Mufasa: we saw the first minutes of the Disney live action film, here is our opinion

Five years after the live action remake of Lion King and its international success (more than 1.6 billion dollars at the worldwide box office), the film offers a prequel centered on Simba's father, entitled Mufasa: The Lion King.

Barry Jenkins, Oscar winner for Moonlight and creator of the series The Underground Railroadis directing this new Disney production, expected in theaters on December 18, 2024. The American director was in Paris this Wednesday, November 13 to present the first images of his film.

The Digitals was present at the event and here is what to remember, as well as our opinion on these first images of the new feature film from the Disney studio.

The origins of the Lion King

The story of this prequel, written by screenwriter Jeff Nathanson (Catch me if you can, Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge), is told in the form of flashbacks by Rafiki to young Kiara, the daughter of Simba and Nala who is born at the end of the Lion King.

The story follows a young Mufasa, when he is an orphaned lion cub. He meets Taka, heir to a royal lineage and future Scar, with whom he sets off on a journey rich in twists and turns and lessons. But their bond of friendship will be put to the test, as they will have to team up to fight against an enemy more threatening than ever…

We may be surprised to see a filmmaker like Barry Jenkins, accustomed to an infinitely more personal auteur cinema, take the reins of a big-budget Disney film such as Mufasa. During the presentation, the director immediately embraced this question, and recounted how he joined the project:

“Six years ago, you wouldn't expect the person who directed Moonlight to be there introducing Mufasa: The Lion King. Well, I had that same voice in my head before I read the script.”

He continues: “I wasn't immediately sure I wanted to make the film, but I just knew when I saw it. It's always important to me, when I read or write a script, to being able to see and imagine scenes, colors, light, movement.”

More Pixar thanAvatar

Mufasa: The Lion King continues the new tradition of live-action remakes of animated classics, such asAlice in Wonderland (2010), The Jungle Book (2016), Beauty and the Beast (2017) or the recent The Little Mermaid (2023).

If these previous films could suggest a perfect mix of real actors and sets and computer-generated images, The Lion King in 2019 had further blurred the line between animated cinema and live action.

At the time, while the Golden Globes (and other organizations) had categorized the feature film as an animated film, Disney did not seem to fully embrace the nature of its production, and thus submitted it to the Oscar for best film, not for best animated film.

Even today, the question is not resolved, and this remake of The Lion King appears inconsistently in the rankings of the most popular animated films of all time.

When asked precisely about the nature of Mufasa and on the technology used, Barry Jenkins confirmed that his film was closer to the methodology of a Toy Story than one Avatar and its motion capture:

“It's a completely digital film. (…) The public thinks that this film is similar to Avatar or Planet of the Apes, but in these films the actors walk on two legs. In our case, the majority of our characters are on four legs, so you didn't have the same use of motion capture.”

To the question of the use of faces or the physicality of voice actors – such as Aaron Pierre, Mads Mikkelsen or Thandiwe Newton – in what the spectator sees on the screen, the filmmaker's answer is clear and definitive: “nothing about their face, nothing about their physique.”

It specifies the creation process: “First we recorded all the voices. It was almost like directing a live radio play. (…) We edit them and thus construct and script the film. We then use these scripted scenes to create a version 3D and virtual scenes We're trying to get the storyboarding to such a point, so we can go and film it with live virtual cameras.”

Jenkins said that based on the vocal performances of his cast, stand-ins would then take over in these virtual scenes to later serve as a reference for the animators. Anyway, unlike its predecessor, Mufasa: The Lion King seems to fully embrace its nature as an animated film.

A nice 40 minute overview

The Digitals was therefore able to see a preview of around forty minutes, the beginning of the film really, and which represents a third of the total duration of the feature film (announced at 1 hour and 58 minutes).

Without revealing too much, this beginning is a nice appetizer, introduced by Timon and Pumbaa who were forced to listen to the story told by Rafiki, in the heart of Lions Rock. We remain astounded by the photorealism of the animation, even if it seems that Disney has withheld criticism about the lack of expressiveness of the characters in the remake.

The young Mufasa and Taka, who meet early, and become (too?) quickly friends like pigs, are thus much more lively and demonstrative. This beginning also allows us to discover two exciting songs composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton, Encanto), and to pose the interesting central themes of the film, in particular on the differences in education between our two heroes.

As Barry Jenkins explained: “It was interesting to go back and explore the origins of these characters. And to see, because it's the toxic lion Obasi who's going to raise Taka, and the loving mother Eshe who's going to raise Mufasa, how they're going to grow up and become completely different.”

What will their adventures be? How will the relationship develop between Mufasa and the man who will later be called Scar? Response on December 18, 2024 at the cinema.

• Watch the trailer for Mufasa: The Lion King :