Mustafa: The Lion King (PG, 118 minutes)
Verdict: does the job
Surprisingly, it’s been three decades since we first saw The Lion King, the joyous animated musical that reminded us, after a few lackluster years, that Disney could still create spellbinding movie magic.
My children, all born in the 1990s, grew up knowing the words to those Tim Rice and Elton John songs as if they were catechisms. For them, the fruity menace of Jeremy Irons’ baritone as Scar defined villainy, while Mufasa (James Earl Jones) was synonymous with courage. As soon as they were old enough, we took them to see the stage version.
Those Lion King memories were so precious that they resisted the idea of watching the heavily digitized 2019 remake, even though I assured them it was fun.
But they would do well to divert this over-the-top sequel.
Mufasa: The Lion King (dedicated to Jones, who died in September) strains with every sinew to make us feel the love tonight, to paraphrase one of the original song titles.
It’s spectacular to look at at times, with all those computerized bells and whistles combining to give the African savannah a vibrant, exhilarating life. However, the film, directed by Barry Jenkins (who made the Oscar-adorned 2016 film Moonlight), is afflicted by a patch of leonine laryngitis. No matter how hard he tries, he never quite roars.
Mufasa: The Lion King strains with every sinew to make us feel the love tonight
Mufasa (Aaron Pierre) reaches adolescence as the adopted son of the kind lioness Eshe (Thandiwe Newton),
Mufasa and Taka escape, with the Outsiders, led by the grumpy Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen), in pursuit.
Although it is a sequel in the sense that the adult Simba (voiced by Donald Glover) is now King of the Pride Lands, it is actually a prequel, as the wise baboon Rafiki (John Kani) tells the moving story from the life of Simba’s late father. Mufasa, to his wide-eyed granddaughter, Princess Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter, daughter of what passes for American royalty, Beyoncé and Jay-Z). Beyoncé also returns to the voice cast, as Simba’s queen, Nala.
Anyway, after being swept away from his parents Afia and Masego by the raging floods, Mufasa (Aaron Pierre) reaches adolescence as the adopted son of the kindly lioness Eshe (Thandiwe Newton), whose unpleasant companion Obasi (Lennie James) is less willing to accept. a ‘stray’.
Mufasa forms a strong brotherly bond with Eshe’s natural son, Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr), which intensifies when a belligerent army of lions, the so-called ‘Outsiders’, arrive to conquer Obasi’s pride. Mufasa and Taka escape, with the Outsiders, led by the grumpy Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen), in pursuit.
All of this plays out quite watchably, and as the pursuers approach, there’s a clifftop scene perhaps meant to evoke Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (1969), though the film lacks the wit to make it sing.
In fact, it’s a surprise there isn’t more ingenuity everywhere. The screenwriter is Jeff Nathanson, whose credits include not only the 2019 remake but also the wonderful Catch Me If You Can (2002). But this time he somehow manages to make the banter between Timon the meerkat (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa the warthog (Seth Rogen) more boring than funny.
Most of the songs, although written by Broadway superstar Lin-Manuel Miranda, are decidedly forgettable. Of course, he’s got a great act to follow: Tim Rice nailed the lyrics perfectly in 1994. But this isn’t even a lukewarm, reheated Rice.
As Mufasa and Taka search for the sun-drenched Elysian lands known as Milele, the chase takes them rather strangely across a snowy mountain range.
He somehow manages to make the banter between Timon the meerkat (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa the warthog (Seth Rogen) more boring than funny.
Wise baboon Rafiki (John Kani) tells the moving life story of Simba’s late father, Mufasa, to his astonished granddaughter, Princess Kiara.
In response to pedants around the world worried about the unexpected arrival of Himalayan-style avalanches in sub-Saharan Africa, I suppose the filmmakers could point out that meerkats and wild boars don’t make friends in real life either. Or maybe it’s his mischievous nod to climate change. Either way, it’s a little strange.
Still, the point of all this, from a narrative point of view, is to show us how Mufasa overcame a traumatic childhood to become a heroic king, and also what became of Taka, who, in a climactic fight and no spoiler intended, acquires a nasty facial… scar. In that sense, the film does its job.
It is a safe bet for a family outing to the movies this Christmas season. But it’s not as good as the 2019 film, not even a hair from the magnificent original.
Mufasa: The Lion King is now in theaters.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (U, 70 minutes)
Verdict: Simply impeccable
By contrast, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl lives up to all of Claymation studio Aardman’s previous features: it’s another triumph of pure British silliness, fused with pure British genius.
Except now voiced by Ben Whitehead, replacing the late Peter Sallis but sounding very much like him, Wallace is his old familiar self, living with Gromit on West Wallaby Street surrounded by a plethora of silly Heath Robinson-style gadgets simply to get him in the morning.
He remains a civic hero following the events of The Wrong Pants (1993), in which he foiled sinister criminal mastermind (and penguin) Feathers McGraw’s diabolical plot to steal a priceless blue diamond.
Feathers is still safe at the zoo, “literally playing bird,” but now she’s using her diabolical cunning to get revenge on Wallace and pinch the gem again.
Computer hacking is one of Feathers’ many nefarious skills, so when Wallace invents a robotic garden gnome named Norbot (Reece Shearsmith), who is hired by the neighbors to do odd jobs, the rogue penguin devises a way to reprogram the ever-cheerful Norbot as downright evil.
Needless to add, Feathers also escapes captivity, again putting a red rubber glove on his head and posing as a chicken.
Wallace is his familiar old self, living with Gromit on West Wallaby Street surrounded by a host of silly Heath Robinson-style gadgets simply to get him up in the morning.
Feathers is still safe at the zoo, “literally playing bird,” but now she’s using her diabolical cunning to get revenge on Wallace and pinch the gem again.
Dumb Chief Inspector Mackintosh (Peter Kay, reprising his role from The Curse of the Rabbit Man) has a smarter partner, PC Mukherjee (Lauren Patel).
Now that Norbot is wreaking havoc on the city’s gardens, Wallace’s name is mud. So inevitably, when the diamond disappears again, he becomes the prime suspect.
Luckily, dim-witted Chief Inspector Mackintosh (Peter Kay, reprising his role from The Curse of the Rabbit Man) has a smarter sidekick, PC Mukherjee (Lauren Patel), while Wallace, of course, has the ever-witty Gromit, putting aside his reading material (Virginia Woof’s A Room Of One’s Own) to rescue his hapless teacher’s reputation.
The adventure culminates in a canal boat chase across the Yorkshire/Lancashire border, which is one of the most adorably fun action sequences I’ve seen in years, comparable to the epic train chase in The Wrong Pants.
Northerners in particular (and I write as a proud Lancastrian) will enjoy the jokes (‘No Parkin’ made me laugh out loud), while film buffs will also delight in gloriously tongue-in-cheek references to the Bond films. Italian work, even the African queen. What a great and welcome Christmas gift!
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is in select cinemas and will be on BBC1 and BBC iPlayer on Christmas Day.