Mufasa: The Lion King will explore his origins as king of the Pride Lands and his relationship with Scar, and it could be better than the 2019 remake.
Summary
- Mufasa: The Lion King is an upcoming live-action prequel that breaks away from the source material, allowing for the creation of a new story unbound by the restrictions of a remake.
- The CGI and special effects in Mufasa: The Lion King are expected to be even better than its predecessor, as Disney has had time to refine their processes and create more realistic images.
- Barry Jenkins, an Oscar-winning director, is leading the project with an incredible creative team, ensuring that this film will deliver something new and well-composed from the franchise.
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Disney has created several live-action remakes of beloved stories that didn’t work as well as the original films, but the upcoming Mufasa: The Lion King could signal that they can finally do better. After successful yet uninspired releases like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King, telling an original story rather than recreating a classic one is a good idea. Mufasa, the prequel film to the beloved franchise is being made as a live-action project and there are a lot of reasons why this could work where The Lion King remake didn’t.
Many of these live-action projects have been able to produce a stunning reimagining of the earlier story, but this is pretty much only true when the story is adjusted along with the visuals. Much of The Lion King remake featured word-for-word repetitions from the original earlier films, but the upcomingMufasa: The Lion King prequel can’t do that because there is no original source from which it’s being adapted. This is, in fact, good for the movie.
6 Mufasa’s Prequel Movie Will Tell An Original Story
Breaking away from the source material, Mufasa goes back along the timeline to take a closer look at Mufasa’s earlier life. By the time of The Lion King, Mufasa is a father and established as a great and beloved king in his domain, but shortly after being introduced, he is cruelly killed in one of the most harrowing scenes of any children’s movie. The prequel film has the opportunity to create a new story unbound by the restrictions of a remake.
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This film is also being written by Jeff Nathanson who provided the screenplay for the live-action The Lion King. Nathanson was also behind incredible and highly successful projects like Catch Me If You Can and The Terminal. This story has all the potential to outshine the earlier live-action project.
5 Mufasa’s CGI Should Be Even Better Than The Lion King
Technology in cinema, including CGI and special effects continues to develop at an incredible pace. The Lion King was released in 2019, and there have been five years that have passed since that time. In 2019, the technology already made the film look absolutely incredible. Disney has had plenty of time since then to refine their CGI processes and how they create more realistic images from every angle including superpowers, aliens, anthropomorphized animals, and more. By the time Mufasa: The Lion King is fully complete, the level of realism and quality of the CGI will be markedly better than its predecessor.
4 Barry Jenkins Is Directing Mufasa
Barry Jenkins has produced and directed a number of extremely successful films which have racked him up an Oscar win, over 100 other awards, and a further 152 nominations. His filmography is relatively short, but the stories he attaches himself to are well-composed, full of depth, and tend to perform extremely well at the box office. With projects like Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk, Aftersun, and The Underground Railroad, Jenkins is an excellent choice to direct and deliver this project from concept to completion. Jenkins also brings with him an incredible creative team including actors, composers, and other crew that he has worked with previously to ensure that this film will deliver something new from the franchise.
3 Mufasa’s New Voice Actor Avoids A Lion King Remake Complaint
Aaron Pierre who previously worked right alongside Barry Jenkins on The Underground Railroad provides a fresh take on the iconic character of Mufasa. One of the most vocal complaints around the live-action The Lion King film was how James Earl Jones had aged considerably since his earlier portrayal of the character Mufasa. After all, 25 years had elapsed since the original film was released. Pierre is a much younger actor with the strong vocal presence to deliver a voice as powerful and captivating as the King of Pride Lands.
2 New Original Music
According to reports from Entertainment Weekly, Mufasa: The Lion King will feature musical numbers. Obviously, exploring a brand new story creates an opportunity to create a completely new soundtrack that may draw inspiration and influence from the earlier film, while making something that feels completely new and fresh. Director Jenkins encouraged fans to “Please expect musical numbers. Really wonderful music numbers” which is certainly encouraging for what to expect from the upcoming prequel. Hanz Zimmer, Pharrell Williams, and Nicholas Britell are officially creating the music for Mufasa: The Lion King.
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Zimmer is, of course, a legend of Hollywood, having worked on many of the most recognizable soundtracks of film in the last half-century, from the original The Lion King to Iron Man, Inception, Dune, Gladiator, and Top Gun: Maverick. Williams has steadily become more and more involved as a composer in Hollywood creating original music for films such as Despicable Me and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as well as having created dozens of songs for huge musicians like Calvin Harris, Tyler: The Creator, Nellie, Shakira, Madonna and more. Brittell rounds out the dynamic trio as someone who has worked alongside director Barry Jenkins on several projects in the past.
1 Scar’s Backstory Will Be Explored
One of the most ominous and oppressive villains to come out of a children’s animated film is none other than Mufasa’s own brother Scar. The creative team behind 2019’s The Lion King revealed that Scar and Mufasa were not in fact literal brothers, but two lions that coexisted in the same pack. A younger Scar, who before receiving the wound that gave him his namesake was called Taka. In Mufasa: The Lion King, Taka (Scar) is to be played by Kelvin Harrison Jr. The story of how Mufasa and Taka came to be in the same pride and developed their familial relationship is certain to be explored through the course of the film.
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In addition to exploring how early in Taka and Mufasa’s relationship he began plotting against his brother to take over his throne. Potentially the story of Scar’s scar and his relationship with the vicious hyenas of the Elephant Graveyard will also be developed through Mufasa: The Lion King in contrast to the rise to power of Mufasa. Scar has always been deeply jealous and this is the perfect opportunity to dig deeper into what made Scar and Mufasa into the lions they eventually became.
Source: Entertainment Weekly.
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