Directed by Barry Jenkins and written by Jeff Nathanson, Mufasa: The Lion King (2024) is a prequel to the 2019 live-action film The Lion King, based on the 1994 animated classic of the same name. The Disney film stars Aaron Pierre as Mufasa, an orphan lion who wants to become king. Stream this film on Flixtor movie.
Separated from his parents by a flood, Mufasa is taken in by another pride prince, Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), and his mother, Eshe (Thandiwe Newton). But the meaning of family and lineage is put to the test when an exiled pride of lions, led by the cruel Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen), threatens the remaining lions.
Mufasa: The Lion King is a powerful story trapped in the hell of a franchise. The story is epic and emotional, a clever inversion of the original story. But the film is stuffed with countless unnecessary Easter eggs, jokes and mediocre musical moments. Most of what makes the story so powerful is quickly lost at every turn.
This film is ultimately about brotherhood. What defines brothers? Blood, or something more? It would be great if Mufasa could focus on this issue. Mufasa's characterization is excellent for the most part. He's humble, wise, and kind. Taka is also very thoughtful. He loves his adopted brother, but his extremely abusive father, Obasi (Lennie James), has instilled in him a sense of paranoia and shame that Taka tries to overcome throughout the film. Obasi also enforces a strange gender policy early on regarding the roles of each gender in the pack.
The film doesn't completely escape this point, as it makes Mufasa a super lion with incredibly advanced senses, rather than showing him as a well-rounded leader from both the masculine and feminine sides. It's unclear what the film accomplishes by giving him these extraordinary powers, but he definitely gets lost in this unnecessary gender binary that it enforces. Just because lions have different gender roles in real life doesn't mean that jokes about lions are funny.