I’m seeped in the Lion King mythos, so that’s why my wife, daughter, and I saw the Mufasa movie at the Spectrum Theatre in mid-January. My wife and I saw the original 1994 animated film, as did our daughter subsequently. The musical production at Proctor’s Theater in Schenectady my wife and I saw twice, once with our daughter. The daughter was in the production at church. I saw a junior high school production, and I suspect there’s another. But I didn’t see the live action film from 2019.
The reviews for Mufasa have been mixed, only 56% positive on Rotten Tomatoes. A postive review: “A remake of ‘The Lion King’ was an unnecessary move from a cinematic point of view, but a masterstroke from a business point of view.”
A couple negative takes: It “would have been perfect if its characters had fewer lines, and if the songs were in the background rather than emerging through the mouths of clearly computer-generated figures.” “The songs fall flat, the story is basic, and the movie falls for all of the prequel tropes we’ve grown tired of.”
Profitable
I agree with all of that. It is Disney money grab, for sure, and a successful one at that. While the animals were rendered wonderfully, it was a bit difficult to distinguish some of them, particularly the lions.
Watching them sing was a bit distracting. Some of the songs were particularly cutesy. Although I had forgotten he was involved, a few, in particular Bye Bye immediately sounded like Lin Manuel Miranda’s signature style, even though I had forgotten that he was involved with the film. Interestingly, listening to them without watching the action was less distracting.
We were surprised that the film suggested, albeit off screen, incredible violence, as the vultures head towards what had to have been a killing field.
But I think the film got better as the film centers on five characters, three lions and two others. There was an interesting lesson at the end which I suspect some people will think is a bit too “woke” for their taste, but which I thought was true. By the end of the movie, I’d given into the storyline.
I got enough out of it that it wasn’t a waste my time, but your experience may differ.