Trailer: Mufasa: The Lion King

Movies

Today, Disney released the first full trailer for Mufasa: The Lion King. From director Barry Jenkins (Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk), Mufasa is part prequel, part sequel. We will see Mufasa become King of the Pridelands in the past, as well as a present timeline concerning Simba and his daughter, Kiara. The present timeline is inspired by The Lion King III: Simba’s Pride, an animated direct-to-video sequel to the original animated classic. Aaron Pierre will voice the young Mufasa alongside returning cast members Donald Glover, Beyoncé, Billy Eichner, Seth Rogen, John Kani, and more. Blue Ivy Carter, daughter of Beyoncé and Jay Z, will voice Kiara. Check out the trailer here:

Okay, so what we have here is the Lion King remake meets Simba’s Pride meets The Godfather Part II. I knew I didn’t want this movie, but I’m still surprised how stilted and lifeless it really looks. The dead-eyed, expressionless faces of the animals juxtaposed against lively, fast-paced music is just too much. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to laugh, cry, or back away in horror. But there’s a major tonal dissonance here. This movie is even more redundant than the first remake and more lifeless than the animated sequel. I don’t know why Disney thinks it can pull off multiple timelines and casts of characters, but there’s not enough story or intrigue here to support that. At the end of the trailer, I was stunned to learn that Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote songs for this. Really? He can’t do songs for Moana 2, but he’s doing the Lion King remake-prequel-sequel? Hell, Wish may have been a better use of his time; good songs could have salvaged some of that movie. This one is DOA, no matter how good the music is. I didn’t want to watch lifelike animated lions re-enact The Lion King once, and I don’t expect this one to be any better. In fact, this movie is more diluted and has worse source material, so I imagine it’ll be worse. 

Did you enjoy the trailer? Are you going to see Mufasa? Is this the bottom of the barrel on IP-based movie ideas, or can Disney keep digging? Sound off in the comments!