Mufasa: The Lion King (2024)

‘Mufasa: The Lion King Suffers a Serious Case of Prequelitis as it Turns Back the Clock. The prequel to Jon Favreau’s 2019 CG redo of the animated classic is directed by Barry Jenkins who brings some impressive visual style and a little soul –– but not enough. Opening in theaters on December 20th, ‘Mufasa: The Lion King’ represents Disney’s latest trip to the animated canon-to-live-action watering hole.

Of course, “live-action” in this case is a slight misnomer as every blade of grass or twist of hair on screen is brought to life with impressive, photorealistic CG. But even with a filmmaker as talented as Barry Jenkins in charge, what transpires feels like a waste of his time and energy, since the storyline is so generic as to become tiring.