BY ISABELLA BEELER

On December 20, 2024, “Mufasa: The Lion King” premiered in theaters. I saw it during winter break and it was really good. It is a live action prequel to “The Lion King” animation and live action movie. It is the story of how Mufasa became king. It also has Scar’s villain origin story. 

Before I talk about “Mufasa: The Lion King” I would like to quickly summarize “The Lion King”. “The Lion King” animation and live action movies are both about the circle of life. The story follows Simba, next in line to be king after Mufasa. Simba’s Uncle, Scar, kills his dad so he can be king. He makes Simba think that it’s his fault, so he runs away. Timon and Pumbaa take care of him. Then Nala, Simba’s friend turned love interest, finds Simba when he is older and convinces him to come back and take the throne away from Scar. He wins and finds out Mufasa’s death is not his fault.

Mufasa: The Lion King is about Mufasa’s journey to become king. A flood took him away from his parents and he met Taka (Scar). Taka was really friendly and welcoming. They thought of each other as brothers. Taka’s dad thought of Mufasa as an outsider, but they welcomed him to the family. Taka’s mom taught Mufasa how to hunt. Then Kiros and his pride want to take over all the other prides, so he is the only king. They attacked Taka’s mom, so Mufasa fought back in defense and killed Kiros’s son. The rest of the movie Taka and Mufasa are trying to get away from Kiros. That leads them to meet a lot of the characters that you know from “The Lion King”. We met Timon, Pumbaa, Zazu, Rafiki, and Sarabi. Their goal is to find Milele, but when Taka falls in love with Sarabi, he feels betrayed. Sarabi likes Mufasa. Mufasa tries to let Taka be with her, but Sarabi and Mufasa just fall in love. That and how Mufasa is more likely to be king now instead of Taka, leads Taka to betraying Mufasa and their friends. That made him known as Scar. 

I thought the story was good. One of the themes in the story is that kings don’t need to be blood, they need to be leaders. The relationship between Taka and Mufasa at the beginning was sweet. I knew that Taka was going to become Scar and realized how, but it was hard to see. I fell in love with the character Taka, but strongly dislike Scar. I thought about that for days after I saw the movie. In other villain perspective stories like Maleficent or Wicked, they have redemption arcs. Scar just turned jealous and evil over time. No redemption, which is sad. You might understand him, but he was still really wrong for what he did. Mufasa was nice to him.

The songs were so good! They were written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. He writes a lot of good Disney songs. My favorite songs were “I Always Wanted A Brother” and “Tell Me It’s You”. The first song is Taka talking about how he has always wanted a brother. Now he considers Mufasa his brother and wants to protect him. The second song is where Mufasa and Sarabi realize they like each other. Those songs are both catchy and sweet. Some other good songs are “Bye Bye” and “Milele”. 

Overall: 7.5