The Freaking Film Fanatic with Nathan Unck
Mufasa: The Lion King Rated: PG for thematic elements and animal violence
I have to admit that I haven't been the biggest fan of the live-action movies that Disney has put out, with the exception of The Jungle Book and Cinderella. The rest of them, like Aladdin, Dumbo, Pinocchio, Beauty and the Beast and the last one ties into this review, The Lion King. I have seen them all, and I have no desire to go back to watch those that I didn't care for. I know some people love them, and that is totally fine. Film is art, good or bad, but art brings different emotions out in people, so it is very subjective. I just didn't like those ones personally.
I feel like they are making the live-action films to grab as much cash as Disney possibly can. The reason I didn't like the first live action Lion King was the fact that it was almost a shot for shot remake of the beloved animated film. There was no reason for them to make it. It had a great crew at the helm to make a good movie, but it didn't surpass on how good the original film is. So, the question that comes to my mind is, "Why would Disney take a film that not everyone loved and made a prequel?"
The simple answer is that it doesn't need to exist. The more complicated answer is another question, did they have a legitimate story that they wanted to tell that they felt would make the first Lion King live-action film seem better. Well, I will get into the specifics, but I think that the film earns the right to exist. It may not be the greatest story, but it's interesting and is able to keep you engaged, at least for me. There are some great moments, but some of them are kind of distracting. Here are my feelings about the film.
The good things are the animal animation is pretty good. The film looks good, and that is a plus. The score, or the music in the background was awesome. The voice acting was done very well, and the characters are likable. There are interesting fight scenes where the characters are fighting another lion tribe. The movie is exactly two hours long, and it kept me interested with the exception of a couple of things I will mention in a little bit, so with the good down, let's move to the bad.
The bad things are something that if they would have been executed a little bit better, or where scenes took me out of the film's narrative. There are breaks in the story where Rafiki is trying to tell Mufasa's backstory to Simba's cub, and Timone and Pumba are there goofing off and telling jokes. The scenes are something to chuckle at, but those scenes break up the story that is being told just for comic relief. They didn't bother me too much, but there were times I was engaged with the story being told, and then they break away to those scenes.
Another thing that I was lukewarm about was that Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote songs for the film. Some of them are good, others not so much. I know how talented he is, which made the not-so-great songs pale in comparison to the good songs. Earlier, I mentioned the score, which is the background music, and those songs were really neat. I enjoyed them, but as far as the Lin-Manuel Miranda is concerned, they really should have taken more time to try and make all of the songs work.,
My personal favorite scenes are the ones with Rafiki. He tells the story of the film, but when his character is in the story, the nuggets of wisdom he speaks are really interesting and heart-felt. He was by far my favorite character, but Mufasa was great too. The potential of the things the film could have become keep it from greatness, but it's a great movie the whole family can enjoy, although the animal fights can be kind of scary for the little ones. I recommend this film if you liked the original or are curious about how Mufasa becomes king and the origin of Pride Rock.
Mufasa: The Lion King is rated: PG for thematic elements and animal violence.
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