Very annoyingly, I was working again this Xmas break, so all that time I’d have had off, I didn’t. That being said, you can’t miss the chance when you have it, and I recently found some time to go to the cinema. It seems that the festive period was good for film and there was plenty of choice. I managed to convince my wife to let me continue to live out my childhood nostalgia and we went to watch ‘Mufasa’!
‘Mufasa: The Lion King’, as you have probably gathered is the prequel film to ‘The Lion King’. It tells the story of a young cub, named Mufasa, who tragically loses his parents to a flood in the opening few scenes, only to be adopted reluctantly by another pride of lions. Whilst the head of the pride, Obasi is reluctant to let an outsider in, one of the lionesses, Eshe, and the prince of the pride, Taka, take a liking to Mufasa and he is given their protection. As the two cubs grow up, they are inseparable, like brothers. However, one day, Eshe and Mufasa are attacked by a pair of white lions from another pride. Mufasa manages to take down one of the lions, whilst the other runs back to his pride. We are introduced to Kiros, the head of the pride of White lions known as the Outsiders. When it turns out that the young white lion killed by Mufasa was Kiros’s son, we find our antagonist enraged, vowing to exact revenge. Mufasa and Taka are sent away from the pride and told to flee so as to stay alive. On their journey, they meet a lioness, Sarabi, the lone survivor of a pride that Kiros attacked. She along with a hornbill named Zaza, and a young mandrill named Rafiki join the two lions in their attempts to find ‘Milele’, a prosperous land that is legendary. Despite his royal blood, Taka struggles to assert himself and slowly begins to resent his adoptive brother. Can this new pride somehow stick together and make it to safety? Or will Taka’s desires lead him to a darker path?
I mean there is a hefty voice cast, but I’m going to comment on the main actors. Returning as Simba and Nala were Donald Glover and Beyoncé. They had minimal lines in the film, but I do think that perhaps Beyoncé’s voice is a little too rich and deep for Nala, she would have been a good Sarabi. Donald Glover does make a good Simba, but this film wasn’t about him. Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen return as the iconic duo, Timon and Pumbaa. They’re well suited to the roles, but I can’t lie, I found their characters so unneeded in this film. Playing our titular role of Mufasa was Aaron Pierre. Pierre is up-and-coming fast, and he was attempting to fill big shoes by playing the role that was once voiced by the legendary late James Earl Jones. It was tough but he was certainly one of the voice highlights. Opposite him, playing Taka, was Kelvin Harrison Jr. Again, it can’t have been easy to match Jeremy Irons’ iconic silky voice. Harrison didn’t do too badly, but there wasn’t that conniving nature to his performance, I can cut him slack because his character hasn’t get got to that point of villainy. If we’re going to talk about the standout voice performance for me, it has to be Mads Mikkelsen as Kiros. I honestly thought the entire way through that it was Antonio Banderas, and didn’t know that Mikkelson was capable of some of those dulcet tones, aha!
It’s funny because the last film I reviewed was a sequel that I didn’t think needed to be made. This film falls into the same category. I didn’t realize that crowds were clambering to find out how Simba’s father became King and following the film, I think more than ever, it almost cheapens the first film. Now here’s my biggest pet peeve, why is Disney still trying to make villains relatable? Scar was by far one of the more sinister characters in my childhood, I don’t want to know he was wronged and was actually supposed to be King. However, I don’t like to be completely critical. It’s an okay original plot, and there is a bit of fun to be had in watching it!
If we’re going to speak about the most improved point of the film, then we have to speak about the cinematography. The first film did well to at least create a good version of live action when it came to the animals, and this film was certainly a step up. Okay, naturally we’re going to have to talk about the music. The soundtrack is going viral. The funniest thing is, that when I heard the songs, I was instantly like, if I didn’t know who wrote this, I’d know it was Lin Manuel-Miranda. The guy knows how to write songs, I think my only issue was that they sounded like they were trying to emulate African sounds without ever achieving it. Idk. That being said, some of them were quite catchy. Overall, not a bad film to see in the cinema, but Disney are fast learning that they can’t cheapen nostalgia and expect to make the big bucks!
Rating:
Story: ★★★
Voice Acting: ★★★
Cinematography: ★★★★
Music: ★★★½
Enjoyability: ★★½