The Lion King’ became a Barry Jenkins film

On By Littum

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Barry Jenkins did what anyone would do the first time he listened to a new Lin-Manuel Miranda song: He jammed out.

The Disney prequel “Mufasa: The Lion King” (in theaters now) brings together the director of the Oscar-winning “Moonlight” and the creator of the Tony-winning “Hamilton” to tell the origin story of bitter rivals Mufasa and Scar. Jenkins recalls Miranda sending him his first tune for the film, “I Always Wanted a Brother,” and immediately thinking, “This is a bop.”

“Kids are going to sing this song because I sing it,” Jenkins says with a laugh. “I get in my car in the morning, I’m singing this song. I’m standing in line for a cup of coffee, I’m tapping my foot. It was just one of those things. It’s like, oh, okay, this is an earworm. That’s how it works.”

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“Mufasa” presented a different challenge for Jenkins, mostly because “Moonlight” and “If Beale Street Could Talk” didn’t have photorealistic, computer-generated lions, zebras and other animals running around. “One of the cool things was that it was a new sandbox,” Jenkins says of “Mufasa,” a musical journey through the Pride Lands — and a follow-up to the 1994 animated “Lion King” and 2019 live-action remake .

As told to Mufasa’s granddaughter, Kiara (voiced by Beyoncé’s daughter Blue Ivy in her film debut), the future Lion King (Aaron Pierre) is washed away from his family by a flood and taken in by Prince Taka’s pride (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), later known as Scar. The two become as close as brothers and embark on a quest that pits them against the villainous white lion Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen), but which also tests their bond of friendship.

Barry Jenkins looked to the old ‘Lion King’ to make ‘Mufasa’

There are songs, colorful backdrops and jokes galore, but Jenkins has made Pride Lands his own by doing what he does best: “engaging in topics and conversations that are hard to engage in,” says Pierre. The British star elaborates on how the film tackles the navigation of personal relationships, the importance of communication and even the complexities of love, and “how it’s never a simple thing, no matter how much we try to simplify it.”

Also, Jenkins has “done it in a way that’s not didactic (and) not condescending to young people, so grown people can go and enjoy it,” the actor adds.

So how did Jenkins walk that line, balancing serious subject matter and children’s adventure? He embraced the energy of the OG “Lion King”. “You might see it for the first time at age 4, and then you can see it again at age 34, and it still hits,” says the director.

Always paying attention to the “heart” of each scene was important to Jenkins. He points out one of the last arguments Seth Rogen’s warthog Pumbaa has in the film: “Ugh, love. That sounds like something really gross and not something I totally need and want.”

“It starts out as this childish joke, but then it also goes to this place that’s really endearing,” says the filmmaker. “It’s like a microcosm for the whole movie.”

‘Mufasa’ dialogue gave way to ‘banger’ Lin-Manuel Miranda songs

Miranda, who has written original tunes for Disney films such as “Moana” and “Encanto,” signed on to “Mufasa” because “I wanted to be around while Barry Jenkins was making a movie,” he says, but also because make songs it would flesh out the characters.

Melodies were born out of conversations with Jenkins – “I’m a very unworthy songwriter. I’m not one to hand over the song and say, ‘See ya at the premiere!'” – as well as from “great lines of dialogue” from Jeff Nathanson’s script , Miranda explains.He remembers getting “the first lump in his throat” when he read a scene where Taka and Mufasa race to see if Mufasa would get to live with Taka’s family friend win and tells him, “I have a secret, Mufasa. I’ve always wanted a brother.”

“I thought, ‘That’s a banger song title!’ That’s the feeling I want to use to get to know these brothers,” says Miranda.

Blue Ivy Carter stars in a key ‘Mufasa’ scene about outsiders

Jenkins loves that among various thought-provoking themes, he gets to explore the idea of ​​outsiders. It is the epitome of Kiros and his evil pride, but it applies to many of the characters, including Mufasa and Taka. “Through this idea of ​​positive vs. negative nurturing, one person developed into this version of an outsider or someone who was once an outcast, and the other person developed into the greatest king of all kings,” Jenkins says .

The wise mandrill Rafiki (voiced by John Kani) delivers one of the film’s most poignant lines, telling Kiara, “Sometimes when the people who like you the most don’t love you, it’s a wound that can cause the greatest pain. And this pain can make you hate everything.” Kani, who reprized his role from the 2019 film, told Jenkins about how he starred in a film, “White Lion,” as a protector of albino lions who are chased away when they are born.

“I was like, ‘Dr. Kani, let’s find the language with you and Blue Ivy on how to talk about it,” says Jenkins. “Mufasa” is “just so obsessed with exploring all these different versions of how we can all feel left out, outside , not part of the Circle of Life to use ‘Lion King’ terminology. And depending on how we react to it, it can lead to us becoming a better version or a worse version of ourselves. That was really key to the emotional core of the film.”