This spring, the latest addition to Walt Disney Studios’ Lion King franchise makes its way home on 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD in the form of Mufasa: The Lion King. This prequel to Disney’s 1994 animated movie, which is available to purchase digitally through Amazon Prime, Apple TV and Fandango at Home is worth watching at least once, if only for its cinematography and its bonus content. That is because the movie’s story sadly does little to make this latest entry in Disney’s never-ending stream of prequels, sequels and reboots all that memorable.
Mufasa: The Lion King, the latest addition to Walt Disney Studios’ Lion King franchise, is worth watching at least but sadly not much more than that. What largely saves this otherwise lackluster movie is its cinematography. This is of note because the movie’s locales were actually digitally created. This is discussed at some length in the bonus content that accompanies the movie in its forthcoming home release and will be discussed later. The lush environments through which Mufasa and his adopted (yes, adopted) brother Taka/Scar journey over the course of the movie’s nearly two-hour run time were all generated digitally after pictures were received from across Africa of the continent’s various regions. From the rich greens of Milele to the snow capped mountains to the more arid regions and more, the look of each is surprisingly realistic. Credit must be given to the movie’s creative heads for taking the time to make each region visited by the pair look that believable. In an era in which is has become all too easy for moviemakers to just be lazy and let AI and computers in general do all of the work, crafting such content that looks anything but believable, it is nice to see that the effort was taken at least in this aspect of this movie.
Where effort clearly was taken to make Mufasa: The Lion King look appealing, it would seem that far less effort was taken in crafting the movie’s story. The story, which is being told to Simba’s daughter Kiara by Rafiki while Simba and Nala are away, is essentially just a re-hashing of that in The Lion King. The only difference is that where that movie was a lifting of Hamlet, this story instead found its titular lead being placed accidentally into his situation. The story opens with Mufasa as a cub. When rains come to the pride lands (not to give away too much as this is not fully revealed until the story’s finale), Mufasa is trapped by rising waters. His own father tries to save him but is washed away and dies. Mufasa is himself washed away in the flood but survives and ends up in another area un by another group of lions, of which Scar belongs. Of course, at this point Scar is known by another name, Taka. It does not take long at all for audiences to know that Taka will eventually become known by his more furious moniker, either. To that end, audiences end up spending the remainder of the movie waiting to find out how he gets his scar and name more than anything else. Each is revealed, too. Those revelations will be left for audiences to discover on their own. The adopted brothers end up going on the run when another group of lions known as “the outcasts” come and take over before hunting Mufasa and Taka/Scar throughout the remainder of the movie. So basically, the rest of the story becomes one extended chase scene.
So, what audiences get right from the outset is just a rehashing of the first movie. Where Mufasa himself dies by being trampled to death in The Lion King, his father dies instead by drowning. Interestingly enough, a stampede is use to save Mufasa and his friends, this time by elephants, so all the writers did was move that element to another point in the story with different animals from those used in the first movie.
Along the way, audiences also learn how Mufasa, Sarabi, Rafiki, and Zazu (all of whom are key figures in their own right in The Lion King) all met and became friends. There are also plenty of song cues (once again by one Lin-Manuel Miranda) that throw right back to the original movie’s songs, detracting from the originality even more. The addition of the noted characters itself rings back to The Lion King because of its similarity to how Simba met Timon and Pumbaa in that movie during his own epic journey back home. As the group travels together, Mufasa and Sarabi fall in love, which leads Taka/Scar to get angry because he loved Sarabi, too and in turn does the heel turn. It is that standard good guy goes back bit that has been done all too often throughout cinematic history. It’s been done in the Star Wars franchise what with the back story of how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. It has happened in the Spiderman universe when Doctor Connors became “The Lizard” and when Dr. Otto Octavius became Doctor Octopus. These are just some of the many cases of the good guy turned villain that are out there. Those same bad guys also redeemed themselves, as did Taka (yes, he redeemed himself, too). It is such an overly used plot device that is sure to leave well-minded viewers shaking their heads again here. Of course, even with his redemption, the way in which the story plays out leaves audiences to understand, he must have still had some resentment toward Mufasa from there on out, leading to the Scar that audiences came to despise in The Lion King.
Overall, the story featured in Mufasa: The Lion King feels like a total reboot of The Lion King, just with Mufasa in place of his own son. It is anything but original and in turn memorable, too. From beginning to end, it will leave audiences agreeing they have seen it all before.
Understanding how much the story of Mufasa: The Lion King does to the movie’s presentation, there is at least one more positive to note. That positive is the bonus content that accompanies the movie in its forthcoming home release. To that matter, it is positive to a point. Perhaps the most notable of the bonuses is the “making of” featurette. Spanning almost 15 minutes, this featurette finds the movie’s heads talking about how the global Covid pandemic led them to not be able to scout actual locations in Africa to use for the movie. They explain that people living in Africa’s various nations actually sent pictures to them, leading to digital versions of the landscapes they themselves saw. On top of that, it helps explain how Mufasa and company went from lush green regions to snowy mountains to drier, more arid regions. Had that explanation not been there, it might have become even more difficult to believe that one part of the story in which the group travels through the snow. Africa is hardly ever associated with snow, except of course for Mount Kilimanjaro. So, to have that background on the various regions of Africa represented does help with suspension of disbelief and in turn engagement.
Audiences looking for something simpler get that, too from the bonus content as yet again a sing-along version of the movie in whole is included as an extra. Disney most recently went this route with Moana 2 and has also done the same with the movies in its Frozen franchise. So younger viewers are sure to appreciate that once again inclusion. Lin-Manuel Miranda gets his own moment in the light, too, as he talks about the movie’s songs, speaking of the music. He acknowledges at points, efforts to throw back to the music of The Lion King, so clearly that was intentional at least to a point. Between this, the sing-along version of the movie, the “making of” featurette and the “cinematography” there is at least some reason for audiences to take in Mufasa: The Lion King. At the same time, thanks to its all too familiar story, it becomes a movie that is worth streaming but not owning.
Walt Disney Studios’ forthcoming home release of Mufasa: The Lion King is another disappointing offering from what used to be one of Hollywood’s great studios. It is a movie worth watching at least once but sadly not much more than that. The landscapes across which Mufasa and his friends travel are impressive, and the explanations about them offered in the bonus content adds to that appeal, but those items are about all that the movie has to really offer. That is because the story featured here is not that impressive. It is essentially a prequel and reboot all in one because it is the same story as that in The Lion King, just with some tweaks. To that end, this movie is, again, worth one watch, but sadly anything but memorable.
Mufasa: The Lion King is available to purchase digitally through Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and Fandago at Home. It is scheduled for release on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD Apr. 1. More information on this and other titles from Wal Disney Studios is available at:
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