Mufasa director Barry Jenkins ends Lion King debate on whether its animation or live action
Nov. 28, 2024Exclusive: The director explains how making the Disney prequel required “very different tools”
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In anexclusive interviewwith GamesRadar+ and Total Film, Jenkins gives a very definitive answer about Mufasa. “Absolutely, yeah, it’s an animated film,” he asserts.
“I am communicating constantly with these animators who are trying to manipulate these somewhat photorealistic sort of models in a way that is expressive. And so because of that, I don’t think of it as live action. I do think of it as animation… It’s just a very different tool.”
The prequel was made using the same techniques, but it seems like this time Jenkins and his team are acknowledging it is, indeed, an animated movie.
Arriving in theaters just before Christmas, Mufasa centers on the life and legacy of Simba’s dad, exploring his early life as an orphaned cub and his formative years that led him to become king.
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Other newcomers include Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Taka, Tiffany Boone as Sarabi, Kagiso Lediga as Young Rafiki, Preston Nymon as Zazu, Mads Mikkelsen as Kiros, Thandiwe Newton as Taka’s mother, Lennie James as Taka’s father, Ankia Noni Rose as Mufasa’s father, and Beyoncé’s daughter Blue Ivy Carter as Kiara, daughter of Nala and Simba.
I’m the Editor at Total Film magazine, overseeing the running of the mag, and generally obsessing over all things Nolan, Kubrick and Pixar. Over the past decade I’ve worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+, and you can often hear me nattering on the Inside Total Film podcast. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.
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