Movie Review: “Mufasa,” everything we didn’t need to know about “The Lion King”

The CGI animated savannahs, rivers and rock formations of Africa are photo-real, and the animals populating it have never been more realistically rendered than they are in “Mufasa: The Lion King.”

Disney felt the need to have the lions, warthog and meercat’s lips move when they sing, which is saying something.

But let’s keep this review short and not-exactly-sweet, unlike this boardroom-ordered prequel to one of Disney’s most popular intellectual properties. “Mufasa: The Lion King” never makes the case that it’s a story that needed to be told or a movie that needed to be made.

It’s about how Mufasa got separated from his birth-parents’ pride of lions, and joined another, becoming “brothers” with the lion cub who “saved” him, but who will come to be called “Scar.”

So the object of this prequel is to show how Mufasa became Lion King and how Scar got his scar and became the bitter rival in their pride.

The “story” is framed as a “story” Rafiki the ape (John Sani) tells Simba’s cub, and that cub’s protectors/babysitters, Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa (Seth Rogen).

The tale is of another coming-of-age quest, with two young-lions on their own this time, paired-up, depending on each other, on the run from a pride of albino lions led by the killer Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen).

There are new songs of a far more forgettable nature than those from the animated classic “The Lion King.”

“The circle is broken,” he growls, and we believe him.

There are harrowing moments of drama in their quest, but there’s precious little humor to the movie, all of it provided by the same duo who have always been the comic relief, Timon and Pumbaa.

“We’ve been singing ‘Hakuna Matata’ since forever!”

“Who hasn’t?“

The messaging, about taking in “strays,” and that “To be lost is to learn the way,” is weak tea.

Story failings aside, it’s not a bad movie. But “Mufasa” never lets us forget the limited-entertainment-value of the entire undertaking. Oscar winner Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight”) was hired to direct, but aside from a few voice casting decisions (Keith David, Anika Noni Rose, with Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison, Jr. as Mufasa and Taka/Scar), he brings nothing to this that makes a difference.

Disney’s tech/animators telling their bosses that “Yes, we can make it look like a movie with real singing lions and bathing hippos on the veldt without using real animals or shooting on location” is no justification for showcasing that technology.

Story matters, and this one didn’t need to be told.

Rating: PG, some violence

Cast: The voices of Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison, Jr., Tiffany Boone, John Kani, Mads Mikkelsen, Thandiwe Newton, Keith David, Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen.

Credits: Directed by Barry Jenkins, scripted by Jeff Nathanson, based on characters from Disney’s “The Lion King.” A Walt Disney release.

Running time: 1:58