GAL APPROVED! Divalicious Review! Barry Jenkins’ Mufasa Available On Digital
By Caroline Cao & The DivaGals | February 21, 2025 | Diva Approved
Mufasa, the prequel-quasi-sequel of The Lion King, is now available as a digital release with bonus content like deleted scenes, featurettes and more.
Our Movie Diva, Caroline Cao, shares her views of the live-action adventure.
Mufasa is bred as a late-stage product of live-action trendiness. Technically, it’s animated, photorealistic 3D, not just hand-drawn, but it lands in the trend.
For Barry Jenkins, the momentous director of live-action film like Moonlight, Mufasa registers as beautiful in its lush landscape long-shots—before a lion close-up whiplashes you out of majesty. (I say this as someone who didn’t watch the 2019 Lion King film directed by Jon Favreau).
Reimagining Mufasa and Scar’s brotherhood into an adoption tale treads into conspiracy territory (Disney certainly didn’t want a Kiara love story where she falls for her not-cousin in the earlier 2D animated Lion King 2). There are also cloying homages to the franchise from Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa (Seth Rogan), trying to shoehorn a Lion King 1/2 attitude.
The redeemable treasures in this project? The Mufasa story within Jeff Nathanson’s screenplay does not feel manufactured and hits as a legitimate exploration of its own themes. The lion who would grow up to be Scar (Kelvin Harrison Jr., whose vocal talents swerve neatly from Scar’s dualities) is raised by toxic masculinity. In contrast, Mufasa (Aaron Pierre) is raised by female nurture and activeness. Rafiki, the shaman mandrill voiced by John Kani, remains a playful mystical presence.
Mufasa isn’t the best lyrical craftsmanship of Lin-Manuel Miranda, but his songs land as earworms backed by rich, swelling orchestration and a warm welcome return of vocalist Lebo M of the franchise.
Is it a negative watch for the kiddos? Not necessarily. There’s a good film burrowed somewhere in this lush computer-generation landscape.
Mufasa: The Lion King is available to rent or purchase digitally. It will be released on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on April 1.
Photo credit: Disney
