30 years ago, The Lion King became an instant classic. Disney revisits its universe with Mufasaa prologue that explores the childhood of Simba’s father. To direct this blockbuster, the studio surprised by entrusting the reins to Barry Jenkins, a figure of American independent cinema. Despite his initial astonishment – Jenkins admits to having initially refused the offer – he let himself be seduced by the project, seeing in this initiatory story an unexpected complexity. However, this depth remains relative. If the film aims to ask universal questions – innate or acquired, belonging and identity – it struggles to free itself from the clichés of the “hero’s journey”.
Simplistic story
The plot follows an orphaned Mufasa, ostracized by his peers, who first finds comfort in a new family, before facing betrayals and revealing himself as a future king. The scenario, punctuated by a succession of pitfalls and clashes against menacing white lions, keeps you in suspense thanks to a sustained tempo. But this thrilling adventure framework remains conventional: love, friendship and family rivalries make up a predictable story, where courage always triumphs and where heroism goes hand in hand with the inevitable and banal lessons of life.
One of the weak points of the film lies in its writing, which is sometimes soothing, like maxims like “each living being has its place in the breath of life”. These messages, already heard in the Disney universe in more or less similar formulations, lack the teeth to stick. Even the political issues that Barry Jenkins discusses – the monarchy, the inheritance of power and meritocracy – are barely touched on, crushed by a simplistic narrative rather than carried by a more daring exploration.
Visual tour de force
Visually, Mufasa is a tour de force. Produced entirely in computer-generated images, this new opus impresses with its striking realism and its sumptuous landscapes – we would say that it is already that or that it is already a lot. This technical feat gives a little relief to a standard narrative structure, typical of major Disney productions. The meticulous work on the animation of the animals, designed in collaboration with ethology researchers, combines anatomical rigor and cinematic expressiveness.
This polished aesthetic is not enough to compensate for a lack of personality in the staging. Barry Jenkins himself admits that the exercise was very supervised: “Sometimes people told me: it’s too much Moonlightnot enough Mufasa. » If the film bears part of its sensitivity, it remains largely subject to the imperatives of a franchise where every detail must be validated by the studio. Hence a spectacular film, but framed, formatted.
Mufasa : The Roi Lion by Barry Jenkins, in theaters this Wednesday, December 18. Duration: 1 hour 58 minutes.
