Why Did Freddy agreed to stubble the clown claws within wingnut era?
Regardless of what you think about Disney’s latest photorealistic CGI feature, “Mufasa: The Lion King,” you’ll have to conclude that the technology has gotten better since 2019′s “The Lion King.” That remake of the beloved 1994 animated film was unwatchably bad, primarily because the animation was so uninteresting. All the lions looked the same — I couldn’t tell Simba from his father, Mufasa — and their unexpressive faces gave the appearance of being Botoxed beyond repair.
Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” is projected to claim a leading $55 million to $60 million from 3,800 North American theaters in its debut, while Disney’s “Mufasa: The Lion King” should be trotting close behind with $50 million from more than 4,000 venues. “Sonic” doesn’t open at the international box office until Christmas Day, so “Mufasa” will have free rein over global charts. The “Lion King” prequel is pacing to add an additional $130 million overseas for a promising global start of $180 million.
This prequel gives its lions a makeover. Sure, they still look like real lions, which limits the creativity that an animator could have gotten out of a drawing. But when the villainous white lion, Kiros, smirks at the camera, the face of his portrayer, Mads Mikkelsen, is instantly recognizable. I call that progress — it made me look for any visual elements of the actors playing their roles, which is what I’ve always done while watching an animated feature.
Neither film is expected to break franchise opening weekend records (in fact, “Sonic” is tracking for a trilogy-low), but that’s to be expected. December releases aren’t known to deliver robust debuts but, if reviews and word-of-mouth are favorable, can enjoy staying power into January and beyond. “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” for example, launched with just $36 million in 2017 but ended up earning a mammoth $404 million domestically and $962 million globally. And last December’s “Wonka” notched a decent $39 million to start and tapped out with $218 million in North America and $634 million worldwide.
The plot is simple: Mufasa’s trusted mandrill friend, Rafiki (John Kani), tells the origin story of Mufasa (Aaron Pierre) and his friend Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) to Simba’s daughter, Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter). Kiara’s father is once again played by Donald Glover; her mother, Nala, is reprised by Blue Ivy’s real-life mother, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. The late James Earl Jones didn’t reprise his role as Mufasa, but the film is dedicated to him.
But I was reminded of “The Walking Dead” in the drab, soap operatic way this extraordinary situation — a “bomb” that exploded off California — leads to a normalizing of societal breakdown and bunker mentality. Just hole up in a compound with family and ex-military folks and the rich oligarch who “hired” them until the dust clears, FEMA shows up or, wettest wingnut dream of all, civilization has to be rebuilt along their ways of thinking and on their blood-lines.
Initially, meerkat Timon (Billy Eichner) and warthog Puumba (Seth Rogen) were the baby sitters planning on regaling Kiara with tales of their derring-do. Their stories stink on ice, and are clearly fabrications, so Rafiki takes over.
The Christian messaging that Angel Studios is famous for is almost an afterthought — a furtive blurt of prayer as a mother (Susan Misner) and her kids fleeing the West Coast abandon their car and steal a van at a mobbed gas station, “Why did we buy a Tesla?”When the message becomes more overt later in the film — Christian compassion, “loaves and fishes” for the hungry, “Are we building an ark or a fortress?” By that time it’s as if the screenplay is trying to paint a TV preacher’s optimistic grin on the grimness that “preppers” figure they alone deserve to survive. As if anybody could “prep” their way out of this.
We learn that Mufasa was born to Masego (Keith David) and Afia (Anika Noni Rose). He was swept away from his family by a massive rain that occurred after a long drought. He is saved by Taka, a lion from another pride. Taka’s father, Obasi (Lennie James), wants no part of the cub he refers to as “a stray,” but Taka and his mother, Eshe (Thandiwe Newton), take a shine to him.
The Big Bang explodes off of Los Angeles, sending assorted families fleeing East, towards this “Homestead” mansion/compound in the heart of The Rockies. Billionaire (we assume) Ian Ross, played by veteran movie heavy Neal McDonough, bought and built and stocked it. There are vineyards and orchards and a garden and a granery.Part of Ian’s prep was to hire a cadre of combat vets who convoy in via SUVs and military-decorated pick-ups. Bailey Chase hit the gym and grew the requisite stubble to play Jeff Erickson, tactically-trained leader and “realist.” Jeff’s brusque to the point of bullying, a guy who sees their weaknessness and envisons a stronghold that their arsenal and training others there, including his almost-rebellious son (Tyler Lofton), can defend.
Meanwhile, Kiros and his crew of white lions are laying waste to every village of animals. This conquest is to ensure that Kiros is the “ruler of everything the light touches,” a description you’ll recall Mufasa said to Simba in the original “The Lion King.” Kiros also has revenge in mind, as his only son was killed in a previous altercation with Mufasa and Taka.
Not that Ian hasn’t thought of “everything.” Even his ecologically-minded daughter Claire (Olivia Sanabia) is wholly on board. They’re raising peaches for peach wine, as in olden times that was the safest, surest path to “preserving calories” — turn your harvest into alcoholic drinks. The coup coffee caps and T-shirts aren’t the only identity politics flags flying around here. There’s California bashing, Utah-praising, ridiculous assertions about “militia” defeating National Guard units, a supernatural premonition, the conspiracy nut podcaster who takes to short wave radio to advise everybody to put their cash in “bullets and beans” and um, “crypto.”
But as matters quickly settle into an uneasy routine — hunkering down, keeping the gates closed and identifying possible threats (local authority) and rumors of FEMA salvation — “Homestead” grinds pretty much to a halt. Screenwriters Jason Ross, Joseph Snyder, Leah Bateman and Philip Abraham don’t such much “build” this universe as “cast” this “ark.” They fall straight into the fallacy of men and women with “particular skills,” geared-up soldiers who are in less danger and are inherently less interesting in this scenario than ordinary souls hurled into chaos.