Mufasa: The Lion King Review!

Mufasa The Lion King is a film of beauty and an incredible voice cast with a mythical journey of Mufasa and his brother to teach the cub, Kiara! The film is directed by Barry Jenkins who directed Moonlight (2016) which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. It is written by Jeff Nathanson and he also wrote The Lion King (2019). This of course was based on the 1994 animated classic. He is collaborating with cinematographer, James Laxton, who worked on Moonlight. It begins with “Look at the stars. The great kings of the past look down at us from those stars.” This is the archival voice recording of James Earl Jones and the text, “In Remembrance of James Earl Jones.” We had lost the acting legend on September 9th and this film is a tribute to his performance.

It is dawn at Pride Rock, we hear Lebo sing, “Ngomso”, Xhoso for “tomorrow.” Fantastic that Lebo M’s voice begins the film with his voice beginning “Circle of Life”; “Nants ingonyama bagithi baba” (There is a lion, they said, father). Lebo M worked with some of the score with Nicholas Britell, who also worked with Jenkins as composer on If Beale Street Could Talk (2018). The score is by Dave Metzger who is also the composer for the animated movie, Wish (2023). The animals including the water buffalo race across it, the birds take flight, and it made me think that I needed to see this film again in 3D, this has not happened before to me, to appreciate its beauty. Simba (Donald Glover) is walking to the edge of Pride Rock.   

Nala (Beyonce) is some distance away next to a den of rocks. Then, Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa (Seth Rogan) arrive, and Timon announces, “The security detail has arrived!”  He jokes about a three legged zebra, by the way, it is pronounced “zeh-bra.” Simba tells them not to scare Kiara and tell her a story. This is his daughter whom Rafiki held at the end of Lion King. She made her debut in the direct-to-video sequel, The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride (1998). Kiara is voiced by Blue Ivy Carter, Beyonce’s daughter, who gives a good performance, no songs for this group though. Simba tells his daughter, “Be brave Kiara when I’m gone.” Timon and Pumbaa tells her the story of their battle defeating Scar. I good recap of the earlier movie and a twist with the duo taking on the villain. 

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