When I complained bitterly about 'Mufasa' on social media the other day, they gave me a response that was as disheartening as it was real: It's something to park the kids for two hours at Christmas and to pass the time. Years ago, the Disney premiere on these dates was a social event, the big bet of the season, an original story with elaborate and catchy songs that presented new worlds, characters, songs and narratives. Now, all that's left are franchises, sequels, remakes and content to feed a sleepy public that settles for – when it doesn't want – more of the same continuously so as to “not waste the admission money.” Without realizing that by going through the hoop of the most absolute laziness, they are already doing it.
I'm not going to be the lion king
Right now There must be hundreds of new ideas from Disney's young creatives resting in Bob Iger's office. I am sure that among them are the new 'Lilo and Stitch', 'The Little Mermaid' or 'Beauty and the Beast', original, endearing, fun stories, ready to have a soundtrack created by someone passionate about history and full of of catchy hits. And instead, what do we have? Remakes of classic films, but now with real actors and CGI, delayed sequels, prequels that answer questions that no one has asked. After the failure of 'Wish' and 'Strange World', The mouse company has entered a very sad and fearful lethargy from which you can leave whenever you want. The problem is… he doesn't want to.
Let's take a look at what awaits us next year in theaters, taking into account all branches of Disney. Six sequels ('Zootropolis 2', 'Avatar: Fire and Ash', 'Freakier Friday', 'Tron: Ares', 'Predator: Badlands' and 'Captain America: Brave New World'), two live-action remakes (' Snow White' and 'Lilo and Stitch'), two new Marvel adaptations ('Thunderbolts' and 'Fantastic Four') and a! original movie ('Elio'). And the following year doesn't get any better, with 'Toy Story 5', the live-action version of 'Moana' and 'The Mandalorian & Grogu' topping the list. Of course it has more or less continuous success, but myths must be renewed from time to time.
Faced with this avalanche of intergenerational nostalgia and constant franchises, there is no apparent reaction (within the studio itself) that brings originality and new characters. All the “new” projects that come forward are within other already established universes. There is fear, terror, absolute panic of failure, so Disney, like so many other companies (this is not an endemic evil of a single studio, after all), has decided to play it safe. Until it stops being that way, at least, and no matter that we reach terrifying limits of ridiculousness. And I think there is no better proof that a change of cycle is now necessary than 'Mufasa'.
There is no Mufasa
Nobody wants to see 'Mufasa'. Another thing is that they go to the cinema and pay the ticket because “it's what you have to see”“you have to keep the children happy” or any other cheap excuse. 'The Lion King' in CGI (“in real image”, as they want us to believe) was an absolute and undoubted success, but it did not leave any type of residue nor did it in any way replace the original in the public's memory. When you think of Simba, not even those contemporaries of the 2019 film think of the photorealistic lion, but of the cartoon one, more expressive, more cartoonish and paradoxically, more real. Because we no longer go into whether 'Mufasa' is good or not: it is, very consciously, content. And maybe Barry Jenkins was the last to know.
Disney, like so many other companies, has stepped on the accelerator in the creation of content made without illusion or reason to please the masses They need products that are easy to swallow to feel in their comfort zone. If I can sit my son down for two hours, I don't care whether he is in front of a product made by an algorithm with the same art and emotion that a road roller would put into it, or in front of a film created and fought for by someone with a personal vision who really has something to tell. The result is the same, the child is amazed. It doesn't matter what's in front of you, right?
It is not worth dwelling on 'Mufasa', which, based on not very catchy songs by a Lin-Manuel Miranda that seems like its white label version, is the equivalent of moving keys in front of a baby: things move, they make noise and you will never remember for a second in your life what you have seen. Nothing matters, there is no big reveal, the consequences are already known and the characters are almost painfully one-dimensional coming from where we come from. It is an exercise in unapologetic shamelessness, one more screw made in mass, a churro that has fallen into the fryer and it will taste the same as the previous one: nothing. Just like 'Moana 2', like Tom Hanks' 'Pinocchio', like 'The Marvels'. Content in spades for undemanding diners with a lot of bills in their pockets.
Looking at the first results at the box office for 'Mufasa', it seems that this time the move has not turned out as well as they expected. That budget of 200 million could have been spent on making an animated film created from the insidethat excited a new audience, that sold more toys (you also have to think about marketing, of course), that created new indelible memories. No matter how criticized films like 'Elemental' or 'Soul' are, at least they were original films and did not treat the public as a uniform mass devoid of criteria. that wants to swallow the story that any artificial intelligence comes up with as long as it stars already established characters.
Looking at the top 20 global box office (excluding Chinese hits, mind you), perspective agrees with Disney. In fact, Only four films that are not sequels or prequels are sneaked inand belong to pre-established franchises: 'Wicked', 'Breaking the Circle', 'Wild Robot' and 'Garfield: The Movie'. You have to go all the way to number 22 to find the first original film on the list, 'Imaginary Friends'. And as long as the law of minimum effort (read 'Moana 2') continues to shower the studios with bills, it does not seem that they will have any intention of changing course. Of course: someday, sooner or later, they will suffer the consequences. It is inevitable that new generations demand new franchises that are not those of their parents. And that day they may have forgotten, with the rusty rudder, how to change course in the middle of the storm.
In Espinof | The best animated films of 2024
In Espinof | The best movies of 2024
