‘Mufasa: The Lion King’ Is Dull, Generic Photorealistic Animation Prequel

‘Mufasa: The Lion King’ Is Dull, Generic Photorealistic Animation Prequel

By Lynn Venhaus

Woof. Thirty years after its landmark opening, Disney’s “The Lion King” has returned as a computer-animated prequel that’s a mere shell of its majestic and inspired coming-of-age drama origins.

Lacking a creative spark, this misfire is a generic, dull and soulless attempt to go back to the familiar Shakespearean theme, with Biblical roots, to rehash family bonds and destiny. Yawn.

Walt Disney Studios has blended live-action filmmaking techniques with photoreal computer-generated imagery, which looks like a nature documentary and has less of an emotional impact.

A nice touch is opening the film with a dedication to James Earl Jones, who voiced the regal Mufasa in Disney projects from the original 1994 to the remake in 2019. He died in September.

To set in motion Mufasa’s journey as a lion cub after his parents (Keith David and Anika Noni Rose) perish in a frightening flood, the wise shaman Rafiki (John Kani) begins telling Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter), daughter of Simba (Donald Glover) and Nala (Beyonce Knowles-Carter), the origin story of her grandfather.

Lost and alone, Mufasa, voiced as a young cub by Braelyn Rankins and Aaron Pierre as he gets older, is aided by Taka (Theo Somolu as a cub, Kelvin Harrison Jr. later), an heir to a royal bloodline.

Taka’s father King Obasi (Lennie James) is suspicious of outsiders, but his mother Queen Eshe (Thandiwe Newton) is more understanding, and the future king proves his mettle.

They team up to thwart their vicious foe, a pride of hateful territorial white lions – looking like they’re rolled in flour, I suppose so we can keep them straight – led by the evil Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen).

Mufasa eventually rises to become king of the Pride Lands, but not without much strife and multiple conflicts. He learns the dangers of tribalism and tyranny.

After all, this is the origin story of Scar as well. We eventually find out the reasons why his ‘brother’ Taka becomes bitter and resentful and will eventually betray him more than once.

The pair pick up a couple other strays on an expansive sojourn to the promised land Milele. The orphaned lioness cub Sarabi (Tiffany Boone) falls in love with Mufasa, spurning Taka. Rut-ro. Her screechy scout Zazu (Preston Nyman) the hornbill is back, both helping and hindering.

Returning from the unfortunate 2019 ‘live action’ remake are a younger but still mystical Rafiki (Kagiso Ledigo) and the now annoying self-absorbed duo of Pumbaa the warthog and Timon the meerkat as voiced, insufferably, by Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner.

Their banter isn’t funny and pulls us away from the journey, not to mention wrecking our “Hakuna Matata” vibe. Every time they start chattering, it halts the trek with forced humor. Their meta references about the 1997 stage musical are odd and seem out of place.

This band of misfits is on what seems to be an endless journey. Directed by the esteemed Barry Jenkins, the shot selection includes wide grand vistas – mimicking drone action above snow-capped mountains and expansive parched savannahs, which alternates with extreme close-ups of lions.

While the vocal work is fine, the remarkably similar visuals make it hard to distinguish the lions. The ensemble is too big to invest in the characters, too.

Emmy, Oscar and Tony winner Lin-Manuel Miranda’s songs usually signal a bright spot in any Disney project but here they seem intrusive. Did we need them? 

They just seem to unnecessarily pad the narrative, telling us what we can see – “Milele” as a beautiful utopia, “I Always Wanted a Brother” as the bonding occurs between Mufasa and Taka, then the love song “Tell Me It’s You” and the friends relying on each other on their trek “We Go Together” (as in “Grease”?).

While his lyrics are always clever, this score pales in comparison to the Elton John – Tim Rice tunes and Hans Zimmer score that each won Oscars, or even his multi-award-winning “Encanto.”

“The Lion King” was the highest grossing film of 1994 and the film became the top home video, holding that record for years. It was adapted for the stage in 1997, earning six Tony Awards and is now the third longest running musical on Broadway and the highest-grossing show of all time.

Its pedigree is undeniable, it’s a favorite with families, and will make a lot of money. But couldn’t they find a fresher, more engaging story than to keep going over the same themes just to appeal to fan service? Nostalgia aside, what are the biggest takeaways? That Disney is going to wring every penny out of the public for its beloved properties until the end of time?

“Mufasa: The Lion King” is an animated adventure family musical directed by Barry Jenkins with the voice-over work of Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr., John Kani, Tiffany Boone, Kagiso Lediga, Mads Mikkelsen, Thandiwe Newton, Lennie James, Anika Noni Rose, Keith David, Blue Ivy Carter, Beyonce Knowles-Carter, Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Preston Nyman. It is rated PG for action/violence, peril and some thematic elements and the run time is 2 hours. It opened in theaters on Dec. 20. Lynn’s Grade: C

With Dazzling Images, Perplexing ‘Nope’ Is More Style Than Substance

With Dazzling Images, Perplexing ‘Nope’ Is More Style Than Substance

By Lynn Venhaus
Technically brilliant but weak in coherent storytelling, “Nope” is an amalgam of tones and textures that convey horror and the strangest things.

In only his third film, director Jordan Peele, Oscar-winning writer of “Get Out,” follows up “Us” from 2019 with equal parts originality, pastiche, and satire. It’s clever, spooky, funny, and gruesome.

Two siblings, OJ and Emerald Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer), are taking care of their family’s horse ranch in inland California. Their father, Pops (Keith David), built up the horse business to provide animals for Hollywood productions and became a legend. They are barely staying afloat now, though. The horses get spooked and the pair witness unexplained phenomenon that gets increasingly hostile. But fascinating – and if they can prove alien life, a financial life raft.

Kaluuya, so good in Peele’s cultural phenomenon “Get Out” and Oscar winner as Fred Hampton in “Judas and the Black Messiah,” is the laid-back horse trainer, OJ (wink-wink), who worked with his dad Otis Sr., on the dusty remote spread. His bubbly, scattered sister Emerald – Palmer in a live-wire role — does not complete tasks or take responsibility, so OJ is left being the heavy lifter.

But when weird things start happening, will they be able to successfully team up and rise to the occasion to defeat something they don’t understand?

Meanwhile, at a nearby Old West Town amusement-theme operation, former child star Ricky “Jupe” Park (Steven Yeun) tries to overcome a traumatic childhood incident and entertain the masses, using the sci-fi spectacle to his advantage. At least, that is his plan.

The characters are intriguing and mysterious, but the Haywood kids’ personalities, being opposites, don’t lend themselves to building emotional connections when that would have immensely benefitted the movie.

It is clever how the siblings figure out what works and what doesn’t. With the help of a techie at a big-box store, Angel Torres, well-played by Brandon Perea, and an old-school cinematographer drawn to the mysterious goings-on – Michael Wincott, who maintains a sage but wary vibe.

Steven Yeun as a former child star

Yeun, showing yet another facet after his Oscar nomination for “Minari,” evokes sympathy, pity and at times is a pathetic, sad figure, as the former scarred-for-life child star clinging to a lower ring of showbiz as a vaudevillian showman.

Now that’s one you want to know more about – even if those two flashback scenes to the set of his sitcom are quite disturbing.

Because it’s hard to get invested in the Haywood and Park journeys when you are confused about what is happening. Peele, at times, instead of surprising us, dulls the impact by keeping us at arm’s length.

Not that there aren’t a couple jump scares, some well-placed funny lines, and escalating tension every time the power goes out or the UFO vessel swoops down on its prey. The voyager in the sky is less revealing than Ed Wood’s “Plan Nine from Outer Space” or “Unsolved Mysteries,” and that ‘less is more’ effort is frustrating.

What lessens Peele’s impact is that he struggles with pacing – from a slow-burn beginning establishing who’s who to a draggy third act. With a runtime of 2 hours and 15 minutes, at least 20 minutes could have easily been shaved off.

This is an example where the anticipation is greater than the supernatural alien payoff, similarly unfulfilling like in Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival” (2016) and M. Night Shyamalan’s “Signs” in 2002. The gold standard in space paranormal visits remains Steven Spielberg’s 1977 “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” but “Nope” tackles other issues that aren’t in the ‘aliens arrive’ lane — black representation in Hollywood, entertainment spectacles, American identity and more. Some of the themes he’s using are clear, while others are opaque.

The writing, in a rather minimal slideshow way, lacks plot details that would help connect the dots and thread the needle, preferring to be stingy with any information that can illuminate or help explain the strange goings-on. Even though there are some truly creepy segments, Peele seems to strive for confusion instead of understanding.

Daniel Kaluuya as OJ Haywood

Hoyte van Hoytema, Oscar-nominated for “Dunkirk” and Christopher Nolan’s go-to cinematographer, has captured the grandeur of this gulch in Santa Clarita Valley, with its mountains and foothills, its dusty vastness, as well as its ominous clouds and eerie remoteness. It’s both breathtaking in scope and spine-chilling in growing the unease.

Rebecca De Jong’s production design is a marvel of kitschy western theme park with glitzy faux fun touches, the fringes of old-fashioned entertainment from a bygone era, and Mother Nature’s ability to surprise and raise goosebumps at the same time.

Composer Michael Abels, who has scored Peele’s previous films, builds both the weirdness and the growing menacing tone in his musical selections. And as with any eclectic soundtrack melding pop culture periods, is pitch-perfect in his selections of Dionne Warwick, Corey Hart and others.

 “Nope” is unlike Peele’s previous two films and allows him to stretch into interesting genre work – but had the focus been tighter, we’d be looking at a masterpiece, instead of a flawed film that I wanted to like so much more. If we could have invested more in the characters, that would have enriched the storytelling exponentially.

It really does have some marvelous moments – but at the same time, many head-scratching ones too.

A TMZ intruder

“Nope” is a 2022 horror-sci-fi-mystery thriller directed by Jordan Peele and starring Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Brandon Perea, Michael Wincott, and Keith David. Rated R for language throughout and some violence/bloody images, its runtime is 2 hours and 15 minutes. In theaters beginning July 22. Lynn’s Grade: B-