what is the Lion King prequel worth? Our review

What is the story of Mufasa, Simba’s charismatic and wise father in The Lion King ? If you’ve ever asked yourself this question, this Disney film is for you. Thirty years after the cult animated film, Mufasa releases in cinemas on December 18, 2024.

This prequel tells the adventures of an orphaned lion cub who becomes king of the Land of Lions. Like Jon Favreau’s film released in 2019 and which was a huge success ($1.6 billion in revenue worldwide), this feature film combines real shots and computer-generated images to offer total immersion to viewers. spectators.

Mufasa by Barry Jenkins had to take on two major challenges: exploring the mythology of Lion Kingparticularly the rift between Simba’s father and his brother Scar. Then, overcome the technical difficulty that live-action represents to present family entertainment. Suffice to say that the bet is half successful. Those who are expecting a great show can be reassured: Mufasa provides effective entertainment that is visually very effective. The film is very beautiful, served by more daring shot choices than the 2019 version, very controlled photorealism and an increased sense of detail. But in the context of a musical, this photorealism has its limits: the musical numbers have neither the scale nor the inspiration of what the first Lion King was able to offer us in the past because of this visual choice. If we feel that certain sequences are trying to be reproduced (like I would like to be king already), we do not find the magic of what the freedom of a classic animated film can offer.

If you are waiting to discover a new Shakespearean tragedy (which was what The Lion King from 1994, directly inspired byHamlet), you may be disappointed. Despite promising beginnings in which Mufasa explores the differences in the upbringing of its two protagonists and how this can shape them later, the second half of the film proves much more laborious. We are trying to fit in too many intrigues, too many characters (Sarabi is reduced to the state of narrative leverage, it is difficult to find the charismatic Scar behind this Taka), too many specifications (we sense the boxes to be checked compared to the original work) in too short a time.

Result, the scenario no longer tells much new compared to the Roi Lion. Mufasa suffers from heaviness (the humor of Timon and Pumbaa is clearly not the strong point of the film), never reaches the peaks of seriousness and emotion of its predecessor (a break between two brothers at heart could however have been a fantastic lever for tragedy) and turns out to be very artificial. Depending on what you are looking for in this film, you will be won over or disappointed.

Synopsis – Rafiki is responsible for transmitting the legend of Mufasa to Kiara, the daughter of Simba and Nala. And above all, how this orphaned lion cub one day meets Taka, heir to a royal lineage. This chance meeting will mark the starting point of the journey rich in adventures of a group of “undesirables” in search of their destiny and whose bonds of friendship will be put to the test when they have to team up to escape from an enemy as menacing as it is deadly

Which actors do the voices of the film Mufasa ?

• Aaron Pierre (VO) : Mufasa
• Kelvin Harrison Jr. (VO) : Such
• Tiffany Boone (VO) : Sarabi
• Kagiso Lediga (VO): Rafiki jeune
• Preston Nyman (VO) : Zazu
• Mads Mikkelsen (VO): Kiros
• Thandiwe Newton (VO) : Eshe, the mother of Taka
• Lennie James (VO): Obasi, Taka’s father
• Anika Noni Rose (VO): Afia, Mufasa’s mother
• Keith David (VO) : Blessings, the father of Mufasa
• John Kani (VO) : Friend
• Seth Rogen (VO) : Fighter
• Billy Eichner (VO): Timon
• Donald Glover (VO) : Simba
• Blue Ivy Carter (VO) : Kiara
• Beyoncé Knowles-Carter (VO) : Nala

During a round table in which Linternaute was able to participate before the release of the film, director Barry Jenkins (flagship director of American auteur cinema, author of MoonlightOscar for Best Film in 2017) looked behind the scenes of the feature film, and especially on one of its main challenges: lifting the veil on the mythology of the animated film, in particular on the break between Mufasa and his brother Scar. The director explains that he “loved the nuanced and complex way” in which the screenplay written by Jeff Nathanson addresses the evolution of the two characters, through the opposing education they receive.

“In this film, we discover how strong their bond was at a given moment. It’s a life lesson, it shows how two characters, certainly raised in the same family but differently (one learning to coexist with the elements, the other convinced that he is superior because of royal blood), can evolve in opposite ways Mufasa becomes the best version of himself, while Scar becomes the worst This gives a new perspective to the spectators who maintain. an intimate relationship with these characters for 30 years.”

Another challenge of the film Mufasaand not least: the technological aspect. The budget is in fact estimated at more than 200 million dollars to make the animals more real than life on screen. Unlike other projects of the same ilk, the virtual reality headsets were used only to carry out scouting, during the pandemic in 2020: “This allowed us to virtually travel the entire world to find places representative of the different landscapes of “Africa and to trace the map of the journey that we find in the film”, remembers the filmmaker.

But when it came time to shoot, he and his team invested “a physical space which exists in a virtual volume”, with real actors who can move there, and above all a camera capable of evolving inside. “We were therefore all present in this virtual space, in real volume, where only the staging of the actors was not predetermined.” With the exception of the character movements, everything could be recreated using virtual production. “Being on stage, hearing the voices of the actors, adjusting live according to their emotions, made it possible to introduce a rare authenticity into this process,” concludes the filmmaker.