Warning: Spoilers for Mufasa: The Lion King
Mufasa: The Lion King did much to expand on the lore of the original Lion King movie, but perhaps not everything it introduced was worthy of inclusion. As an origin story about the first king of the Pridelands in The Lion King, it’s only natural that it would aim to tie up a few loose ends from the movie it prequels. Viewers learn about the origins of Mufasa’s rivalry with his brother Scar, as well as how he came to meet the Pridelands shaman Rafiki, his scout Zazu, and his queen Sarabi. At the same time, there are several details about The Lion King that Mufasa’s origin story really didn’t need to explain.
Mufasa: The Lion King’s explanations of these details range from substantial to innane, as the backstories of key characters from the original 2D-animated Lion King appear to have been changed. Jeff Nathanson, the screenwriter of the new movie, has played fast-and-loose with narrative arcs cherished as gospel by Disney fanatics. So, overall, the movie’s done well to have avoided a major backlash in relation to these changes. Still, it’s worth examining some of the explanations that the movie really could have done without.
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Mufasa And Scar Weren’t Brothers By Birth
A Controversial Break With The Lion King
Beginning with the big one, inMufasa: The Lion King, we find out thatMufasa and his brother Scar aren’t actually related. This revelation is despite a line from the original 1994Lion Kingheavily implying that theyareactual brothers, when Scar boasts, “Well, as far as brains go, I got the lion’s share.” This particular detail has inevitably caused quite a stir among fans of the franchise.
All things considered, the storyline of Mufasa being adopted by Scar’s pride works well, as long as the audience is willing to overlook any continuity errors. But given how memorable this particular line was in The Lion King, it’s abundantly clear that Scar was indeed intended to be Mufasa’s biological brother.
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Zazu Worked For Sarabi Before Mufasa
He Was Recently Appointed
Image via Disney
One element of Mufasa: The Lion King that really doesn’t work is the appearance of the loveable hornbill Zazu alongside Mufasa’s future queen Sarabi. The movie made a notable adjustment to his place in the lore by establishing that his ᴀssociation with the lions goes back before Musafa’s reign. Apparently, he was with Sarabi first.
There’s a sense in the movie that this detail was added in order to make Zazoo relevant to the plot. But though Zazoo is a beloved Lion King character, there was no need to force him into the story or undermine his connection to Mufasa. After all, it’s long been understood that Zazoo has always been loyal to Mufusa.
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How Rafiki Got His Staff
It Was Worth The Effort
In a moment of slapstick comedy that really doesn’t pay off in Mufasa, Rafiki, the shamanistic mandrill beloved since the first Lion King was released, pulls a nice stick he’s found off a tree. Such is the effort he exerts that he falls backwards into a whole once he’s managed to break the stick off its branch. He holds it up triumphantly, in an outwardly unsubtle nod to the audience that this is Rafiki’s famous staff.
If the movie had to dedicate a scene to explaining this detail, there could at least have been something more magical and mysterious about the meaning behind the stick. Perhaps Rafiki could have been handed the stick by an elder of his species who claimed to have visited Milele, for example. But, no. Breaking a stick off a tree was all he had to show for it.
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How Pride Rock Was Formed
The Furthest Question From People’s Minds
In the climax of Mufasa: The Lion King, a ᴅᴇᴀᴅly fight scene between Mufasa and the movie’s chief antagonist Kiros leads part of the cave where they’re fighting to collapse. What’s left is the rock from which the future lion king and his heirs will survey their domain.
The problem is, no one had ever ᴀssumed that Pride Rock was anything other than a permanent fixture in the Pridelands. It didn’t need to be formed during Mufasa’s origin story, because logic would dictate that the landslide which created it predated at least several generations of lions before Mufasa. This detail feels as though Disney are trying too hard to tie every thread.
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Why Scar Lost His Old Name
Because He Got A New One?
Arguably the most tenuous explanation of a detail in Mufasa: The Lion King comes at the end just after Scar has acquired the mark down his face that sets him apart as one of Disney’s greatest villains. Realizing that his brother has betrayed him, Mufasa tells Scar that he will no longer refer to him by his given name, Taka.
This explanation conveniently banishes the name Taka to a bygone era in The Lion King’s timeline. It superimposes the answer to an obvious question – why that name is never mentioned later in the story – a little too neatly onto the end of the movie. The fact that Scar simply accepts Mufasa taking his birth name away from him and rechristens himself as a villain is bordering on laughable. Then again, Mufasa: The Lion King had made a problem for itself that needed to be fixed, by any means necessary.
