Movie Review - Mufasa: The Lion King

I got the impression from the movie that the creators were uninspired. It feels like someone at Disney HQ got the bright idea to make a prequel to The Lion King and then hired some writers to get the job done. The writers are:

• Irene Mecchi: The Lion King, Brave, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, etc.
• Linda Woolverton: The Lion King, Maleficent, Beauty and the Beast (1991 and 2017), etc.
• Jeff Nathanson: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Speed 2: Cruise Control, Catch Me If You Can, etc.

Serious question: How in the world did Jeff Nathanson get in on this crew? Irene Mecchi and Linda Woolverton were part of the three-person crew who wrote the original Lion King--Jonathan Roberts being the other. I would have been delighted to see just the two ladies working on this because it is exceptionally rare that any movie has an all-female writing crew.

7:42●●● 95%

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At any rate, I didn't feel like the story was inspired by a writer having a great idea that they have to work on. Instead, it feels like a job they were tasked with. The songs are, without exception, forgettable. Well, that's not entirely true. I may not forget how bad a few of the songs were. Anyone who is going into this movie hoping that the magical numbers of the original Lion King will be recreated will be hugely disappointed.

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A Story About Telling A Story

I think the choice to tell the story as a story being told isn't inherently a bad choice, but the way to do it is by starting the embedded story and telling it to the end before breaking back out. I believe there is one, and only one, story that breaks out multiple times and gets it right: The Princess Bride. Coming back to Rafiki telling the story was just a waste of time. I really shouldn't complain because it did make finding Peetimes a little better. But it only creates discontinuity when we break out of the main story over and over again.

Story Arc

Overall, the story arc is pretty good. The path of Mufasa overcoming his self doubt is well done and didn't feel forced at all.

Spoilers Ahead

Two things really bothered me. One was that Taka saved Mufasa twice by grabbing him by the claws, that mirrors how he killed Mufasa in The Lion King. I think it would have been much more impactful if it only happened once, at the end. Doing it twice made it feel cheap.

Secondly, there was no point in bringing Mufasa's mother back into the story at the end. One happy ending is enough. There were better ways to handle that.

Grade: C

Plot
Mufasa, a cub lost and alone, meets a sympathetic lion named Taka, the heir to a royal bloodline. The chance meeting sets in motion an expansive journey of a group of misfits searching for their destiny.