Movie in one sentence:
Hoes before bros.
Movie in more sentences:
A young Mufasa loses his parents and meets a lonesome prince along the way, who introduces himself as "Taka" and is quick to claim him as his "brother". Though Taka's father wants nothing to do with strangers in general, Taka and his mother are drawn to him and advocate for his stay.
The two grow up together like real brothers and Mufasa is entrusted with Taka's safety after a pride of powerful white lions threatens their existence, but even after the many incidents where Mufasa proves to be better than the royalty, it's the arrival of a wandering princess that tests their relationship.
It starts with Mufasa's own father dying in a "wildebeest stampede"-like flood, after mere seconds of rainfall in a period of drought. Real smooth transition that was. Where did that water come from?
Scar and his mother's immediate acceptance of him was also odd. It's not explained why the mother is such a bleeding heart, while very little tweaking was needed to make it make sense. The movie could've had her spy on her runaway son as he was talking to Mufasa, establish that Scar told his parents many times he wanted a sibling, and argue that's why she took him in and is so supportive. Have Mufasa basically be her spoiled son's new toy.
The movie is filled to the brim with unnecessary changes and explanations to why certain things are the way they are. Rafiki's stupid stick and the way Pride Rock was formed are good examples.
The choice to make the villains a large pack of white lions was a curious one, since not only are these extremely rare, but they don't stand a chance in the wild. I think they're supposed to be The Outlanders, though they're called "outcasts" here, opposed to the brown lions and sickly grey lionesses you see in The Lion King 2.
What's consistently called "The Pride Lands" in every piece of Lion King media is suddenly called "Milele", because using a different language makes it sound more magical, I suppose, yet at the same time, we have this otherwise nice-sounding villain song with the Sesame Street line "bye bye" in it.
Couldn't they've replaced that travesty with a Swahili term? I refuse to believe "kwaheri" was that impossible to work with. What about "nje ya tume", if that is a term, or just say "kufa". Listen to Bye Bye's melody, the instruments, this is not a bad song in its core.
All songs were acceptable, but not memorable, except for young Scar's "I've Always Wanted a Brother" and the peculiar villain song I just mentioned. The direction was pretty good during these songs, things looked snappy, at least moreso than in The Lion King reboot. Which again, says little.
Scar's heel turn was sudden, almost random. He hardly interacted with Sarabi, yet was willing to end his long-standing relationship with Mufasa over her. And again, it could've worked. Mufasa was shown all throughout the story to be better than him, Scar had a reason to grow bitter, but he seemed fine playing second fiddle, that's how close they supposedly were.
Scar presented himself as pretty likeable, making his sudden character change very out of place. He acted cartoonishly suspicious at the end, like the original Scar from the 2D animated movie, it was ridiculous.
Also.. and I know humans are dumb.. but are we really going to sit here and claim Nala became pregnant and gave birth to a new cub mere months after Kiara? Not only won't lionesses conceive again until their current litter has grown up, but they take about 4 months to cook up a cub, and Kiara looks way younger than 4 months. I've always believed Kion to be a useless addition to the Lion King universe, why did they even try. He was nowhere to be seen in The Lion King 2, he did not exist, why shoehorn him in.
They seemingly tried to cram in a trait from every Lion King property in this; because the constant interruptions from Timon and Pumbaa was reminiscent of The Lion King 11/2, and I hated it in that movie too. And that says alot from a Timon lover who was the target audience when that movie came out, opposed to a hateful adult who wastes time writing reviews no one will ever see.
That Kiara never acts like herself in every Lion King property outside of The Lion King 2 annoys me as well. I haven't seen The Lion Guard in its entirety, but there she acts like a brat who cares about becoming queen all of the sudden, and in this movie, she's a whiny coward.
The real Kiara was dangerously adventurous, a troublemaker who didn't want to be queen, she was bored by the mere idea of it, why does Disney keep forgetting this?
The acceptance of Scar's supposed real name, "Taka", baffles me even more. I don't recall the creator of that name having actual ties to the team that made the original Lion King movie, but even if they did, are we really going to adapt the name that means "trash" in Swahili, in a story that argues Scar is the true and valued heir to the throne? Did the makers of Mufasa even think to double-check what the name meant, especially since they're expanding on a universe were pretty much every character name has a meaning?
P.S. The image above is a photograph of two random, real lions, because nothing matters.
