MUFASA: THE LION KING

Name: MUFASA: THE LION KING
Item: MUFASA: THE LION KING
Author: Review

"Love and Faithfulness Make a Kingdom Secure"

Content: -1 Caution advised for older children, including teenagers, and sensitive adults.

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

MUFASA: THE LION KING is an animated action adventure musical. It tells the exciting story of how Simba’s father became King. Young Mufasa and his family were living in a drought-ravaged land. They are heading toward Milele, a lush land beyond the horizon. A sudden thunderstorm creates a flood. It sweeps Mufasa far away, to a savannah. Mufasa becomes adopted by another pride. He makes friends with Taka, the royal heir. When a pride of large white lions threatens, Taka’s father sends Taka and Mufasa away. They head toward Milele. The white lions, however, are close on their trail.

MUFASA: THE LION KING is a beautifully animated adventure story with lots of jeopardy. The movie has great voice work by the entire cast and at least two highly memorable songs. Even better, MUFASA: THE LION KING has strong, inspiring ideas on what makes a great leader. For example, Mufasa’s love and compassion eventually helps unite the animals in a Promised Land. MUFASA also has a pro-family perspective that’s pro-adoption. That said, some of the action and fighting in MUFASA is too intense for children.

Content:

CONTENT: (CC, BBB, ACAC, VV, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Christological, redemptive worldview with very strong moral elements which promotes family, adoption and positive leadership skills as the title character learns how to lead through love, compassion, knowledge, forgiveness, and sacrifice and bring his subjects together in a Promised Land, with a message against ruthless tyranny;

Foul Language:

No foul language;

Violence:

Strong and light jeopardy and violence includes main lion characters are caught in a big flood and resulting rapids, father tries to save his young cub from drowning, young cub ends up far away from home because of the flood, two young lion cubs wrestle playfully multiple times, the cubs have a big race to see of the stray cub can stay with the other cub’s pride, menacing white lions fight with other lions, and the title character ends up killing the leader’s son, the king of the pride that the title character joins sends his son away and orders the title character to protect him, the white lions menacingly follow the two young lions and also two other characters that join them, the title character and his friends have to cross dangerous snowy mountains to get to the land the title character’s parents were traveling toward, there are some avalanches and some scary sliding incidents while traveling across the mountains, the white lions eventually catch up with the young lions and a big fight occurs, there’s an elephant stampede, and some elephants sometimes kick one of the lions, there’s intense jeopardy when lions fight each other, and one lion gets a scar on his face (some of the fights resemble a big housecat fight and look scary);

Sex:

No sex;

Nudity:

No nudity (an animal jokingly remarks that he doesn’t wear any clothes, and he’s naked);

Alcohol Use:

No alcohol use;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Jealousy leads to betrayal, but the jealous one repents though he still harbors resentment.

More Detail:

REVIEW: MUFASA: THE LION KING is an animated action adventure musical that tells the exciting story of how Simba’s father became King. MUFASA: THE LION KING is a beautifully animated adventure story with two memorable songs, some great voice work, lots of jeopardy, and strong, inspiring ideas of what makes a great leader, but some of the action and fighting is too intense for younger children.

The movie opens with Rafiki, the spiritual advisor to Simba, telling Simba and Nala’s daughter, Kiara, how her grandfather, Mufasa, became king of Milele and Pride Rock. Pumbaa and Timon join them to provide some comic relief.

Young Mufasa and his family were living in a drought-ravaged land. They are heading toward a mythical land beyond the horizon called Milele with lush vegetation. Mufasa’s mother, Afia, makes the land sound like paradise. A thunderstorm finally hits, but it causes a flood that separates Mufasa from his parents and sweeps him to another world, a savannah.

There, Mufasa becomes friends with Taka, the heir to a royal bloodline. However, Taka’s father, the leader of the pride, doesn’t want his royal bloodline spoiled. So, he banishes Mufasa to live with the females. Happily, Taka’s mother, Eshe, takes a liking to Mufasa. She teaches him how to discern the smells of the land around him, to guide him and let him know what’s a threat and what’s not a threat.

Mufasa and Taka grow up happily together. However, a pride of large white lions arrives in the savannah. Their menacing leader, Kiros, plans to challenge Taka’s father and rule his pride with an iron fist. The white lions are too big and formidable for Taka’s pride. So, his father sends him away. He also orders Mufasa to go with him and help. Mufasa and Taka head for the horizon to find Milele and Mufasa’s parents. However, Kiros and the white lions are following close upon their trail.

MUFASA: THE LION KING is a beautifully animated adventure story with lots of jeopardy. The movie has great voice work by the entire cast and at least two highly memorable songs. Even better, MUFASA: THE LION KING has strong, inspiring ideas on what makes a great leader. For example, Mufasa’s compassion eventually helps bring all the animals in Milele together as one. As Proverbs 20:28 says, “Love and faithfulness keep a king safe; through love his throne is made secure.” MUFASA also has a pro-family perspective that’s also pro-adoption.

Furthermore, MUFASA THE LION KING has some very clear Christological statements and themes (although it doesn’t mention the name of Christ or make the theme so apparent that a non-Christian would see them). For example, the overall story is about seeking and going to Paradise or Heaven with several Pilgrim’s Progress type elements. In that framework, Mufasa is an outcast who’s humbled but eventually becomes the King of all the animals. Just like Jesus, he brings animals who would never associate with each other together to be part of the Kingdom. He doesn’t assert himself, but the other animals recognize him. He also brings peace to those who follow him in the Promised Land. MUFASA also has a true love story where Mufasa’s willing to sacrifice, and, by sacrifice, he wins the heart of his beloved and his people, and even creates a family. Another key feature of the promised land is reaching the Tree of Life and finding out there’s a brotherhood beyond genetic relationships. Mufasa is also willing to forgive the treachery of Taka, his adopted brother. The entire story ends on a very emotional moment which caused one reviewer at MOVIEGUIDE® to cry.

Several people who worked on the movie are acquaintances of MOVIEGUIODE® and known Christians. One of them even asked Dr. Baehr years ago to speak at the Disney prayer breakfast.

All that said, however, the movie has some elements that don’t cohere with the biblical worldview, such as Rafifi saying it’s what you feel, not what you think, and other statements contrary to a biblical point of view. Even so, the overall story provides a platform to talk to other older children about Heaven and about Jesus Christ, the King of Kings.

Finally, some of the action and fighting in MUFASA THE LION KING is too intense for younger children and older pre-teen children. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises some caution and discernment for families.