For years, going back to the late 1990’s, The Walt Disney Company has dabbled in live-action remakes, reimaginings, adaptations, and retellings of some of their iconic animated properties (with a couple of their theme park attractions and live-action continuations of animated franchises as well). The results of which have been met with mixed results. Some of them are great like The Jungle Book, Pete’s Dragon, Cinderella, Christopher Robin, and Chip n Dale: Rescue Rangers. Some turned out to be unexpected surprises like Cruella and Aladdin. Some as underrated gems & guilty pleasures like 101 Dalmatians, Dumbo, Jungle Cruise, Lady and the Tramp, the Pirates of the Caribbean saga, and Beauty and the Beast. The rest of them have been controversial and even disappointing like Alice In Wonderland (along with its sequel Through The Looking Glass), Maleficent, 102 Dalmatians, A Wrinkle In Time, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Mulan, and Pinocchio. But the BIGGEST offender of this category of film is undoubtedly The Lion King. Now, Disney’s 100th Anniversary in 2023 along with the following year of 2024 brings possibility for a few of their upcoming live-action remakes, reimaginings, adaptations, and retellings to turn out great. We will see Peter Pan and Wendy (directed by David Lowery who helmed Pete’s Dragon), unexpected surprises like a new version of an iconic Disney ride in Haunted Mansion (which will be directed by Justin Simien who is developing the Star Wars series for Disney+ called Lando), and an underrated gem and guilty pleasure like The Little Mermaid (which will be directed by the same person who did Into The Woods and the sequel Mary Poppins Returns), and, one I expect to be controversial, the reimagining of Snow White (which will be directed by Marc Webb of The Amazing Spider-Man with the script co-written by Greta Gerwig and featuring new songs from the songwriters of La La Land, The Greatest Showman, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, and Spirited). However, one of the upcoming Disney live-action stories in the works that, against all odd, I believe has the potential to be a delightful surprise, set for a theatrical release in July 2024, is the prequel to The Lion King titled Mufasa: The Lion King. And even though I am someone who was not a fan of the live-action-looking-CGI-remake of The Lion King from 2019, I have faith that this prequel will be a high-quality film.
Now it’s no secret a lot of the complaints surrounding the remake of The Lion King are based around the expressionless faces of the animals and that it was a shot-for-shot remake of the original without any expansion of the original story. This is where Mufasa: The Lion King can be an exact 180 of what the remake was. We already know they are not remaking the direct-to-video sequel of the original animated Lion King in Simba’s Pride. The story they are going with instead is much more interesting. This film is the story of Mufasa’s journey to becoming the King of the Pride Lands and is told through present-day scenes of Raffia, Timon and Pumbaa recounting Mufasa’s tale. Another interesting tell of the film’s quality is the production schedule. This film was announced and went into a production scheduled four years before its release on July 5th, 2024. While the the remake of The Lion King was announced three years from its release. This extra year potentially gives the crew of Mufasa more lead time to ensure they can better animate the visual effects of the animal emotions, develop all-new original songs (along with an original score), create new characters, and overall tell a more compelling story in the mythology of The Lion King. There is also going to be a lot of excitement surrounding the release of the film because 2024 marks the 30th Anniversary of the original, animated Lion King. Ultimately, though, the secret weapon for Mufasa is the film’s director.
Who is this director of Mufasa: The Lion King that can be the film’s secret weapon to making the it superior to the inferior remake of The Lion King? That would be none other than Barry Jenkins. Known for Academy-Award-winning-and-nominated films, including Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk, and the 10-part, critically-acclaimed, streaming television series known as The Underground Railroad, Barry Jenkins’ 3-for-3 track record in film and television, compared to that of the spotty track record of the director of The Lion King (2019), Jon Favreau, gives me hope that he will not lose sight of the reverence he holds for the original animated Lion King, he will focus on making sure the story of Mufasa is done right and done differently from its counterpart, The Lion King. I believe the quality, writing, directing, songs, and visual effects that also allow for a realistic emotion and expression will be achieved under Jenkins’ direction. I go so far as to predict that Mufasa will be to compared to the remake of The Lion King the same as Ouija: Origin of Evil is to Ouija – a prequel to a critically-panned story that ends up being unexpectedly well received by critics and is something worth watching in the movie theaters.
I truly believe Mufasa: The Lion King has all the ingredients to be an unexpected surprise that Disney will pull out of their hat. Firstly, Disney made the right decision by NOT following-up the remake of The Lion King with a sequel that is a remake of the direct-to-video-sequel to the original animated Lion King, Simba’s Pride. Secondly, the pandemic provided time to ensure this prequel is handled better than the last film and not rushed into production to meet a deadline that would make it turn out inferior. Lastly, the hiring of Barry Jenkins to direct Mufasa: The Lion King will ensure the story, quality, visual effects, music, and technical aspects of the movie are handled better than on the last movie. I know many people are unsure, skeptical, and doubtful of this prequel being handled with dignity. It’s true that Disney’s last two attempts at origin stories about characters we know with Lucasfilm’s Solo: A Star Wars Story and Pixar’s Lightyear didn’t fare well with critics and the box office, but my hope is that a compelling director of talent behind the camera and a majority of new faces in front of the camera, behind the camera, and in the voice-recording booth, Mufasa will be able to succeed where Solo and Lightyear have failed. As the old saying goes “third time’s the charm.” So, good luck to you, Barry Jenkins. I have confidence that you will succeed.
Al Says All 