Film: Mufasa: The Lion King [2024] – Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Tiffany Boone

Mufasa: The Lion King looks good but feels aimless. Half sequel, half prequel, the movie tries to do too much while failing at most of it.

It’s probably no one’s fault except Disney. The Lion King made a lot of money, so someone got greedy. Similar to the issues with Moana 2, the movie feels like an expensive cash grab by the studio executives. It swings back and forth tonally very awkwardly, but there are some thrilling moments, and quite lovely at times.

To be honest, my enthusiasm for Mufasa was initially low, and it’s only waned with further pondering of its ones-and-zeroes visual non-wizardry and borderline-pointless story. The uncanny valley is very canny in this one. Putting the visuals aside, the circle of life flatlines in this mundane, redundant Lion King spin-off which sacrifices charm, heart, and comedy in the pursuit of vanguard visuals and some extra cash.

Yet, if we ignore the franchise and premise of this spin-off, the biggest letdown of the movie is that it just brushes through the characters without exploring the emotional dynamics and depth. Mufasa? Yes, we get some backstory, but nothing major. It felt a re-hashing of everything Lion King, mixed with excuses to pick-up every character we see in the original movie along the way without any real reasoning for it: Zazu, Rafiki, and others.

Should you watch it?

Frankly, it’s uninspired and unnecessary. Adds nothing to the franchise and wastes everyone’s time with a boring story and inconsistent storytelling.

Where can I watch it?

You can stream Mufasa: The Lion King on Disney Plus.