The prequel to Irene Mecchi’s “Lion King” titled “Mufasa” was released on Dec. 20, 2024. The movie is about Mufasa’s upbringing and how he became king. Though it is far from perfect, the film is a huge step up from the absolute disaster that was the animation was in the live action “Lion King.”
The movie opens with young Mufasa and his parents wishing for rain and singing about “Milele,” meaning forever. A very heavy rain starts and a great flood takes Mufasa away from his mom and dad. Mufasa is eventually found by Taka who claims Mufasa as his brother, but Taka’s father, the king, will not have it and tells Mufasa he has to stay with the females. This sets up Mufasa’s impressive sense of smell and why he wants to go find Milele — because his mother is waiting there for him.
His rag-tag team of adventurers grows as Mufasa and his brother hunt. They find that a lioness, Sarabi, has been tailing them for a while and she joins them, bringing along Zazu. The unlikely group go on their way and continue struggling to find food along their journey, eventually finding Rafiki, their wise mandrill monkey friend, who comically spends the movie correcting animals from calling him a baboon.
The new found friends bound along their way until they come back into contact with the “outsiders,” the group of lions who killed Taka’s father and Mufasa’s adoptive mother. I got flashbacks to the original “Lion King” film when Sarabi starts an elephant stampede to deter the outsiders from attacking them.
The plot overall gave a wonderful view into Mufasa’s life before Simba, and I think anyone who wasn’t happy with Mufasa’s short-lived reign would walk out of Mufasa happy with his beginning, as we also see how a lion without a drop of noble blood becomes the king of everything the light touches. I also believe the Elephant Graveyard that the Hyenas preside in inspired the elephants being the animal of choice for the first stampede.
Honestly, when I heard about the film’s release and saw the previews in theaters, the bar for me was so low considering how bad the “Lion King” live action was. However, “Mufasa” featured new music written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, so I was excited about the music going in. As usual, Miranda did not disappoint with the original works, and I highly enjoyed all of the music, my favorite being “Tell Me It’s You” when Mufasa and Sarabi fall in love with one another.
The animation was also better this time around. While watching the live action “Lion King,” it felt like I was watching a CGI movie and kind of had the same feeling as Polar Express if it were made 10 years in the future from its release. Mufasa had a very real feeling to it. There were only a couple moments where I was thinking to myself ‘now why would they do that’ because why would you animate a cub running on a tree limb in fisheye view?
Overall, “Mufasa” really opens a new world for Simba’s story and gives you some more on Mufasa because we lost him so early in “Lion King.” The movie did have its ups and downs, but I definitely recommend giving it a watch.
