Mufasa: The Lion King
I just don't waaaant...to be king
I'm of two minds on "Mufasa: The Lion King", and I ultimately feel it's a failed premise.
If you recall, the original "The Lion King" was a rather loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "Hamlet." Simba is Hamlet. Scar is Claudius. Pumba and Timone are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and so on. The new prequel seems to be an even looser adaptation of C.S. Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe". That makes sense. There's a lot of lions in "Mufasa” (except the role of Aslan is taken by Rafiki). Mufasa is Peter, Taka is Edmund, Serabi is Susan, while Zazu presents the Beavers.
Okay, not a bad idea to make it an allegory. I would have liked to see kids learn a moral lesson from Mufasa. Goodness knows, Hamlet didn't teach kids much, except that revenge is justified (sometimes). Murder is justified (sometimes), and your uncle shouldn't marry your mother.
Unfortunately, this is where "Mufasa" falls short. If this were a true allegory, when Taka betrays them to the snow lion king Rafiki should have sacrificed himself to save Taka, redeeming him and allowing him to see that there is unconditional love in the world and that one who has gone astray is not without hope of redemption through love. Lewis was teaching us about Jesus' love, but the moral has great worth even without the religious connection.
This is where "Mufasa" falls apart. Instead of Mufasa accepting Taka back unconditionally, as Peter did of Edmund, the film is forced to tie itself into the original film, which leaves Taka as Scar, feeling betrayed and vengeful. Lewis' wonderful moral of love conquering evil is lost to an ending filled with suspicion and mistrust, Not a good moral for kids to leave the theater pondering. Parents should clear this up by explaining that the real moral of the story is don't try to mix. C. S. Lewis with William Shakespeare. One of them wrote about love and the other about murder and revenge. They just don't get along.
This Christmas try to be more like C.S. Lewis and less like William Shakespeare.