A follow-up to 2019’s The Lion King, a $1.7 billion box-office beast, was inevitable. But despite much clear effort to give it some soul, this prequel never offers a good reason for its existence.
Its big selling point is that it’s directed by Barry Jenkins, who won an Oscar for 2016’s Moonlight, an achingly tender story of a boy going through the pain of growing up different. In a very – very – loose sense, Mufasa has a similar story in its young lion hero’s (Braelyn Rankins, then Aaron Pierre) journey from displacement to brotherhood with a timid cub from another pride (Theo Somolu, then Kelvin Harrison Jr.), via an untimely flood, more tragedy and the menace of an evil white lion (Mads Mikkelsen).
This prequel never offers a good reason for its existence
Told in flashback, Mufasa’s story is frequently interrupted by cuts back to the ‘present’ and some capers involving Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumba (Seth Rogen), suggesting the film is aware that its new characters aren’t as appealing as the old ones and need a little help – especially on the comedy front.
Jenkins puts together some beautiful shots, but he seems at a bit of a loss for what to do with this. The musical sequences largely imitate those from the first film, although Lin Manuel Miranda’s – surprisingly very lacklustre – songs give him little to work with. And the ‘photo-real’ technology, while undeniably technically impressive, remains cold and characterless. Jenkins cannot make these uncanny valley critters loveable. And if he can’t, it’s hard to imagine who could.
In cinemas worldwide Dec 20.