TO Mufasa no easy task awaits him. Prequel to the classic The Lion Kinghowever not in its animated form, but the 2019 live-action directed by Jon Favreauthe film must both do justice to the story of one of Disney’s most influential and legendary characters and, if not exceed, at least equal the sensational result achieved at the box office by its predecessor. The worldwide achievement of the work released five years earlier is 1,662,020,819 dollars, becoming the tenth best grossing in the history of cinema and the second for an animated film (behind, currently, Inside Out 2).
The conditions for an excellent job were all there, starting from taking charge of the direction Barry Jenkins (Moonlight, If the Streets Could Talk) and the icing on the cake was the addition of an author like Lin Manuel-Miranda for the soundtrack, which he decided to say goodbye to Oceania 2 to agree to take the place he had held in the first film Beyoncé. Therefore challenging expectations and venturing into a screenplay of Jeff Nathansonthe work launches itself into the discovery of origins of Simba’s fatherexploiting the wise Rafiki to pass on the epic story that saw him become king from a stray.
MufasaShakespearean echoes and in-laws
What makes the structure of the story fascinating is an element that has distinguished the 1994 version directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff in all these years – and will continue to do so in the future: a narrative core which contains within itself Shakespearean echoes which, for Mufasaare merging into the categories of family and fate. In reporting the misfortunes that separated the puppy from his parents, catapulted into a pack from which he was excluded except by his acquired “brother” Taka, known to most as Scarthe feline protagonist is the heart of a revenge story in which he will be able to both legitimize himself and conquer the role for which he was destined.
Fate is central to the story, but always declined in favor of the characters’ characters, whose personality is shown conditioned by the environments and pressures in which they were born and raised. Mufasa, brave and loyalis treated with arrogance by the males of the pack as he does not belong to their lineage. While the favorite Taka, prince and future kingwill never be exposed to any danger or commitment of any kind, so much so that he finds himself unprepared not only to govern, but also to survive. If the real Obasi, Taka’s father, taught his son that “power” means staying on a rock to doze while others take care of the rest, for Mufasa it means doing everything to protect what you believe in , which are ideals (represented by locus amoenus Milele) or those you love.
One goal: stay true to yourself
Intense and narratively theatrical, under a veneer of entertainment that must and manages to conquer a transversal audience, especially the very young, Mufasa is a loose cannon in the highly authorial filmography of the winner of the Oscar winner Jekins, who accepts the challenge and wins by ensuring that the live-action carefully matches his own sensitivity. A film that moves by knowing how to make the viewer go beyond the mere prodigy of technique, already notable in the 2019 work, by presenting a story punctuated by losses and conflicts, desires for glory and the need to feel loved and respected. And, marking a big difference with The Lion King by Favreau, this time the film accentuates a direction that increases the idea of animationnot just following an identical and photographic reproduction of reality, thus increasing public involvement.
A work that reminds us that the great kings of the past always watch us from above (the homage to James Earl Jonesoriginal voice of Mufasa, who passed away in September 2024) and tells us that they too were defenseless puppies who were afraid of not making it. The important thing is to stay true to themselvesa bit like Barry Jenkins attempted to do in his unlikely but admirable animated challenge.
Source: Vanity Fair
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