Review by Chlo Hickson
Mufasa: The Lion King takes a look into the past of Disney’s most legendary characters. If you grew up with The Lion King like I did, you’ll know Mufasa as a wise, noble and strong king that we first met in the 1994 classic. Voiced by the legendary James Earl Jones, this movie shows us how he became that lion and honestly I found myself surprised by how heartfelt and different this story is.
The cast are all fantastic. Aaron Pierre voices young Mufasa with the warmth and humility that feels believable. Kelvin Harrison is fantastic. Hearing Taka go from a youthful optimistic young lion, to a raspy devious villain was honestly amazing! The change of his voice was incredible. I literally get chills when Harrison says ‘Your majesty’ at the end of the movie, the transition in his voice was insane. I thought it was Chiwetel Ejifor he was that impressive.
Even though James Earl Jones unfortunately passed away before the movie, Mufasa:The Lion King honours his legacy in little ways from iconic lines to musical cues that bring back memories of his voice. Its tastefully done and will definitely hit Lion King fans.
If you weren’t a fan of the 2019 Lion King remake don’t remove this movie from your need to watch Disney list just because it’s a prequel/sequel to that story. Yes, it’s in the same CGI style but it differs with how extreme they went with the realism. The biggest criticism I saw for the 2019 movie is that the characters lacked emotion, they made them look too real and it ended up not working very well for some people. Mufasa: The Lion King however gave the characters much more animated facial expressions – which too to be fair did look stupid on real looking animals – but this was good because audiences weren’t left with questions on what the characters were thinking so I’m 50/50 on liking this decision.
If you want CGI realistic animals go for realism and if you want animated go for animation, its not really that hard? But I digress…
I wasn’t sure how they were going to handle this movie, if they were going to tie them into the animated ones or if they were going to solidify that the live action is a completely different canon to the animated stuff and they chose to go with a completely different canon.
There being two different timelines means that the 2019 movie and Mufasa: The Lion King can stand on its own two feet without needing to stick to the guidelines of a Disney junior show which is absolutely fine with me.
I don’t know if it was Disney taking a jab at the Kimba allegations to use white lions or not, but them saying that white lions are bigger than ordinary lions is wrong. If they wanted an imposing breed of lion that they described in this movie then I would’ve gone for Barbary lions for the Outsiders. Sadly, they are extinct in the wild but they are still around in some zoos. I think this would’ve been cool to see. Plus we don’t actually know when The Lion King takes place so it could’ve been an option seen as Barbary lions went extinct in the 1960’s.
I also don’t understand why Mufasa suddenly has superpowers? A lion can hear things from about a mile away. Although this is exceptional, it is greatly exaggerated in the movie with Mufasa hearing things he shouldn’t be able to. Even though I am confused by this as lions can’t do this in general, this isn’t seen with the characters in the animated movie or the 2019 remake so shouldn’t exist at all. Something else I was confused by is how long did Rafiki tell Kiara the story? Nala went off to give birth and newborn cubs start walking around two weeks after being born yet Kion is walking at the end of the movie.
I think someone behind the scenes should’ve done their research on lions.
Another problem I have, and this is a bigger one than before, does anyone else think Timon and Pumbaa hindered this movie from being better than it was?
I think Timon and Pumba were supposed to be the comic relief, like the people behind the scenes didn’t trust the Mufasa story itself to have some light-heartedness when in actuality all it did was ruin the pacing of the story the audience actually cared about. Whenever they flashed forward to the present, I was just waiting for them to finish whatever forced comedy they were going to do. Everytime I was getting sucked into the story I got sucked right back out because of these two characters.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Timon and Pumba, they were one of the best things to do with The Lion King, yes they were less funny in The Lion King 2 but this kinda ruined the characters for me. There were literally three times I thought they were generally funny when we saw them and that is me being nice.
They could’ve just had them at the beginning when Rafiki introduces the story to Kiara.
Moving on from them, I’m going to talk about the songs. I’ve picked out three to talk about specifically because if I talk about Milele I’ll need a whole day dedicated just for that one. I just feel like this song is just there, I can’t remember anything about this song except that its supposed to introduce the main premise of the movie. The problem is it lacks the depth in order for it to be something special, it’s just meh.
Moving on though, I don’t care what anyone says, ‘I always wanted a brother’ is a bop. This doesn’t mean it doesn’t have issues though.
For one, it tries to be a two for one song. It wants to be a fun song about Taka and Mufasa’s different views on the circle of life and what it means to be king, while also being a deeper song about how Mufasa struggles with fitting in with his new family while missing his parents. I’m going to go more in-depth about this song in a moment but I just wish it elaborated on one of the topics that it mentions. They could’ve even made them into two different songs and deleted that whole Hakuna-Mufasa scene.
On to why it’s one of my favourite songs from this movie’s soundtrack, I love how this song hints to Scar’s domineering nature. Mufasa respects the circle of life and the place all the animals have within it but Taka expects authority and obedience, believing even the birds are beneath him and threatens anyone who goes against him in spite of him still being a cub. He already sees himself as the future king and thinks he has the power the position brings. He feels confident in telling others they aren’t allowed to speak about Mufasa unacceptably or he’ll take action, but Taka is just a cub so the threat means nothing without the power the position brings with it.
In the realm of this song it’s honestly adorable how much Taka is excited and wants to protect Mufasa, but in the wider story of The Lion King it is the start of his downfall as a king. At this point Taka was just an innocent cub, but it hints at a mindset that leads him down a darker path.
This also tells us why Scar stayed in Milele instead of going back where he originally lived, he wanted Milele and couldn’t handle Mufasa rising above him. If we look at the lyrics of ‘I always wanted a Brother’ at the tree scene, Taka didn’t want to hear how the birds were above him/free.
I’m surprised more people haven’t talked about this instead of focusing on that one scene in the song that’s become a meme.
I want to talk about the villain song of this movie as a lot of people see this one as the worst one to come out of it.
The first thing I want to say is that Mads Mikkelsen did a great job when you consider that he had never sung professionally before, and the second thing is this is the Disney that I miss.
Kiros is a straight forward villain. He’s a villain before he lost his son, and losing his son just adds the extra motive for him to be more villainous. He’s hell-bent on killing anyone who gets in his way to rule and loves doing it.
He was so calm, yet fierce with rage and endless pursuit. He was so cocky, he even stretched before fighting Mufasa. He was confident he’d win, which he was right.
I feel like Kiros is the type of villain who plays with their food and instills fear in their victims before he goes in for the kill. The way he says ‘bye bye’ like it doesn’t sound menacing until you realize that he is taking pleasure and fun in killing Obasi and his pride, basically it’s a game to him.
This makes him a scarier villain honestly, again, I don’t understand how people haven’t realised this?
I love villains that have no reason to do what they do, they just do it because it’s fun or they feel like it. To me Kiro’s villain song gives him an uncaring almost psychopathic kind of vide because he’s making fun of the lions’ deaths through his song.
‘The circle of life is a lie, a pretty way to say there are predators and prey’ is one of my favourite lines in the song, and can I just say I’ve been waiting for so long for someone to address how messed up Mufasa’s Circle of Life lesson to Simba was! It’s just weird that it was a villain that said it.
The phrase ‘You took my son, I hope you can run’ honestly just sends chills down your spine. You can definitely tell he’s out for blood. Like I said before, this is the Disney I missed.
Before I continue I want to say that I love that they expanded on the storyline they added in the 2019 movie where Scar had a crush on Sarabi. He was smitten over her from the very minute they met, but Sarabi wasn’t fond of him at all.
While some people say that Taka betrayed Mufasa and turned evil for a petty reason, I think they forget that Taka – in the span of a few days – lost his home, his parents, his pride, and now his ‘Queen’ to his own brother. This was him lashing out, but the wildebeest stampede was the real betrayal. If this still isn’t enough, I think it’s very Shakespearean which obviously The Lion King and The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride were based on two very known Shakespeare plays so it’s on brand for Taka to become a villain because of ‘a woman’.
‘Brother Betrayed’ is probably my favourite song from this movie, though it doesn’t leave any breathing room at all from the love song between Mufasa and Sarabi and this heartbreaking double-crossing. This could just be me nitpicking, I don’t know, but the song does an amazing job at showing the raw emotions Taka is feeling towards Mufasa.
The fact that it starts as an echo of ‘I always wanted a Brother’ honestly breaks my heart. It’s pure torture at its finest. What’s so perfect about this song is that it not only captures the pain Taka feels towards Mufasa but also reflects the betrayal and jealousy that consumes him. This intense emotional struggle is what gives birth to Scar. The song truly shows how Taka’s feelings of being overlooked and betrayed lead to his transformation into Scar.
It’s a powerful expression of how pain and envy can shape someone’s character.
These songs work well in this film but I’ll be honest they aren’t nearly as iconic as the songs from the original The Lion King movie.
Now, lets have a look at who this movie is named after. I’ve got to say, I thought they handled Mufasa’s character brilliantly. We didn’t really get to see a lot of his character in the original movie so I feel like we’re getting to know him for the first time in this prequel/sequel.
Mufasa understandably has trauma in this movie but he doesn’t push people away, he welcomes Eshe as a new mother figure, he constantly defends Taka even though Taka is almost always in the wrong rather than becoming bitter about his circumstances he leans into the support of the people he’s close with. This demonstrates that although Mufasa later lives at a place called Pride Rock he lacks self pride which allows him to open up to help.
This is a great quality, and one that isn’t shown enough in movies now. Lately there have been a lot of characters who possess the flaw of narcissism which is fine to show in a character as long as they grow from it but it gets old having a character who is flawed in this way.
What I’m saying with this is that it’s nice to see a protagonist who is self sacrificial to a fault. When he saves Sarabi he gives credit to Taka because he knows he likes Sarabi even though he himself likes her.
This film did an incredible job at making Mufasa a likable character. It just goes to show that selflessness is easily the most likeable trait a person can have. I love what they did with this character and how he grew to accept his destiny as a leader.
Milele shows us that leadership isn’t about entitlement – it’s about earning the respect of others and proving your worth. Mufasa proved his, while Taka became the opposite: A symbol of what happens when you let envy and hatred rule your heart.
Something that I can’t praise Mufasa for is what happens when he confronts his brother at the end of the movie. I think Mufasa’s mistake was taking Taka’s name from him. He might eventually forgive his brother but he could never accept his actions.
I genuinely think that this is when Taka ‘died’. With Mufasa refusing to call Taka by his name, and everyone in the kingdom following his lead it probably resulted in everyone calling him Scar for so long. I bet they forgot his real name, this is the worst punishment Mufasa could’ve given his brother. Look how he always introduces himself, he proudly proclaims his name and then adds that he’s the son of a king. This just shows that the brave and noble Mufasa, underneath all his wisdom and strength, there is some ego there.
I can’t look at one brother without the other, so let’s move on to Taka.
Taka had his pride, both parents and the blood of the king in him, but ended up losing all of them and living in Mufasa’s shadow. Becoming what Obasi had always called Mufasa … A stray with no pride.
What makes this worse is he’ll always be remembered as the one who betrayed the Pride Lands and is just living there out of pity because of the king.
He never overcame his cowardice, deceitfulness and anger for not only being the true Lion King, but fulfilling his dad’s dream. On top of this he probably thought his moment of bravery when he rescued Mufasa at the end was also a moment of weakness. To him, he couldn’t follow through with killing his brother because he still loved him. So overtime, he pushed himself to abandon that softer side until he didn’t feel anything but hate in order to kill his brother.
Apart from these events, I genuinely believe that it’s Obasi’s fault that Taka turned evil.
Obasi was a lazy king, always lying around and letting the lionesses do all the work. He expected that everything would be done for him and told his son that this is what a king was supposed to do, but Taka wanted to be like Mufasa who got to hunt with his mum and learnt different skills from the lionesses because Mufasa was banished from the Shade-tree and forced to grow up with the lionesses where he grew a special bond with Taka’s mum Eshe. She taught him how to hunt and how to recognise different scents in the wind, she soon realises that Mufasa was special and she started to see him as a son. Meanwhile Taka wasn’t allowed to hunt, the only thing he was allowed to learn was how to sleep on a rock like his dad and anytime he tried to play or interact with his adopted brother, Obasi got angry and sent Mufasa back to the lionesses and Taka was slowly getting jealous of Mufasa since he got to spend all his time with Eshe who was kind and loving.
On a hunt, Taka snuck out and followed Mufasa and Eshe only to see them get attacked by two white lions. Mufasa was brave but Taka wasn’t. He was watching from a distance but was too afraid to help his mum and brother, escaping the attack while his mum watched him leave them. Taka had never learnt how to hunt or to be brave so maybe if Obasi had taught him some basic skills he wouldn’t have run off and he would have saved them. Luckily for Eshe Mufasa was strong and brave, he killed one of the white lions and the other outsider ran off, they then returned to their Pride and this was the first time we saw Obasi be nice to Mufasa. He thanked him while Taka was watching in shame, later Obasi had a word with his son and i think this was the moment that something inside Taka changed. Taka who still had a pure heart tried to explain why he ran away but his dad told him to keep it a secret because they had to protect the bloodline, to Taka this didn’t feel right he shouldn’t protect his Pride with a lie but Obasi told him ‘Deceit is a tool of a great King’ and these words changed his mind completely.
The next morning Kiros was moving closer to their territory so Mufasa and Taka were sent away to find a new place where Taka could become King, Obasi thought he had taught his son how to be King but it soon showed that he didn’t teach him anything he could use. At first Taka was still the kind lion he used to be but this all changed when he met Sarabi. He immediately fell in love and wanted her to be his Queen, but while they were traveling Sarabi realised that Mufasa was the one with the special gifts and not Taka like she was told. At first Mufasa didn’t give in because he felt like he had to do everything for Taka, he was the King so he had to listen to him. Eventually Mufasa gave in and he and Sarabi fell in love. When Taka saw this he felt betrayed and remembered Obasi’s words ‘Deceit is the tool of a great King’, he then went to the Outsiders who were chasing them because Kiros wanted revenge for the death of his son, Taka made a deal and marked a path for them to follow.
This is another thing that never would have happened if Obasi had been a good dad to Taka. He only did this because Obasi taught him that lying is a good thing.
They soon reached Milele, but not long after the Outsiders came for them. Mufasa immediately got the animals together to fight. It went well until Kiros closed in on Mufasa, Kiros was about to kill him but then Taka remembered what his mum had said to him when he was afraid to help before. She told him that his moment of courage would come, Taka regretted his betrayal and he didn’t want his brother to die. He jumped in-between them leaving him with a scar across his eye.
This is another sign that if Taka was also raised by Eshe he probably would’ve made better decisions.
Mufasa then became the King of Milele.
When we look at The Lion King we see that Taka – Scar – betrayed Mufasa again. His dad had always told him that he should be King so we see Taka had to watch how Mufasa created the Pride Lands with Sarabi his jealousy got out of control. He then made a plan to kill Mufasa and his son Simba so that he would be King, but Scar being as lazy as his dad didn’t check to make sure that the Hyenas had followed the plan and the Pride Lands became a disaster under his rule as he was always lying around and doing nothing. He expected the lionesses to do everything just like Obasi had shown him, but just like his dad Scar didn’t prepare for anything which is something he clearly inherited from his dad as when Mufasa and Eshe return from the attack from the Outsiders Mufasa warned Obasi that the Outsiders were just under a day away from them and instead of making plans to save the Pride, he sent someone to confirm if Mufasa was telling the truth and when the lion came back Obasi said something that showed how bad of a leader he was ‘Outsiders? The stories were all true’, so the rumours were true. This means that he had heard of this potential threat before but refused to do anything about it because he was too lazy. He could’ve prepared his Pride and had everyone learn how to fight in case the rumours were true but he decided that lying in the shade was more important.
This is the same thing we see when Scar is the King, just like Obasi he doesn’t follow the lionesses to hunt because he believes that it is the lionesses job, even when the rest of the animals leave the Pride Lands because of how bad things have gotten he acts just like his dad and sentences every lion to death because he wasn’t willing to move. If Obasi had ordered his Pride to travel away from their territory when Mufasa told him about the attack many members of his Pride would’ve survived and this is something Scar also did in the Pride Lands.
What we learn about Scar is that he could’ve turned out a lot differently if he wasn’t just raised by Obasi, because when we look at Mufasa we see how he turned out. He had got some smart advice from the little time he had with his birth parents, his mum gave him a dream with Milele. Luckily Mufasa had gotten a great adopted mum, she was the one who taught him the real skills he needed and later we see that even though Mufasa had only gotten to have a short time with his son, he still got to teach him some important things.
Taking all this into consideration, I think Scar looks the way he does in the 2019 movie is because of stress. I mean he is living in this territory but he isn’t apart of it meaning that he has to get food on his own, and unlike Mufasa who was trained by Eshe and the other lionesses, Scar is on his own and his hunting skills wouldn’t be the best, so he would fail more than he would succeed. In this way Mufasa is no better than Obasi.
Leadership isn’t about entitlement or inheritance; it’s about action, courage and wisdom. Taka could only be King in Obasi’s Pride, he only brought trouble to Milele and Mufasa fought for it and was made a King.
Last thing I’ll say about Scar/Taka – sorry he’s my favourite Disney villain – is It’s interesting to see where Scar came up with the idea for the stampede as in this movie there was a similar event and it had a significant impact on him. This is where he loses the love he had for his brother. This is where Mufasa and Sarabi fell in love with each other which Scar took as an act of betrayal. So he took his brother’s life in the same place he took his love.
I think this is a good entry into The Lion King franchise, with a couple of adjustments I think this is easily one of Disney’s strongest new movies in recent years. I love how they’ve found new areas of the circle of life to explore. The connection is still strong 30 years later.
Mufasa: The Lion King is more than a story about computer generated animals; it’s a lesson about courage, destiny, and the dangers of harboring resentment. Mufasa is a King in every sense of the word, while Taka’s choice’s and Obasi’s influence turned him into a villain. I think people should learn from this – true strength lies in selfishness, preparation, and the ability to overcome personal insecurities.