Mufasa: O Rei Leão

Director Barry Jenkins brings his dynamic direction and camerawork to this film, which is visually beautiful but can't overcome the lack of its unessential backstory.

"Mufasa" is fine and most families will be satisfied. But the jubilant imagination that went into the original make this one look as pale as Kiros.

Jenkins' knack for eliciting deep emotion and visual wonder remains sharp, especially when bolstered by Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison Jr.'s delightful voice work.

It's solid craft, but craft wedded to a style of filmmaking that feels wholly impersonal, even with a top-flight director at the helm.

The circle of life goes on, and on, and on in "Mufasa: The Lion King," a needless furthering of "The Lion King" mythos which treads the same waters as this story has already traversed.

All the technological marvels of the world can't breathe life into a film that doesn't know what it wants to be.

Mufasa doesn't offer the iconic character a story worthy of his eminence.

[Jenkins] expands the scope and range of this world, offering up a story that exists in the realm of "The Lion King" but doesn't retread on old material (or desecrate it).

The main lesson of Mufasa is a far less generative one: Even the most talented director can't make someone else's unoriginal idea shine.

The overall results are generally pretty, mildly diverting, at times dull and often familiar, despite a few unusually sharp, brief departures from Disney's pacifying formula.

Young audiences will have fun following the likable characters and their perilous adventures.

The rubbery expressiveness of traditional animation is replaced by the feeling of a nature documentary where the narrator's attempt to graft human emotions onto wild animals never quite feels like it takes.

The film, unbound by having to recreate large swaths of the original Lion King whole cloth, was clearly allowed to be a product of its director.

"Mufasa," under Jenkins' poised and creative direction, proves there is still plenty of life left in the long-reigning "King."

The company's zeal for prequels has resulted in a movie about two kittens who we've all seen meet a grisly death. To my morbid delight, "Mufasa" starts off by killing one of them again.

Jenkins isn't afraid to allow his animals to take on a few human qualities. He sacrifices perfection to achieve emotional expression. The filmmaker tackles this prequel as if it were an animated film and, even better, Disney allows him that freedom.

"Mufasa" at least has the grace to offer audiences a fresh story, but children and parents may find it surprisingly difficult to tell one exquisitely rendered lion from the next.

With its ho-hum action scenes and lowbrow comedy, "Mufasa" is as tired as the lion in the movie whose sole ambition is to nap in the sun.

Barry Jenkins took this behemoth and it didn't entirely defeat him.

It swings back and forth tonally very awkwardly, but there are some thrilling moments and it is Barry Jenkins' usual cinematographer, James Laxton, so it is quite lovely at times. But I wish Jenkins would take his artistry where it is his.