‘Mufasa: The Lion King’: If Pride Rock could talk – The Boston Globe

The plot is simple: Mufasa’s trusted mandrill friend, Rafiki (John Kani), tells the origin story of Mufasa (Aaron Pierre) and his friend Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) to Simba’s daughter, Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter). Kiara’s father is once again played by Donald Glover; her mother, Nala, is reprised by Blue Ivy’s real-life mother, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. The late James Earl Jones didn’t reprise his role as Mufasa, but the film is dedicated to him.

Initially, meerkat Timon (Billy Eichner) and warthog Puumba (Seth Rogen) were the baby sitters planning on regaling Kiara with tales of their derring-do. Their stories stink on ice, and are clearly fabrications, so Rafiki takes over.

We learn that Mufasa was born to Masego (Keith David) and Afia (Anika Noni Rose). He was swept away from his family by a massive rain that occurred after a long drought. He is saved by Taka, a lion from another pride. Taka’s father, Obasi (Lennie James), wants no part of the cub he refers to as “a stray,” but Taka and his mother, Eshe (Thandiwe Newton), take a shine to him.

Meanwhile, Kiros and his crew of white lions are laying waste to every village of animals. This conquest is to ensure that Kiros is the “ruler of everything the light touches,” a description you’ll recall Mufasa said to Simba in the original “The Lion King.” Kiros also has revenge in mind, as his only son was killed in a previous altercation with Mufasa and Taka.

Screenwriter Jeff Nathanson, who wrote “Catch Me If You Can” and adapted the 2019 version of “The Lion King,” keeps the story moving but succumbs to one major mistake. Every so often, the story is interrupted by Timon and Puumba. Full disclosure: I hate these characters. I hated them in the original movie and couldn’t stand that “Hakuna Matata” song. So, whenever they popped up with commentary (at one point, they sing “Hakuna Mufasa”) I growled like Kiros.

Since “Mufasa: The Lion King” is one of only two family-friendly offerings coming out the week before Christmas, I expect it will make an enormous amount of money. Its predecessor made over $1.6 billion worldwide — and it was terrible! A movie like this is critic-proof anyway. I doubt exhausted parents looking to distract their kids for two hours will give a damn that this film is directed by Barry Jenkins.

Yes, that Barry Jenkins, the Oscar-winning director of “Moonlight,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” and the series “The Underground Railroad.” His name is on two Christmastime offerings, as he also wrote the excellent boxing movie, “The Fire Inside,” which opens Dec. 25. The announcement that he took this project wreaked havoc, with some film buffs rending their garments over the fact that such an esteemed director would helm a franchise entry.

Considering the Marvel movie bad luck that befell other well-known and respected directors like Sam Raimi and Chloe Zhao, some of that handwringing was understandable. Indeed, “Mufasa: The Lion King” occasionally looks like a battle is being waged between Jenkins’s sensibilities and Disney’s desire to make everything canned and familiar.

But more often than not, I could see the director’s trademarks, albeit in a truncated form. There are those fourth wall-breaking shots of characters looking directly at us. Several shots of the camera sweeping over the landscape lasted longer than I was expecting, also a Jenkins signature. Plus, this movie has some well-crafted action sequences and instances of peril. Some of the underwater animation is especially striking.

Lest I forget, as in the recent remake of “The Little Mermaid,” the songs here are by Lin-Manuel Miranda. They run the gamut from meh to extremely catchy. There’s also a noticeable attempt to align these songs with the ones from the original film. We’ve got a “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” equivalent, for example. The big villain song, the best number in the film, is sung by Mikkelsen and will be as divisive as “Moana”’s crab song, “Shiny.” I have to admire that Miranda uses a very familiar phrase in the chorus just to troll his haters.

I saw this movie in IMAX and 3-D, the latter of which is useless to half-blind critics like me. The large format made “Mufasa: The Lion King” an enjoyable spectacle, and Disney gives us an old-school, flesh-and-blood villain to be defeated. The voiceover work is good and, as far as franchise entries go, it’s quite watchable.

★★★

MUFASA: THE LION KING

Directed by Barry Jenkins. Written by Jeff Nathanson. Starring Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison, Jr., Mads Mikkelsen, John Kani, Blue Ivy Carter, Keith David, Anika Noni Rose, Billy Eichner, Seth Rogen, Lennie James, Thandiwe Newton, Donald Glover, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. At AMC Boston Common, Landmark Kendall Square, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, AMC Causeway, suburbs. 119 minutes. PG (intense action and peril)

Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe’s film critic.