Disney’s money-spinning Lion King franchise will probably keep on going and going, right up until its lion dynasty descends into the decadent chaos that’s toppled royal families throughout history. Someday we may reach the bloody story of Scar’s great-great-nephew, a deranged, poison-fanged, thick-furred Caligula who manages to kill off all his relatives before being eliminated himself. At that point the elephants, peaceful, placid and wise, will rise to power, and from them will rise an even greater Broadway musical.
There’s nothing quite like the circle of life.
But The Pachyderm Prince (or whatever it’ll be called) won’t need to go into development for some time, not if the studio manages to turn out films like the visually intoxicating new CGI prequel, Mufasa: The Lion King, which deserves to be a family-oriented holiday smasheroo.
This latest film follows Mufasa (Rebel Ridge’s Aaron Pierre) as he spends his adolescence and early adulthood in unanticipated exile: After a flood carries him off and separates him from his parents, he’s adopted into a pride ruled by Obasi (The Walking Dead’s Lennie James). But Mufasa’s welcome is no kinder than the reception Dickens doled out to the foundlings scattered throughout his novels.
Obasi can’t stand the stench of this alien — who’s also a commoner, to boot — and solves the inconvenience by handing him off to his queen Eshe (Thandiwe Newton), who’ll raise him in the company of the pride’s females.
Even so, Mufasa is allowed to pal around with Obasi’s heir, Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), a cheerful good sport. Unfortunately, when put to the test, Taka shows less courage than Mufasa in rescuing Eshe from an invading tribe of white-gray lion brutes. You can anticipate how this will ultimately lead to Harry vs. William tensions.
You may also instinctively wonder about the symbolic meaning of these predatory lions, whose faded pelts give them the decorative neutrality of driftwood sculpture. Some enterprising and overly imaginative op-ed columnist might suggest that their leader, Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen), represents Putin, the icy tyrant. On the other hand, Kiros and his forces are first seen in a pink-lighted swamp that scarcely suggests the Kremlin. It’s more like a bayou renovated and flipped by a flock of flamingos. But the scene is visually gorgeous.
That goes for the film as a whole. Directed by Oscar-winner Barry Jenkins (Moonlight), this animal epic is carried along by animation much richer and more varied than that in the Lion King reboot from 2019.
These lions spend more time underwater — a deep, peacock-blue aquatic world — than Esther Williams ever did. The moody skyscapes, the slanting sunlight and the close, tall grasses are especially pretty, and Mufasa’s brave but dangerous journey toward the lion paradise known as Malelee takes you up into dynamically high mountains dressed in frigid white snow.
To be honest, it’s a nice distraction from the company of lions, mandrills and red-billed hornbills. Nature isn’t all animals.
Jenkins puts all this across with sensitivity and what feels like a gentle confidence. But the film fumbles occasionally, much as you presume the three-leg zebra known as Steve trips up. We don’t get to see this Steve — he’s mentioned in the jokey, show-biz banter of warthog Pumbaa (Seth Rogen) and meerkat Timon (Billy Eichner). But really: In Jenkins’ encompassingly lovely vision of a wild kingdom, do we really want to waste time with a meerkat who seems to have studied comedy under Billy Crystal?
Losing the hog and the meerkat would have made for a better, faster film.
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You may or may not welcome the new songs by Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda. They have a hip, rhythmic snap that doesn’t really fit with realistic-looking lions. And it’s not as if realistic-looking lions could be expected to end a number with jazz hands, or jazz paws, let alone sing the phrase “flecks of gold in your hair.” It sounds like a style influencer having a flash of inspiration.
But none of that will bother children in the audience. Besides, you’re always free to let your grownup mind drift and speculate about the parallels between Mufasa and Taka and the young, feuding Windsors.
Mufasa: The Lion King is in theaters Dec. 20.
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