Characters with expressive faces, powerful close-ups, and a director's poetic use of water. "Mufasa: The Lion King" may be putting up big numbers at the box office, but there's so much in the film you might have missed.
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00:00Characters with expressive faces, powerful close-ups, and a director's poetic use of water,
00:05Mufasa the Lion King may be putting up big numbers at the box office,
00:09but there's so much in the film you might have missed.
00:12In the first few minutes of Mufasa, we watch Simba and Nala welcome their first child, Kiara.
00:17Then there's a time jump in which Simba and Nala leave to have their second child.
00:22As a result, Kiara takes shelter in a cave while being cared for by Timon, Pumbaa, and Rafiki.
00:27Before Rafiki arrives, Timon and Pumbaa entertain Kiara with the story of how they supposedly fought
00:32and killed Scar. They even recreate the climactic battle between Simba and Scar at the end of The
00:37Lion King, but with the mere cat and the warthog subbing in for Simba. You may not have paid
00:42attention to it, but that throwaway comedic moment is actually a flagrant instance of trailer
00:47bait-and-switch. The shot of Timon and Pumbaa pushing a lion off a cliff appears in the trailer,
00:51completely without context, from an angle that doesn't allow you to see who the lion is.
00:56It seemed to give the impression that Timon and Pumbaa would somehow be involved in a few of the
01:00movie's action sequences. However, the scene turns out to be nothing more than one of their tall tales.
01:06So just to be clear, we're not in this story."
01:09The most iconic location and visual in The Lion King is undoubtedly Pride Rock.
01:14Several of the film's key scenes take place on the edge of the platform-like peak,
01:18including Simba reclaiming his post as king. This is true of both the original 1994 film
01:24and the 2019 remake. So while watching Mufasa, you might just assume that the cave where Kiara
01:29and her caretakers shelter from the storm is the Pride Rock cave. Take a closer look, however,
01:34and you'll notice that it is not. As we can see in the shots that show the cave from the outside,
01:39it's merely another cave somewhere in the Pride Lands. This makes a lot of sense,
01:43because if the intent is to keep the royal child safe, it's probably a better idea to hide her
01:48somewhere less conspicuous than the official royal residence. One of the most common criticisms of the
01:532019 remake of The Lion King was that the animal characters lacked discernible facial expressions,
01:59making their emotions unreadable.
02:02Now that's what I call umami.
02:04However, in Mufasa the Lion King, the problem of animals' facial expressions was addressed.
02:09The animation in the film allows the characters to express their feelings through their faces.
02:13So, for instance, the lions are able to smile widely, move their brows,
02:17and even contort their mouths in a human-like way. It's a relatively small and subtle change
02:22in terms of the film's overall look, but it contributes to making the story of Mufasa and
02:27Taka more relatable and emotionally affecting. Mufasa may tell the story of how he overcame
02:32self-doubt to become a great leader, but the character who goes through the most dramatic
02:36arc in the film is Taka. Although Taka's turn to evil is prompted by the betrayal he feels
02:41upon learning of Mufasa and Sarabi's love for each other, the movie indicates that he actually
02:46resented Mufasa for a long time. He even frames his rescue of Mufasa from the river as a life-changing
02:52decision that he made entirely for Mufasa's benefit, and one that he might not have even
02:56made at all. But Taka's very first appearance in the film shows that he's already got his
03:01eyes fully trained on Mufasa as he walks towards the river. Although Taka is there to fetch water,
03:06Mufasa immediately catches his attention. In other words, Taka's lifelong belief that he
03:11was duped into saving Mufasa is more of a self-delusion. In reality, it was a very
03:15willful and deliberate choice on Taka's part. The very concept of a Lion King as the patriarchal
03:21leader of his pride is a bit of an iffy one, as Lion's typical social structure is actually closer
03:26to a matriarchy. Lioness hunt and care for cubs, while the social role of males is usually limited
03:32to mating and pride defense. They also spend most of any given day sleeping and resting.
03:37That said, you don't see much of that organization in Mufasa's pride in the original animated film.
03:43Mufasa, however, features a much more realistic pride in Obasi and Eshe's group,
03:47which indeed consists of Lionesses as hunters. Meanwhile, King Obasi mostly just sleeps.
03:53The movie even comically points out how little his role as king actually amounts to.
03:58An early, defining event in Mufasa's life is the river flood that sweeps him away and separates
04:03him from his parents. Following that trauma, Mufasa develops an immense fear of swimming
04:07and of large water bodies in general.
04:09But if we swim, we drown!
04:12But there's an even subtler reason why he's so resistant to water aside from just trauma.
04:17The reason is that Mufasa's great survival skill lies in his ability to use sounds,
04:21smells, and vibrations to take in his environment. That perimeter-mapping
04:25ability is almost a superpower, which he repeatedly uses in times of danger.
04:29And it's much harder, if not outright impossible, for Mufasa to use it while
04:33swimming or floating in a river where he's not really able to feel the earth.
04:38In the film's most exciting action set piece, Mufasa and a few others find themselves trapped
04:42next to an elephant procession while Kiros' pride encroaches on them.
04:46It's then that Sarabi decides to drop a beehive in the middle of the elephants to provoke a stampede.
04:51In the ensuing chaos, Sarabi gets knocked unconscious by an elephant,
04:55so Mufasa drags her under a rock to keep her safe.
04:58Taka, meanwhile, finds himself stranded and alone in the middle of the stampede,
05:02and must hide underneath a rock to stay alive.
05:04He's visibly terrified as he watches the elephants run right above him.
05:08Upon closer inspection, however, the panic on his face is clearly the result of a trauma that
05:13stayed with Taka, and may have had something to do with his decision to later kill Mufasa
05:17by new stampede. One of the key components of Taka's character arc is his sense of guilt and
05:23shame over what he perceives as his own cowardice. He particularly beats himself
05:27up for not jumping into action to protect his mother from Kiros' goons when they pounce on
05:31her and Mufasa. Taka retains his tendency to be fearful and avoid direct brush-ups
05:36with danger throughout the movie, but it's later recontextualized as not a bad thing.
05:41After all, being reluctant to fight and looking for alternatives can sometimes be useful.
05:46For one, it saves both Taka and Mufasa when they're cornered by Kiros' pride on the edge
05:50of a waterfall. If it were up to Mufasa, after all, they would have foolishly taken on the whole
05:55pride and inevitably been killed. That said, the real problem plaguing Taka is not fearfulness,
06:00it's the crippling shame he feels due to the pressure put on him by his father.
06:05Early on in the film, Mufasa's parents sing him a sweet, hopeful song about Milele,
06:09the earthly paradise they hope to one day reach if they can get across the desert.
06:13Mufasa spends the rest of his life dreaming of Milele, and eventually sets upon finding
06:18it with Rafiki's help. As promised by Mufasa's parents, Milele does turn out to be a prosperous
06:23land full of water, grass, and life. It's called the Pride Lands.
06:27"...find your place in the circle of life."
06:30Geographically speaking, however, the Pride Lands don't quite match up with the magical
06:34land Mufasa and his parents dream of. They look more like a typical East African savannah,
06:39but not unlike several other areas previously visited by the characters.
06:43So what really makes Milele so exuberant is not the geography or the plant life,
06:47but the various animal populations that have migrated to it from all over and made it a rich,
06:52bustling ecosystem.
06:54It's not all that shocking for director Barry Jenkins to have chosen to tackle a remake,
06:58seeing as he's always been vocal about his love of artistically ambitious blockbusters like Black
07:03Panther Wakanda Forever. So beneath all the CGI wizardry, Jenkins' distinctive directing style
07:09is still very much in Mufasa, particularly in his trademark use of close-ups. You might not
07:14have taken notice of this visual choice, seeing as the faces being spotlighted aren't human,
07:18but it shows up a number of times throughout the movie. And in addition to putting an
07:22unmistakable directorial stamp on the film, it's also a choice that speaks to Jenkins'
07:27trust in the animators to make the characters' faces more emotive.
07:30I love how beautiful it is. You walk on the set,
07:32you know, and you just have no idea. You know, that's why I don't storyboard. You know,
07:35it's all possible.
07:37The close-ups aren't the only recognizable Barry Jenkins touch in Mufasa, either.
07:41Another Jenkins-esque motif that recurs throughout the movie are large bodies of
07:45water and the protagonist's immersion into them.
07:48Barry's incredibly talented and really trying to do something different.
07:51In the film, Mufasa plunges into water at two heavily symbolic points. First,
07:56during the flood that separates him from his parents, he finds himself deep underwater and
08:00must gather the strength to swim to the surface. The scene signals that he has become responsible
08:05for himself and his own life. Then, towards the end of the film, he fights Kuros in an
08:10underground lake and once again swims to the surface. This scene symbolizes Mufasa's rebirth
08:15as a capable king and pride leader. Both these sequences are highly evocative of a scene in
08:20Jenkins' Oscar-winning 2016 drama Moonlight. In the scene, Juan brings young Chiron into the
08:26sea and patiently teaches him to swim. It's a transformative moment that sees Chiron begin to
08:31find his place in the world and learn to fend for himself. The scene also shows him what it's like
08:35to be loved and cared for by a parental figure. As a family-friendly Disney movie, Mufasa may not
08:41have quite the same depth and existential heft as Moonlight, but it shows that Jenkins is still
08:46quite fond of using water and swimming scenes as signifiers of existential reckoning.