Summary

• Mufasa: The Lion King fixes the hyper-realism issue of 2019's Lion King remake, making characters more expressive and emotional in the new trailer.
• The trailer suggests Mufasa combines the best of The Lion King and The Jungle Book, offering emotional investment in the characters.
• Mufasa: The Lion King explores Mufasa's early days, possibly delving into his strained relationship with Scar in the prequel.

Mufasa: The Lion King's story shocked many, primarily because Academy Award-winning director Barry Jenkins would helm the project. Similarly, many were surprised given the lackluster critical reception to 2019's remake of The Lion King, though the film's commercial success was enough reason to warrant a continuation in the eyes of Disney.

2019's The Lion King earned a worldwide box office of $1.6 billion despite stooping to a 52% critical rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.

Despite the initial shock of the film's announcement, the Mufasa. The aforementioned critical rating of 2019's The Lion King was never attributed to aspects like the cast, music, or storyline of the film, but instead, one other aspect that looks to have been fixed by Mufasa: The Lion King.

Mufasa: The Lion King’s Trailer Has More Expressive Animals Than 2019’s Lion King

The animals in 2019's The Lion King looked too photo-realistic to have emotional expression.

Undoubtedly the most criticized aspect of 2019's The Lion King was, ironically, how realistic the animals looked. While movies like 2016's The Jungle Book and 2019's The Lion King were praised for how brilliant the CGI environments and animals that inhabit them looked, the latter movie suffered from trying to perfect this technology. Despite allowing the environments of the African savannah to come to vibrant life in unbelievable ways not present in The Jungle Book, the actual characters themselves suffered from looking too much like lions, warthogs, meerkats, or hyenas with little to no emotion.

Animals like Baloo, Bagheera, and Shere Khan were suitably expressive in 2016's The Jungle Book.

This lack of expressiveness on the animals' faces in The Lion King robbed the film of much of its emotional weight, something that Mufasa: The Lion King's first trailer promises to fix. Immediately, it becomes clear that the CGI animals in Mufasa look much more expressive than they did in The Lion King. Scenes such as Mufasa's face reflecting in a raindrop, or the looks of terror and joy on his face in the final shots of the trailer prove how much more emotion the characters have in the prequel than they did in 2019's film.

Mufasa: The Lion King Is Blending The Best Aspects Of Live-Action Lion King & Jungle Book

Mufasa's trailer combines the best elements of The Jungle Book and The Lion King.

As alluded to, Mufasa: The Lion King makes it clear that it is blending the best aspects of both 2019's The Lion King and 2016's The Jungle Book. The Jungle Book had expressive animals that allowed the audience to emotionally invest in not only their stories but also their connections with human characters like Mowgli. If Mufasa: The Lion King's trailer is anything to go by, the film has incorporated this emotion into the same characters who had little expressiveness in the first film.

That said, the very best of The Lion King's CGI is still being utilized in Mufasa. As evident from the trailer's scenes involving snowy landscapes, the African deserts, and roaring rivers, Mufasa: The Lion King's CGI environments will rival and potentially even sur those from the 2019 film. This will allow Mufasa: The Lion King to retain the best elements of its predecessor - or successor given its prequel status - while fixing its biggest mistake and making its iconic characters expressive, powerful, and emotional.