“They are outcastsexplains Seth Roger, the voice of Pumbaa, at a press conference. In a movie that’s about heroic acts and people putting themselves forward in spectacular ways, I really identify with the two guys who are just sitting on the sidelines joking around. There are some very heavy themes in this film, and I think it’s good to modulate heaviness and lightness.”
In fact, Mufasa : the Roi Lion brings welcome nuances to the traditional American clichés about “good guys” and “bad guys”. “The Mufasa we know is kingexplains the man who lends him his voice in English, Aaron Pierre. He is full of wisdom, at the top of his art, he is the king of humanity, of the community. He is truly unshakable. But here we learn that, in fact, there is a journey to get to that point. And the beginning of this journey involves being separated from one’s family, becoming an orphan, being ostracized, degraded, rejected. And despite all these circumstances, to embrace all that is and channel it into something that elevates him, that elevates the people around him, before becoming king.”
Serving spectators
“I have two kids and they’re obsessed with who’s the good guy and who’s the bad guy, like most kidsadds composer Lin-Manuel Miranda. They want to understand the world. This film gives you the opportunity to have a nuanced conversation about the fact that no one is born nice, no one is born mean. We make good and bad choices. We have good and bad impulses, and no one is just good or bad. It’s very nice to be able to have this kind of conversation with your children and this film does it wonderfully.”
The Lion King told by his worst enemy, Scar
Viewpoint entirely shared by the director, Barry Jenkins. “When I first read the script, I realized that Mufasa grew up in a blended family, just like me. If I told you that I made a film about a child who experiences a biblical event related to water, is kicked out of his family and has to build a new life with a new family, I could talk about Moonlight or from Mufasa. I saw so much. I was able to see myself in Mufasa while telling the story. And it made me feel like I was taking these really raw and beautiful feelings I experienced as a child and develop them, with the complexity of 25 additional years of life. Or 30 extra years of life in the case of the people who discovered this story in 1994. Every time we make a film, we hope that the spectators will be able to use it in the service of their own existence.
Everything for children
“The job of every artist is to put themselves in the place of the child who will discover the filmconcludes Lin-Manuel Miranda. I have two small children. Their imagination is ridiculously limitless, and that’s the case when we talk to a lot of little kids. Anything is possible and you can pretend anything. The artist’s job is to protect this instinct and impulse that we are all born with. When I write, the first audience I try to please is the kid who kept his VHS tapes from The little mermaid until Lion Kingand which then went to DVD. I always try to create the sense of wonder that I felt when I saw these films as a child.”
Everyone will be able to have their opinion on this subject from December 18 in cinemas.
