Whilst a storm rages overhead, the wise Mandrill monkey Rafiki tells young lion cub Kiara how her grandfather Mufasa came to be king. 

Mufasa: The Lion King is a direct prequel to the “live action” remake of The Lion King, and as with that film the results spark discussion about technical wizardry more than exciting story. 

The plot features a framing device where Rafiki (John Kani), Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumba (Seth Rogen) are sheltering from a storm telling Simba and Nala’s daughter Kiara a story. This framing device is the absolute nadir of the film. Each time the story starts to grab hold we cut back to the framing device for some awful fourth wall breaking, pop culture jokes that are clearly for the younger audience. Timon and Pumba should not be the worst part of any film they are in, but by the end of this film you will wish they had been eaten by the lions. 

The main plot sees Mufasa (Aaron Pierre) separated from his parents in a flood, before being rescued by Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) who will become his spiritual brother. Mufasa will have to prove himself to become part of his new pride before villain Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen) forces a road trip where Mufasa and Taka will make life long friends along the way. Honestly there is nothing ground breaking or innovative here. Just a fairly amiable explanation of how Mufasa earned his kingdom. 

The songs, provided by Lin Manuel Miranda are just ok in the moment. But I could not hum one of them before I had even left the cinema, let alone as I wrote this. None of these unmemorable songs are made any better by photorealistic animals looking weird as they sing them with choreography that cannot be as inventive as an animated movie. 

So on the whole it is a “shoulder shrug” of a film. It looks spectacular, although there is a weird overuse of a camera angle where the lions run or look directly into camera. But I would much rather be watching an actual animated movie that could show emotion in a way that striving for photorealistic animals cannot.