numbers from the original and the remake side-by-side were the final nail in the coffin, as characters who once bounced and leapt around landscapes were reduced to walking and singing in a straight line.

Barry Jenkins, the genius filmmaker behind "Moonlight" and "If Beale Street Could Talk," understands the limitations of this technology, and each musical sequence here is brought to life more effectively because he knows how to stage spectacle within the boundaries placed on him. There is very little sign of his own identity as an artist within "Mufasa: The Lion King," and he has already expressed regret at devoting several years to making a movie outside of his wheelhouse — although crucially, he hasn't disowned it, as some have misinterpreted his comments to mean — but it's clear that the film was still made by someone excited by the assignment to make a populist blockbuster. There's a genuine passion here that was absent from its predecessor, a film that could safely go through the motions as financial success was all but guaranteed.

Unfortunately, "Mufasa" remains in the shadow of the original animation and the recent screen adaptation of "Wicked," which utilizes the same story template far more effectively — and with far better songs. Lin-Manuel Miranda is the sole credited songwriter here, and after proving an ingenious addition to the Disney stable with his "Moana" efforts, has begun to phone it in. There's not a single memorable hook here, with only the staging of these set pieces and the songs they're clearly designed to imitate — such as an early "I Just Can't Wait To Be King" riff — lingering in the memory due to a dearth of ear worm melodies. When Timon and Pumbaa (Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner) burst out into a Weird Al Yankovic style "Hakuna Mufasa" sing-along, it becomes clear the film is self-aware that no new song will resonate quite as much as the originals.

Unusually for a Disney movie, I found myself thinking that the film would be far stronger without any musical interludes, as they only emphasized how better the original songs from "The Lion King" were; the story is energetic and action-packed enough to hold a young audience's attention, feeling like a welcome addition to the franchise. Via a framing device, Simba's daughter Kiara (Blue-Ivy Carter) is taught the story of how Mufasa (Aaron Pierre) and Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) first met as cubs. The former was an orphan, washed away from his family in a flood; the latter was a Prince, next in line to the throne. After a pack of white lions (led by Mads Mikkelsen's Kiros) threatened their existence, Mufasa helped save the family — and as they ran away to find safety, Taka became paranoid that his friend would replace him as the heir to the kingdom.

As with any prequel, the movie teases out plot developments both big (how Taka will come to be known as Scar) and small (how Rafiki gets his trusty Bakora staff) which only distract from the story at hand. However, thanks to the framing device — and the fourth wall breaking co-narration by Timon and Pumbaa, the sole highlights of the 2019 effort — this proves less grating than usual. Children may be experiencing cliches of prequel storytelling for the first time, but the film gently allows older viewers to know it's in on the joke without winking too hard and shattering the illusion. There's a genuine sincerity here that no lightly meta joke can distract from.

"Mufasa: The Lion King" also gets extra credit for being the rare children's film of recent memory to not sanitize its horrors, going further than its predecessor in reminding them of the brutal food chain in the animal kingdom. Mads Mikkelsen can voice Hollywood villains in his sleep at this point – and he's never managed to better his "Casino Royale" baddie — but his Kiros ranks highly among his blockbuster antagonists. Youngsters will be terrified of the threat he poses, and their parents will be left in shock at hearing him burst into song with vocal talents reminiscent of Pierce Brosnan in "Mamma Mia!" If nothing else, this distinguishes this performance from the countless he's been hired to play across several major franchises. There truly is nothing more menacing than a villain who is as deadly as he is out of tune.

Barry Jenkins' prequel clears the lowest of bars by being made with far more passion than the CGI "Lion King" remake, to the extent that you wish Disney would have just made this in the first place and left the source material alone. It pales in comparison to the animated classic, and would never have lived up to it — but after years of soulless retreads from Disney, this proves you can go some way to recapturing the magic of the originals by hiring a filmmaker who wants to expand upon those earlier stories, rather than lazily revisiting them. I would have much preferred an original work from Jenkins, but even when making something that feels anonymous next to his earlier films, it has far more personality than most of Disney's recent live-action output.

"Mufasa: The Lion King" premieres on December 20.