Mufasa: The Lion King

"The Legend of Mufasa" is the prequel to "The Lion King", telling the story of Simba's journey to become king.

Generally, films where the protagonist goes from being an inexperienced person to a perfect man need to be paired with a symmetrical character who is both evil and complex, otherwise it will seem old-fashioned and boring.

Captain America needs the Winter Soldier, Thor needs Loki, Optimus Prime needs Megatron, Zhang Junbao needs Dong Tianbao...

Mufasa is a classic epic hero who constantly demonstrates his bravery, wit, nobility and tenacity, and is unbiasedly following the path of growth as a great screen hero.

And all the dishonorable but more chewy good scenes were left to his good brother Scar, or his original name, Taka.

Some people say that this movie is more like a story about how Taka turned into Scar. But this statement is not correct.

What is blackening? From the perspective of basic commercial film values, it means that a good person turns into a bad person, betraying and harming his former allies.

But to describe Taka as evil is to underestimate him.

From the beginning to the end, it was not a question of Taka getting better or worse, but that he never changed.

He is not like the Winter Soldier who was once brainwashed into a minion of Hydra, nor is he like Loki who has been a harmful person since childhood but sometimes shows some friendship, and he is not like Megatron who would kill his old friend once he changed his mind.

It seems that Taka's behavior is wavering. Sometimes he is overwhelmed by jealousy and wants to destroy himself along with the other, and sometimes he misses his old love and risks his life to save the other. It seems that what he wants is never fixed.

But behind all the changes, what he really pursues, or the core desire that dominates him, has always been the same.

He was once a prince of noble status, and his parents had high hopes for him to be the new king. They might have been able to see that he was not cut out for it, but they still taught, trained, demanded and expected this of him.

However, no matter how hard he tried, Taka could not meet the expectations. He was like a mediocre student who always hovered in the middle of the class and knew better than anyone that it was impossible for him to be admitted to a prestigious university.

Despite having such a strict father and such a well-mannered mother, Taka still did not show the qualities of an heir. When faced with the enemy, he abandoned his family and ran away in panic, which was the final conclusion of his talent.

Fortunately, he made the right choice when he was young. He rescued Mufasa from the water and insisted on begging his parents to let them become brothers.

From childhood to adulthood, Mufasa was the only lion who never put pressure on him, never embarrassed him, and allowed him to escape from his weakness.

The torment he felt from wanting to live up to his parents' ideals but failing to do so was released through the joyful play of his brothers, which allowed him to maintain a minimum level of pride as a lion.

But until his parents were killed, his tribe was destroyed, he embarked on the road of escape with Mufasa, and fell in love with the same girl, his only spiritual support began to collapse.

Remember after he saved Mufasa from the cliff, he said to him: I saved you, won't you say thank you to me?

He needed this feeling of being needed so much, but in the subsequent journey, he had to face the ceiling of his potential again and again. He had to watch Mufasa, a homeless child with a far inferior background than him, who was gifted and constantly resolved crises along the way and outshined him time and time again.

The lion in his heart was taken away, which was just the last straw that broke the camel's back for his emotional castle. His father's words "deception can also make a king" were just an excuse he used to exonerate himself.

He betrayed his friends not out of jealousy or revenge for love. He just wanted to break free from the quagmire of inferiority and regain the little pride he had.

When Taka betrayed Mufasa with a clear conscience, we realized that he had changed.

His tone became calm, his eyes became firm, his head was no longer lowered, and his body was no longer hunched over.

Taka, who was seen before, the one who spoke hesitantly, had an uncertain look, and always hid in the corner secretly tasting the bitterness of incompetence, suddenly disappeared.

He's doing an evil and crazy thing, but this is the closest we've seen him be to a lion in a long time.

He was finally no longer the poor guy who was outdone and needed credit, and he regained control of his own and others' destiny.

With Taka's assistance, the evil lions followed, but when the final battle came, Taka changed sides and returned to Mufasa's camp.

Because seeing Mufasa dying soon aroused a pleasure in Taka's heart that was stronger than betrayal:

I am finally no longer a weakling. I have the ability to save you once again. Even if I lose my life, even if I am exiled by you, even if I am despised for the rest of my life, I don't care.

The moment when Taka steps forward to rescue Mufasa and is left with a disfiguring scar, and when he grabs the drowning Mufasa and lifts him out of the water, these are his particularly charming moments, especially the latter scene, which echoes in the theater with loud musical notes, and its passion even surpasses the heroic moment when Mufasa kills his opponent.

Rafiki said to Mufasa that your bloodline is not important, your character is important. And Taka's story is saying that your character is not important, what matters is whether you have the courage to face it and fight it.

Many characters in this movie dream, and their dreams contain their ideals and future, but Taka never mentioned it. Does he dream?

In the dream, he may not be the king and may not get love, but there must be countless scenes in which he fearlessly protects his brother and receives his sincere gratitude, just like when they first met.

There is nothing dark about Taka's life, and I can't classify him as a villain in any sense of the word.

He was a child who had never been satisfied and spent his entire life replicating the moment he was most proud of.

2 stars for Scar, 1 star for the visuals, the rest are lackluster, even the Disney signature music is unimpressive. The most interesting character in the film is Scar, the most awesome character is the baboon master, and the protagonist Mufasa is a Mary Sue who has a life of cheating (lion life), and is also the most boring character in the film, leaving even less impression than the bird...

To be honest, the plot arrangement of brothers who are friends for life and death turning against each other because of a girl is not as good as the one in Transformers where Optimus Prime and Megatron turned against each other because of different philosophies. . . Scar saved Mufasa's life no less than five times in the whole film (crocodiles in the river, running to release water, jumping into waterfalls, blocking the fatal blow of the white lion, and finally drowning in the underground lake). As a result, after watching this movie, I feel that Mufasa's death at the hands of Scar in the original story seems to be nothing. . . In addition, it seems that Scar does not covet the throne that much. It makes people feel that in the original story, Scar may be more jealous of the girl giving birth to a cub for her rival. . . It is not even certain in this movie whether Scar really betrayed Mufasa. After seeing the white lion, Scar remembered what his father said, "You can become a king through fraud." Combined with the subsequent developments, it makes people feel that Scar is more like setting a trap for the white lion in order to avenge his parents. The two brothers feel a bit like Thor and Loki. . .

In addition, the split between the "fairy tale feeling" and the "realistic feeling" of this movie is more abrupt. For example, it specifically popularized that the lion group is responsible for hunting, and the male lions generally do not participate in hunting. It also patched the bug of Mufasa hunting. But the problem is that after the lion group jumped up and down in fear when they knew that the elephants were coming, how did the white lion have the nerve to say "I promise not to hurt them" to a group of animals with many elephants? Not to mention the elephants and rhinos that crush the lions in force, even the large group of giraffes would not lose to the lions in a one-on-one duel. As a result, this movie feels like popular science in "Animal World" at one moment, and Mary Sue, the king of destiny in the fairy tale, at another moment, and then there is the pure super baboon master comparable to Master Yoda, which makes people feel a little embarrassed every now and then. TL. . .

I have to say that "The Legend of Mufasa" is almost the life of Mufasa and the tragic life of Taka (Scar). When Taka was a child, he lovingly rescued Mufasa, a "stray child" who was brought to a foreign land by the flood, from the river. Then he deliberately lost to Mufasa in a race, and then forced his father to adopt Mufasa. Taka saved Mufasa's life, but planted endless troubles for himself. After watching this film, I really sympathize with Taka's life experience.

As a prequel to The Lion King, this film not only whitewashes Scar to a certain extent, but also subverts the character setting of The Lion King to a certain extent. Mufasa and Taka are not brothers. Mufasa is a "street boy" and Taka is the original heir to the throne. Taka has saved Mufasa's life five times (the fourth and fifth times were Taka's conscience after he turned evil). If Mufasa and Taka are not brothers, if Taka was Mufasa's savior, then the Hamlet setting of Simba is incomplete. At the same time, Mufasa, Taka, Sarabi, Rafiki, and Zazu are all "outsiders" to Mylere (the Kingdom of Pride). In other words, the members of the future ruling class of the Kingdom of Pride are all "outsiders", which inevitably gives people a sense of "colonization".

What is particularly outrageous is that Mufasa had just fled to Mylare and with just a few words, he successfully incited the local animals to unite and fight against the white lion. Later, he was supported by the local residents as king. Mufasa's personal charm is really strong. In fact, if Mufasa is a natural "king", then Rafiki is the "kingmaker". After all, it was Rafiki who personally pushed Mufasa to the throne. In this regard, Rafiki is simply the Merlin or Jiang Ziya of the Kingdom of Glory. Although Mufasa once swore to be loyal to Taka forever, when he was "robed", Mufasa had to be king.

On the other hand, Taka's personal charm is almost zero in front of Mufasa. His parents were killed by the white lion, and his home was taken away by the white lion. After escaping from his home, Sarabi and Rafiki basically ignored him, and he was gradually marginalized in Mufasa's team. Later, his secret crush was taken away by Mufasa, his throne was taken away by Mufasa, and finally even his name was taken away by Mufasa. Taka's last wish is probably to stay with Mufasa, whom he regards as a brother, but this only brother is probably no longer exclusive to him, because Rafiki has begun to call Mufasa a brother. It can be seen that while Mufasa gradually reached the peak of his life, Taka gradually lost everything. From the perspective of Mufasa or Rafiki, "The Legend of Mufasa" is probably an epic film, but if you stand in Taka's perspective, "The Legend of Mufasa" is almost a horror film.

What's even more terrifying is that both The Lion King and The Legend of Mufasa have repeatedly emphasized the "cycle of life." However, looking back, Mufasa killed the son of Chilos, the leader of the white lions. Chilos in turn killed Taka's entire tribe, and then hunted down Mufasa and Taka. After Mufasa and others fled to Mylalei, Mufasa killed Chilos. Several years later, Taka killed Mufasa. Finally, Mufasa's son Simba killed Taka. Is this the "cycle of life"? This is simply the "cycle of killing"!

In short, while The Legend of Mufasa fleshed out the characters of Mufasa and Taka, this movie is really an unnecessary prequel.

"The Lion King" is undoubtedly Disney's pinnacle of 2D animation. After the same story was changed into an animation with real special effects in 2019, it actually showed problems of acclimatization. Fortunately, the story of the original work itself provided support for the movie. This time Disney turned the focus of the story to Simba's father. "The Lion King: The Legend of Mufasa", which still uses real special effects, certainly has new features, but is worse than its predecessor.

After the release of the real-life version of "The Lion King", Disney did not follow up with a remake of "The Lion King 2". In my opinion, this was a wise choice, because the second film was not only obviously inferior to the previous one in terms of story, but it was also difficult to attract people's attention if it was just a rehash. Therefore, "The Lion King: The Legend of Mufasa" used the form of a prequel to tell the story of Simba's father. There is nothing wrong with this direction itself.

Unfortunately, just like Disney today, it did not seek new stories to create movies. This prequel, "The Legend of Mufasa", is essentially just another Hollywood reproduction of the template of brothers turning against each other. This template produced by the assembly line is like a panacea, and it is also applicable to many familiar film and television works such as "Transformers" and "Thor". Today's Disney movies have launched various classic derivative sequels one after another, which has become a background replacement game with the same soup but the same medicine. In such a perfunctory story structure, it is naturally difficult to find the charm of the core of the story when I first saw "The Lion King".

The core concept of The Lion King: The Legend of Mufasa is the same as the 2019 reboot of The Lion King. Both films indulge in the construction of a visual feast and attempt to shock the audience with a "documentary-level" sense of reality. The previous film still has a lot to rely on, so it has not completely deviated from its essence, but with The Legend of Mufasa, the problem becomes particularly obvious. After all, the success of The Lion King itself is by no means a simple documentary of the animal kingdom, but a dream chapter that interweaves fable and reality.

The excessive pursuit of visual realism is like putting a heavy layer of armor on this fairy tale. Although it looks gorgeous, it restrains its inner vitality. The interest and imagination of the story are quietly diluted in the pursuit of "realism", as if an old wine jug is filled with newly brewed liquid. The appearance is simple, but the purity and charm are lost inside. This attempt of "putting new wine in old jars" will inevitably find it difficult to break through the established framework after the story becomes unremarkable, and it will be even more difficult to gain a foothold in the increasingly discerning eyes of the audience.

The blind worship of "reality" and the reliance on "routines" have caused today's Disney to ignore the unique charm of animation art - it should be the wings of imagination, not the shackles of reality. Therefore, whether it is the 2019 version of "The Lion King" or "The Legend of Mufasa", despite having more advanced special effects technology, they have failed to surpass the original. When this series of films is completely stripped of the original story, it will inevitably expose its inherent shortcomings and limitations.

Compared to the animal version of the "Prince's Revenge" story told in "The Lion King", the prequel tends to reflect the laws of nature: nature admires the strong. Mufasa, who survived the terrifying power of nature, finally won the throne of the lion group and became the leader of all beasts. The main line of the story conveys the core of Western values very well: if you want to succeed, you must be brave, wise, capable, have opportunities, and have the help of the team. What surprised me most was Scar's character change. My hatred for the villain Scar in the first part turned into sympathy for him in this prequel movie. Before becoming Scar, Fata was obviously a descendant of the royal family, but because of his character flaws, he lost everything in the end: his throne, his love. Nothing really went as he wished. The hatred in his heart was too natural. No matter who became Scar, it would be impossible for him to be willing to lose everything like this. Although Mufasa, as a good brother, did not want to snatch Scar's original intention, fate made it possible for Mufasa to succeed, while Scar had to face a tragic ending. The increased hatred for his brother left him with no second choice. He is like me in life. At work, I always meet those naturally beautiful people who can get everything you want without any effort. But at the critical moment, if you behave a little more ordinary, the opportunity will no longer belong to you. The unwillingness and jealousy of colleagues who get opportunities, and even the desire to ruin colleagues' good things, how are these different from Scar?

Scar's plump image makes his actions in the original story logical. He just wants to take back everything he has lost. Unfortunately, nature will not allow cowardly genes to exist in dominant individuals forever, and its ending is already doomed. And the soft-hearted Mufasa will be eliminated by nature in the future because of his "womanly kindness". In addition, the special effects of the movie made me see the gap between us and the United States. If the animated version of "The Lion King" attracts the audience with stories, then the so-called live-action version of "The Lion King" series is conquering the world with technology. Obviously, they are all CG special effects, but people can no longer distinguish between true and false with their eyes. Disney has made realistic natural scenery from Pixar's animated film "The Good Dinosaur". Now 9 years have passed, and these technologies have made its movies far behind in production standards, and no one can match them. I have to sigh and admire their powerful technology.