This is really shaping up to be the season of villain origin stories.

Now that you know how the Wicked Witch of the West acquired her trusty broom, hat and maniacal laugh, here comes Disney with the story of the infamous Scar from The Lion King – patron saint of the maligned hyenas, scourge of the Earth of the Lions and sworn enemy of the noble Mufasa.

Directed by – of all people – an Oscar winner Moonlight filmmaker Barry Jenkins, this prequel to the 2019 live-action remake of The Lion King takes us back to a time when Mufasa and Taka – as Scar was once called – were just young cubs roaming the plains together.

The story is told in flashbacks to Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter, making her acting debut), the young offspring of Simba (Donald Glover) and Nala (Beyoncé), who left their daughter – and the rest of the film – in the guard the paws of Timon (Billy Eichner), Pumbaa (Seth Rogen) and the wise mandrill Rafiki (John Kani).

This is definitely not the Lion King origin story that audiences know.

Long before he was king, it turns out that Mufasa (Aaron Pierre) was not of royal blood. As a cub, he was separated from his parents during a freak flood and saved from the jaws of crocodiles by Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), the royal heir to a powerful pride led by Obasi (Lennie James) and Eshe (Thandiwe). Newton).

Adopted into the family, Mufasa’s presence is controversial. Although adored by Taka and nurtured by the kind Eshe, he is despised by Obasi, who considers him a threat.

“One day he will betray you,” Obasi tells Taka. “That’s what stray dogs do.”

However, Mufasa proves to be the star student of the troupe and a fierce protector of his adopted brother. When Mufasa and Taka encounter a menacing pride of ghostly white lions – led by Mads Mikkelsen’s twirling villain, Kiros – Mufasa saves the day, killing Kiros’ son in the process.

Fearing retaliation, Obasi sends Taka away for his protection – with Mufasa at his side.

Thus begins an adventure in the wild, where the brothers will join forces with the young lioness Sarabi (Tiffany Boone), her hornbill consort (and future majordomo Mufasa) Zazu (Preston Nyman) and a spirit Rafiki (Kagiso Lediga), himself an outcast from his simian family.

Along the way, Taka’s growing resentment of Mufasa’s prowess – and his romantic connection to Sarabi – will transform him into the villain we know and love.

Although it certainly wasn’t loved by critics, Disney’s Jon-Favreau-directed remake of The Lion King was a $1.6 billion hit, easily the biggest hit of their project ever. of a decade aiming to remake seemingly every animated classic in their library. (Next up: Snow White, scheduled for March 2025.)

That said, there was something oddly fascinating about the film’s strange synthesis of wildlife documentary photorealism and catchy Disney tunes, as if the exhibits in the Natural History Museum’s African Room had been jarred and put into service on Broadway. It was weird to say the least.

But 2019 was so long ago. Given the tremendous strides made since then in computer-generated storytelling – particularly the immersive sequel to James Cameron’s Avatar – and the impending ubiquity of AI imagery, watching high-tech animals act and singing has lost any perverse novelty it once contained.

Certainly, Mufasa: The Lion King is a majestic film. From arid plains and underwater passages to breathtaking peaks, the world is meticulously realized; you almost want to pass your hand through the screen and ruffle the manes of these lions, they seem so tactile to the eye.

And Jenkins, working with his usual cinematographer James Laxton, achieves some genuinely thrilling shots, particularly when his lions run towards the camera in a high-speed chase – the sort of thing that makes watching music videos dizzy POV with a cat cam. The film’s climactic confrontation has an almost religious pictorial significance.

Yet where 2019’s The Lion King was buoyed by the 1994 film’s beloved storyline, songs, and characters, the new prequel doesn’t have the luxury of the familiar.

Although the film offers a passable set of action-adventure beats, it’s caught between compelling realism — the fights are often gruesome — and the need to plug songs and gags, neither of which work in combination.

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s songs are mediocre, to put it mildly — there’s nothing remotely close to Beyoncé’s 2019 soundtrack, “Spirit,” let alone a “Circle of Life” “. Meanwhile, fourth-wall-breaking Timon and Pumbaa, responsible for delivering most of the jokes, have well and truly overstayed their welcome.

This is all quite disappointing, especially since the film contains some interesting ideas about royal bloodlines and manifest destiny, elements of the original film that sometimes bothered its critics.

At the same time, he still ended up establishing his own version of the animal monarchy.

Jenkins might have been an inspired directorial choice – and he approached the project with an admirable degree of sincerity – but even he can’t shake this film away from its creative redundancy.

On the positive side, it seems that he can’t wait to come back to what he likes

Mufasa is now showing in cinemas.