Disney kicked off the new year with their December 20th release of “Mufasa: The Lion King”, a long-awaited prequel of the two brothers’ story on what their relationship was and what it became. In the movie The Lion King, the brothers have a strained relationship and despise being around each other. In fact, they tolerate each other at best. Deceptive Scar was plotting to kill Mufasa to prevent his son from becoming the new king. 

Just as the cartoon demonstrates, Scar loathes Mufasa as well as his son and soon-to-be king, Simba. The plot has extra twists and turns that the original cartoon skipped.  For example, Mufasa’s brother Scar is originally named Taka but takes on the new name after betraying Mufasa. This betrayal leads Mufasa to never want to speak the name Taka again.

Minor characters also represented a much larger picture.  Sirabi, Rafiki and Zazu are an extraordinary group of misfits of very different animals who were set in motion on a journey in search of their destinies. 

The soundtrack dives deep into the emotional state of the characters. The most popular songs on the album are “I Always Wanted A Brother” and “Tell Me It’s You.” Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote seven songs for this soundtrack and as the movie progressed, I embraced the lyrical representation of coming-of-age, found family, and acceptance as it melted my heart. 

The visuals of this movie were some of the best visuals I have seen. Popping colors represented the safari lands and lifelike lions and hyenas prowled about in search of power and unity. The circle of life. 

Finally, this movie adds even more parallels with the famous Shakesphere play, Hamlet, which inspired part of the first Lion King. In the play, Hamlet’s uncle killed Hamlet’s father and married his widow within a month of his passing. This theme of jealousy and betrayal is written through this story as Scar’s main motivation for betraying his brother.