Mufasa: Le Roi lion

Mufasa: The Lion King is so much better than the soulless remake it has to act as a prequel to. All of the biggest issues have been rectified instantly and it has a greater purpose by telling a new story, even with some classic prequel issues. Everything set after the events of the first film could've been easily cut out to let the main story breathe however they are thankfully brief whenever they do interrupt and it comes to a nice conclusion.

Aaron Pierre makes the role of Mufasa his own with a strong performance that has him feeling reluctant to accept his destiny and becoming more stoic as it goes along. Similarly, Kelvin Harrison Jr. Gets more deceitful throughout and chooses to make his voice work sound closer to Jeremy Irons than Chiwetel Ejiofor. The only occasionally distracting element is some of the line readings sounding rushed.

Director Barry Jenkins is massively over qualified for this and held back by the photo real animation that comes with this but his direction is still more ambitious and exciting than Jon Favreau's was. He isn't afraid to sacrifice a pointless commitment to realism to create a beautiful looking film where the locations are more varied, the visuals are more creative and the cinematography is infinitely more dynamic.

The CGI is always faultless and thankfully all the lions now show a much wider range of emotions, enhanced by the massive increase in close ups. The songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda are definitely some of his weakest, they're very repetitive without his usual level of catchiness and it's a testament to how strong everything else is that this isn't a major issue. Dave Metzger's score only stands out when referencing Hans Zimmer's work, which it does constantly.