Through the years, Lion King has affected many childhoods, some more than others.
Disney has released a lot of Lion King content since the first animated film in 1994, with over eight different remakes and add-ons of the first movie, extending the lore to dedicated fans. The newest Lion King-based movie is Mufasa, which came out in December 2024.
Mufasa is now Disney’s second CGI The Lion King movie, and there have been many interesting opinions. Some who haven’t even watched the movie have already shared their stance. “We prefer the older style” or “New Disney isn’t even trying anymore” has been repeated in many different ways across the internet. Well, some think otherwise.
According to ‘The Numbers’, 211.7 million dollars have been collected as of January 2025 from the movie itself, coming in from the USA and Canada. In other territories, they’ve received 389.5 million from the Box office, making a total of 601.2 million dollars globally currently. Disney is getting a LOT of money! Some may say that Mufasa is getting the same reaction from the public just as the first CGI Lion King got.
However, none of these things matter to the targeted audience, children! The movie is a PG family movie. If you’re a musical fan or maybe just a Disney fan, the movie is definitely for you. The movie has a tone of overall great composed songs, that could give nostalgia to the older Disney fans or maybe even touch another young Disney fan’s heart just as it happened to you. My personal favorite was the music and the storytelling. Of course, they did have to change a bit of the original story to make an origin story for Scar and Mufasa, but honestly, it’s a lot better than just “Mufasa scratched Scar in a battle,” and it gives the characters even more life. The movie overall was good, despite the seemingly popular hate for the CGI used. Animated or not, the movie still was able to portray the lion characters’ expressions, movements, and emotions.
The movie’s plot starts with Mufasa as a cub and goes on to show an origin story that seems to be well thought out despite other people’s beliefs. Throughout the movie, Mufasa’s story mixes with Scar’s, showing a brotherly bond that movie fans haven’t seen before. Mufasa and Scar go through a long but fairly interesting adventure together, after an unfortunate event with Scar’s pride. The movie serves the character Scar as a villain who wasn’t always a villain, a classic character trope featured in Disney movies, such as Cruella, which is another movie I strongly recommend.
Overall, the movie reaches out to people like my younger sister, who enjoy the Lion King franchise. The catchy songs and script reminded me of older Disney despite the newer technology and CGI. I was able to sit through the two-hour movie fully interested, even if I’m not a Lion King die-hard. Hopefully, Disney will continue to make more CGI and animated movies with the same nostalgic feeling they gave this one!
