Mufasa: The Lion King review: Barry Jenkins gives you something to care about

One of the key gripes audiences had with the 2019 “live-action” CGI remake of The Lion King is that big cats are not particularly expressive creatures.

The commitment to photorealism meant the film couldn’t capture Simba’s bright smile when he was goofing with Timon and Pumba, or the quiver and fear in his eyes when Scar tells him Mufasa’s death was his fault.

Through all these momentous emotional beats, the characters emoted as if they were just looking at a log.

In the follow-up prequel, Mufasa: The Lion King, the filmmakers seem to have moved away from the dogmatic approach. Their facial movements still aren’t as alive as the 1994 animation, but there’s more intimacy in the way the characters have been framed for the audience.

You can credit director Barry Jenkins for some of those visual flourishes, including a smart use of close-ups and more dynamic camera movements to create that connection between us and them. You feel much more a part of the lions’ space.

Emotional connections are important in a prequel because a successful one has to set up stakes beyond plot progression. When you know how the story is going to end, it has to give you something to care about.

Here, it’s the younger versions of Mufasa and Scar – the latter is named Taka at this point – and how they started off as adopted brothers, the best of friends and playmates, and ended up with Scar conspiring Mufasa’s death.

The film is titled after Mufasa, but it’s really a two-hander, two lion cubs who are opposite sides of the same coin and if it had flipped the other way, fate would’ve been very different.

Of common lineage, Mufasa (Aaron Pierre) was raised by loving parents, but a flood separates him from them, and he drifts past Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr), a prince of a lion pride.

Taka’s father, King Obasi (Lennie James), refuses to have anything to do with Mufasa and banishes him to live with the female lions, but they’re the ones who hunt and teach him the same. Meanwhile, Obasi and male lions laze and graze around the tree.

It’s also where Taka hears what will prove to be a formative piece of advice from his dad, even if he rejects it at first, “Deceit is the tool of a great king”.

Mufasa: The Lion King explores the duality of good and bad choices as not just the decisions we make ourselves, but how they’re shaped by all the forces in our lives past and present.

The script can be cloying at times, and the eventual heel turn feels a little rushed when it happens, but Mufasa: The Lion King has genuine stakes. Unlike the inert 2019 remake, it is fresher and more energetic.

There is also the Jenkins touch. An unorthodox choice for a Disney helmer, Jenkins is the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind emotionally soaring films Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk and the drama series The Underground Railroad, based on Colson Whitehead’s novel.

He brings those sensibilities to Mufasa and even uses a recurring water/rebirth/baptism motif to great thematic effect.

As much as can, Jenkins has worked within the demands of a Disney remake to give it more depth and soul than these endeavours usually possess.

The original songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda, including the bangers I’ve Always Wanted a Brother, and Bye Bye, have verve and a toe-tapping zest, and are filled with Miranda’s rhythmic beats and word-play lyricism.

Whenever Disney pumps out a “live-action” remake or extension of its animated classics, the question that is inevitably asked is, “Did we need this?”.

No, we didn’t.

But there’s a lot to like in Mufasa: The Lion King, and with the involvement of artists such as Jenkins and Miranda, you may even discover a beat, a scene or a whole movie that affects you in more ways than one.

Rating: 3.5/5

Mufasa: The Lion King is in cinemas on December 19