Mufasa – The Lion King – Film (2024)

In the Pride Lands everything has its place, even a young lioness like Kiara, princess daughter of Simba and Nala, whose only concern is thunder during storms. And it is precisely during a stormy night, when her parents go away to give birth to her little brother Kion, that Kiara is entertained by Rafiki and the inevitable commentary from Timon and Pumbaa with the story of her grandfather Mufasa and how he became king . It all begins with Mufasa who is still an inexperienced puppy following his parents, Masego and Afia, while the three go in search of the mythical Milele, the land of abundance where they will finally find refuge from the drought.

As usual, Disney gathers a stellar cast, for Italy (among others) Luca Marinelli, Elodie, Marco Mengoni, Elisa, Stefano Fresi, Edoardo Leo.

Where does the Circle of Life begin? If you ask little Kiara, naturally with her father Simba and the fight to regain leadership of the Pride Lands; if you question Simba, certainly from his father Mufasa and the journey to become the ruler overlooking the Rock of Kings; if you put Disney executives on the spot, from the dizzying success of the 1994 film, which was followed by two sequels for the homevideo market, as many TV series, an essential theatrical musical and in 2019 a live action remake with photorealistic computer graphics – the Circle of Life and the Box Office, in short, where everything returns cyclically as long as it continues to collect cyclically.

Mufasa – The Lion King it is therefore only the last point of this straight line that curves on itself, this time thanks to and after the success of The Lion King signed by Jon Favreau (the Favreau specialist, the Favreau trailblazer, the one who with Iron Man gave birth to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with The Mandalorian created the first live action TV series in Lucas’s galaxy and with The Jungle Book of 2016 has definitively cleared the photorealistic remakes of Disney classics), capable of extracting 1.6 billion dollars from cinemas, the second highest grossing for an animated film, beaten only in 2024 by Inside Out 2.

In short, we start again with solid and profitable certainties, this time entrusting the direction to Barry Jenkins who since independence has increasingly moved towards the centre, motu proprio especially in television with The Underground Railroad on Prime Video (but watch out for his productions, always focusing on African-American stories and culture) and now on the big screen protected by the Mickey Mouse brand, which has been joined by the usual impressive parterre of collaborators, producers, voice actors – Lin-Manuel Miranda to write, the Motion Picture Company to visual effects, Aaron Pierre, Seth Rogen, Donald Glover, Mads Mikkelsen, Thandiwe Newton and Beyoncé (among others) to give voice.

Compared to 2019, however, we enter a field – theoretical and factual – that is more nebulous than a mere economic gamble, because if there is one thing that Favreau’s film had stumbled upon, it was that of having been accused of being almost a re-proposal of a shot -by-shot, sequence-after-sequence, of the original by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, without having either the ability or the desire to go beyond the mere digital “photocopy” – despite almost thirty extra minutes and a general sense of adjustment towards the adults of the operation. Jenkins does not have the problem of a certified copy but rather sees – and shows us – an entire prairie in front of him.

Taking advantage of the techniques implemented in recent years by photorealistic computer graphics films made by Disney, such as the moody setting of the 2019 film, Mufasa he runs madly towards his destination, free as he is to develop scenarios, characters and moments that deviate just enough from what has already been seen in the Circle of Life saga. Jenkins alternates pans and handycams, deserts and mountains, floods and storms, almost keeping Dave Metzger’s soundtrack (and Miranda’s musical moments) in check for a more realistic environmental commentary made of roars and feral fights.

Here, if Favreau could be said to have been crushed by the cumbersome monolith of ’94, Jenkins perhaps moved the bar too much towards realism, losing sight of the symbol, the figure, the sketch – and therefore the spectacular ability to penetrate the collective imagination. On the other hand, however, Mufasa it is one of the most focused Disney operations of recent years, capable of avoiding any woke and sorceress attack thanks to a story that sinks its narrative impulses in Shakespearean and biblical myth, with the usual – for the saga – lumps of fatalism, rivalry and predestination . The Circle of Life continues. The box office one, who knows.
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