Mufasa: The Lion King is the backstory you’ve been waiting thirty+ years for, admit it. Watching the original in 1991, you said to yourself, you said “What’s the story of this Darth Vader talkin’ mofo?”… even if you weren’t even born yet, you wondered. And now we know…

Mufasa is told through a flashback structure as Rafiki tells Simba’s cub about the adventures of her apparently much more interesting grandfather. Baby Mufasa got washed away in a flood… yes, the cat was caught in a Flow of water… and was washed away to a whole new pride of lions. He later has to face an invading pride of White Lions (not to mention some Ratt, Poison, and Mötley Crüe… ba-DUM).

This flick looks amazing. The 2019 CGI remake did too, but they’ve one-upped themselves. The previous film was enslaved by the idea of realism thus the animals had few facial emotions… but they’ve gotten away from that so they are more emotive than before. Though they still all kind of look alike… they are just lions.

This is a film telling its own story so at least there’s that perk compared to the remake. It’s not a particularly moving or deep story though and it has an ultimate message that’s going to inadvertently appeal to both the American left AND right… though I doubt that was the intention.

Unfortunately, I don’t think the actual direction and editing are as strong as they should be. Often theoretically exciting moments would just feel basic, unemotional, and flat. There are some epic moments, especially in the finale and I enjoyed meeting up with younger versions of the characters from Simba’s story.

Also, please eject the songs. They don’t work, they slow the story down, and are then largely abandoned in the second half of the film anyway.

t’s stellar film to look at but it doesn’t have heart. It’s just 10% off from being the film it thinks it is. But It’s probably ultimately good enough to give it a gentle, unenthusiastic nod of approval. It’s pretty ok.

Score: 76