Mufasa: The Lion King Review | A Visually Spectacular Drama With Moving Philosophies

Mufasa: The Lion King from Barry Jenkins is a worthy prequel cum sequel that really does justice to the philosophical essence of the original. The film that talks about the life of Mufasa strikes a really good balance in being this live-action photorealistic animation film and a truly moving and motivating drama. Like how Lion King was inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet, this movie is also driven by grey emotions like envy and deceit. And thus, the staging of the conflict we saw in The Lion King feels dramatically realistic.

As I mentioned in the beginning, this is a prequel as well as a sequel. Mufasa: The Lion King is actually narrated as this tale of Mufasa from the mouth of Rafiki, who is trying to motivate Simba and Nala’s daughter Kiara, who is afraid to go out. After Timon and Pumbaa fail to keep Kiara engaged, Rafiki takes up that responsibility and tells Kiara the story of her grandfather. What we see here is the life journey of Mufasa, which also had challenges of being separated from family, and having to live the life of a loyal stray.

One of the things that truly impressed me in Mufasa on a writing level is the fact that how different it is from The Lion King in terms of setting the drama. You are not seeing a different iteration of the same Simba story. How the story approaches the brotherhood of Mufasa and Taka felt like a clever way of showing the complicated evolution of a friendship. It is nuanced and yet understandable even for the kids. And it is not like the change in dynamics has been shown in the most juvenile way. There are areas in the film where you see the spiritual Rafiki explaining to Tiara how someone becomes “bad.” Segments like that make Mufasa a film that even adults will find relatable.

How Mufasa: The Lion King sets up some of the iconic characters and locations of The Lion King is actually pretty smooth. The story of Rafiki, which gets a very good slice of the movie, is used very effectively. The fact that Rafiki was also a stray in his tribe and how that makes him look at even the bad ones from an eye of empathy humanizes a lot of things in this movie. The alienated Rafiki’s optimistic approach toward life itself feels like a sensible feel-good package. It was actually interesting to see a visual spectacle film that has kids as its major target audience, opting to use romance as a device to create conflict.

The gender politics of the movie is also quite impressive. Mufasa’s situation puts him in a circumstance where he has to be in the company of the females, and the movie ultimately shows you how that makes him a better leader compared to the other males who are driven by power and carry an extremely fragile ego. As I already said, Mufasa: The Lion King is very much using its scope to establish the jungle and its characters, which wasn’t really done in the 2019 film. From the formation of Pride Rock to the friendship of Rafiki and Mufasa, we get to know the history of several elements that were in the original. Even though Pumbaa and Timon are not necessary to the movie, I loved how they used those characters to talk about cliches and scripting tropes directly to an audience who may have seen the 1994 movie as a kid. The humor in the portions featuring them also worked really well for the film.

Aaron Pierre has given voice to Mufasa, and Kelvin Harrison Jr. is the one who voiced for Taka. Rafiki gets the matured narrator voice from John Kani. Mads Mikkelsen has lent his voice pretty effectively to the mighty villain, Kairos, a white lion.

Mufasa: The Lion King is a worthy successor that has a different set of philosophies and, a different set of conflicts and it uses the known details about the characters to build a very nuance-rich past for each of the characters. With the photorealistic visual quality enhancing this musical’s choreographed spectacle-like staging, Mufasa: The Lion King is equally moving and entertaining.