Mufasa: The Lion King‘s story retroactively made the original Lion King movie better in a handful of impactful ways. Of course, the same should be true of any prequel. The purpose of any such project is to provide further context and background information about characters and events, retroactively adding meaning to the central story. In the case of The Lion King, 2024’s prequel adds these sorts of details a whopping 30 years after the original animated movie was released in 1994. We thought we knew the story, but Mufasa: The Lion King completely changed the game.
Mufasa: The Lion King was a sequel and prequel in one, initially following Simba and Nala’s daughter, Kiara, as she waits for her parents to return from giving birth to their second cub. As she did, Rafiki told her the story about how her grandfather, Mufasa, became the brave king of the Pride Lands. The old mandrill explained that Mufasa hadn’t been born a king but became one after a long journey that brought him together with Scar, Sarabi, Zazu, and Rafiki himself. Every step of Mufasa: The Lion King shifted our understanding of The Lion King and, in some ways, made it better.
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Mufasa: The Lion King Established A Much Larger World
We Now Have The Bigger Picture
The original The Lion King was set in the Pride Lands, but the movie was rather vague about this animal kingdom. We know that Mufasa ruled over everything the light touched, but this is also rather vague. While this wasn’t a problem in The Lion King, the 2025 prequel successfully made this world feel far bigger, with a wider variety within the lions’ pride as well.
Mufasa: The Lion King revealed that Mufasa’s lion pride combined several prides from across the African continent. The Outsider villains aimed to eliminate the different prides, which inspired Mufasa and Taka to head for Milele—what would become the Pride Lands. Various natural landmarks in Mufasa: The Lion King confirmed that Milele is in Kenya, while Mufasa himself was born in Namibia.
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Mufasa: The Lion King Made Mufasa A Far More Dynamic Character
He Was Almost Too Perfect In The Lion King
The Lion King primarily takes Simba’s perspective, which naturally means that the character of Mufasa is idealized. He is a perfect king and father, but this also means that Mufasa isn’t nearly as interesting in the original movie as he could have been. Mufasa: The Lion King dived into Mufasa’s past and detailed his decisions leading up to his becoming king. As a result, he was a far more dynamic character.
An all-too-perfect character will always fall flat, but the prequel gave Mufasa and the overall franchise more longevity.
Mufasa made some mistakes in Mufasa: The Lion King, especially in how he handled Scar’s betrayal. Had he done things differently, Mufasa might not have been murdered in The Lion King. However, this detail doesn’t make the character less likable. If anything, Mufasa is all the more tangible. An all-too-perfect character will always fall flat, but the prequel gave Mufasa and the overall franchise more longevity.
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Scar’s Motivations Are Clearer After Mufasa: The Lion King
We Now Understand The Why
It’s evident in The Lion King that Scar is jealous of Mufasa, and this has everything to do with why he chose to murder his own brother. However, it was also always evident that there was more to the story here. The original movie didn’t dive into how things disintegrated between Mufasa and Scar—audiences are meant to accept that the villain is evil, and that is that. Mufasa: The Lion King made things more complicated.
Mufasa: The Lion King doesn’t change the fact that Scar is bad. He is jealous and cowardly, and this leads him to kill Mufasa. However, the movie does reveal that he hadn’t always needed to be that way. Taka had several redeeming qualities, but these lost out in the end. The idea that both his mother and the lioness he first loved had preferred Mufasa explains precisely how this happened.
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Mufasa: The Lion King Retroactively Made Simba’s Arc Even Better
Simba’s Story Is Only A Small Part Of It All
Simba wasn’t in Mufasa: The Lion King much, but the prequel still improved his general story. At the start of The Lion King, Simba was a cub who felt owed the kingship. He was young and arrogant, but this all fell apart when Mufasa died. For the first time, Simba doubted whether he could be king. It took realizing that the Pride Lands would fail under Scar for Simba to step up. It’s an impactful arc, but the Lion King prequel made it even better.
The fact that Mufasa wasn’t born to be king makes Simba’s arrogance at the start of The Lion King even more ironic. Simba had assumed that both he and his father came from a great line of kings, and this made them great, too. However, Mufasa: The Lion King revealed that Mufasa had made his own greatness. Simba ultimately had to do the same, never knowing that he shared this in common with his father.
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Sarabi Became A More Interesting Character After Mufasa: The Lion King
We Got To Know Mufasa’s Wife
Mufasa and Scar were prominent characters in The Lion King, and the 2025 prequel made them even more dynamic. Sarabi is a different situation, however. There was never much to her in the original Lion King, and though the 2019 remake added a bit of interest here (with the tease that Scar had once been in love with her), Sarabi still wasn’t particularly memorable. Mufasa: The Lion King changed that.
Scar mentioned that Sarabi had picked Mufasa over him in the 2019 Lion King remake, which never happened in the original animated movie.
Seeing Mufasa and Taka meet Sarabi and getting to know her ourselves was a real treat in the Lion King sequel. We get a glimpse of the strong queen she was born to be, but there is a playfulness that was never evident in The Lion King. Now, going back and watching her character in the original movie feels like an entirely different experience.
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Mufasa: The Lion King Created Parallels Between Mufasa & Simba’s Stories
These Stories Now Have A Poetic Balance
A big part of Simba’s story in The Lion King was that he feared he couldn’t live up to his father’s legacy. He thought they were simply too different from one another. However, something valuable that Mufasa: The Lion King did was reveal just how similar Mufasa and Simba really were. Sure, Mufasa lacked the arrogant qualities that a prince like Simba was born with. However, many of their experiences were similar.
Mufasa and Simba had similar journeys, meeting new friends who would remain close to them for the rest of their lives.
Mufasa and Simba were both separated from their parents while they were young. Both lost their fathers, while their mothers survived. Moreover, after their separations, Mufasa and Simba had similar journeys, meeting new friends who would remain close to them for the rest of their lives. As they had their respective adventures, Mufasa and Simba learned what it truly meant to be a leader and king.
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Mufasa: The Lion King Made Mufasa & Scar’s Dynamic Make More Sense
It’s Now Clear How Complicated Their Relationship Always Was
In addition to making both Mufasa and Scar’s characters more dynamic, Mufasa: The Lion King made the sibling relationship between the pair make far more sense. While it was a significant surprise that the pair weren’t biological brothers, the idea that Taka was the only one among them born to be king retroactively made the tension between them crystal clear.
Related
Why Mufasa Didn’t Forgive Scar In Mufasa: The Lion King
Back when Scar was Taka, he betrayed Mufasa in one of the worst ways possible. Rather than forgive him, Mufasa sealed their tragic Lion King fate.
In The Lion King, whether Mufasa and Scar ever loved one another was uncertain. Mufasa: The Lion King revealed that they not only loved each other but were best friends who chose to be brothers. However, Taka felt that Mufasa betrayed him when he fell in love with Sarabi, so he betrayed him right back. Of course, this led Taka to save Mufasa’s life. It’s messy and complicated, and this makes perfect sense with The Lion King‘s plot.
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Scar’s Crimes Against Mufasa In The Lion King Have Become Even More Tragic
Fratricide Is Always Sad, But The Lion King Prequel Made It Devastating
The most significant way that Mufasa: The Lion King changed the story in The Lion King related to Scar’s murder of Mufasa. This is easily the most iconic moment of the original movie, and the following scene during which Simba cries over his dead father has now traumatized several generations of children. However, now, after all these years, Scar’s fratricide strikes the heart in an entirely new way.
30 years after The Lion King, Scar and Mufasa’s final moment is more heartbreaking than ever.
The knowledge that Scar once loved Mufasa is painful enough, but the understanding that he continued to love his brother even after their first couple of betrayals makes the whole situation almost too tragic. Taka was born a coward, but he found his courage just in time to save Mufasa’s life. This might have allowed the brothers to repair their broken relationship, but Mufasa refused to fully forgive Scar, and the latter’s resentment and jealousy grew. 30 years after The Lion King, Scar and Mufasa’s final moment is more heartbreaking than ever—all thanks to Mufasa: The Lion King.
Mufasa: The Lion King
7/10
- Release Date
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December 18, 2024
- Runtime
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118 minutes
- Director
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Barry Jenkins
- Writers
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Jeff Nathanson
- Producers
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Peter M. Tobyansen, Adele Romanski
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Aaron Pierre
Mufasa (voice)
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Kelvin Harrison Jr.
Taka (voice)
