Wounded Pride
It’s fine, but not even Barry Jenkins can escape the reach of The Mouse and break free of the same old same old.
Mufasa: The Lion king
Director: Barry Jenkins • Writer: Jeff Nathanson, based on The Lion King
Starring [English]: Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr, Mads Mikkelsen, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Blue Ivy Carter, Thandiwe Newton, John Kani
USA • 1hr 58mins
Opens Hong Kong Dec 19 • I
Grade: B
For the sake of brevity I’m not going to bloviate, once again, on the insipidity of Disney monetising-slash-weaponising its catalogue with “live action” remakes of existing IP. I’ll skip over how if the House of Mouse truly wanted fresh ideas and diversity on its slate it would find a way to give four new filmmakers US$50 million and find a way to keep costs down instead of giving one filmmaker – regardless of how talented they may be, like Barry Jenkins – US$200+ million to rehash the same shit from 10, 20 or 88 years ago (looking at you, waking nightmare that is Snow White). I won’t point out how, when Disney does go out on a limb (hahahahahahahaha) it suddenly remembers its precious shareholders and pulls back right quick. Is it their money to do with as they please? Yes. As a consumer of their primary product which just happens to be creative arts can I bitch about it as I please? Oh, hell yes.
As stated, Oscar-winner Jenkins (Moonlight) is very talented and he’s tremendously adept at making films about identity, the nuances of family, self-doubt, injustice and transcending all of that. He produced the stellar fourth season of True Detective, the luminous If Beale Street Could Talk and adapted Colson Whitehead’s fantastical The Underground Railroad for Amazon. So it’s easy to come to Mufasa: The Lion King with hope that Jenkins will somehow exert his will on it. Now, it’s not nearly as soulless as the remake of the 1994 animated classic, and there are moments when it flirts with blossoming into the more thoughtful film lurking beneath the surface. But Disney gonna Disney, and in the end it’s another dull spin on the same, safe story with the same, safe messages.
Lions have litters, btw
Mufasa is a prequel to the ’19 The Lion King, tracking how Simba’s dad became the lord of the Pride Lands and the most beloved monarch of all time. Because nothing can be left unexplained and no backstory can be left a mystery. We begin with Simba and Nala getting ready for the birth of their second child, leaving their daughter Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter) – and yes, I know they’re cubs – in the care of Timon and Pumbaa (Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen), who have long since worn out their welcome. While they all wait for Simba and Nala to come back from the birthing centre, the wise old mandrill Rafiki (South African vet John Kani, AKA T’Chaka) tells Kiara the story of how Mufasa became Mufasa, and how his adopted brother Taka became Scar.
Long story short? Young Mufasa gets swept away in a flood (not a tragic stampede) and winds up in another part of… Tanzania? Botswana? befriended by Taka, the prince of the area. Despite Taka’s father Obasi (Lennie James) objecting mightily, his mother Eshe (Thandiwe Newton) welcomes him into the pride and takes him under her wing. Or paw. They grow up as brothers, with Mufasa (Aaron Pierre trying to fill James Earl Jones’s massive shoes) clearly the better lion, even though Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr) is the heir to the throne. When a pride of white (!) invaders led by Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen) threatens Taka’s lands – and get Kiros’s son killed doing so – Mufasa and Taka go on the run, eventually joined by Rafiki, lost lioness Sarabi (Tiffany Boone) and her royal guardian Zazu (Preston Nyman, mos def not John Oliver).
So naturally we’re going to find out how Scar got his scar, what the rift was that separated the brothers, how Pride Rock was formed and on and on and on. Mufasa strips every possible space for imagination away for good, spoon-feeding us answers to questions that were more fun to make up for yourself than to actually see realised on screen. Did you need to know how Han Solo got his pilot’s jacket? No. And you don’t need to know how Rafiki got his staff. He walks around with a big stick. Good enough. But here we are, mired in constantly moving, swirly, vertigo-inducing images that substitute kinetic energy for storytelling. When the camera finally stops for few minutes it’s a welcome respite, and very often shows off the film’s most visually striking moments. None of those, of course, come from the art itself but from elegant compositions; Kiros’s first ambush is fabulous. Hey Disney, if I want photorealistic lions I’ll watch BBC Earth. I want animation in my animation.
To his credit, Jenkins wrings interesting themes out of Jeff Nathanson’s script a few times – amazing considering the guy wrote Speed 2: Cruise Control, Rush Hour 2 and 3, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (someone take this guy’s WGA card) – but never finds a way to go anywhere with them. The tension between the way Mufasa effortlessly connects to others and his natural leadership, and Taka’s awkwardness, cowardice and simmering entitlement, all of which he’s aware of, is the basis of a great story about friendship, found family, resentment and forgiveness (or lack of it), but Jenkins can’t get any traction in between the fitfully engaging songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda – I guess this is why he couldn’t get back for Moana 2 – trying but never quite succeeding in hitting the highs of “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” or, hate to admit it, “Hakuna Matata”. Is Mufasa: The Lion King terrible? No. Will kids like it? Probably. But One day they’re going to dig up the ’94 version in a hotel room and wonder why the hell we needed this one.