Film Preview: Mufasa: The Lion King (2024)

Film Poster

Page Revisions:

(May 5, 2024) Original
(August 18, 2024) New Trailer (#2) — New Poster (#2)
(November 17, 2024) New Trailer (#3) — New Posters (#3-#5)
(December 15, 2024) New Posters (#6-#24)

Release Date:

December 20, 2024

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “Simba, having become king of the Pride Lands, is determined for his cub to follow in his paw prints while the origins of his late father Mufasa are explored.”

Poster Rating: C+ / C+ / C+ / B- / C / C (8) / C- (5) / A- / C / C- / C+ / C / C

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Review: (#1, C+) While it’s an interesting effort, it would work better if young Mufasa were actually looking at his reflection rather than looking up at the audience. It makes the images incongruous.

(#2, C+) It’s the same design as the prior except with a slightly different color scheme. (#3, C+) A commonplace conceit, already used for this feature, lacks the depth or creative energy to genuinely excite. (#4, B-) Not typical of a Disney feature, this design does stand out with its mountain backdrop and snowy clime. That adds some intrigue to a film that is typically portrayed as taking place on warm, lush savannahs. That striking choice and the general arrangement of characters makes for a solid if unexceptional effort. (#5, C) More familiar to audiences, the presence of Pride Rock isn’t necessary to tie the film into the franchise though it might help. The issue is that the characters look poorly poised on the secondary rock face failing to blend in naturally to the effort. The idea is to make something beautiful but the result is something artificial and for a film like that, artificiality is not a selling point.

(#6-#13, C) A series of character posters that have a majesty to them but also a mediocrity that make them feel a bit boring. (#14-#18, C-) The somewhat beautiful prior set of character posters certainly make this small set of designs look more ugly. The sun and lettering stay the same (except when they need to be slightly adjusted for a foreground figure overlapping. That similarity breeds blandness. (#19, A-) This is the only one of the format posters that has any beauty to it. The watercolor motif is a fascinating choice with the various scenes and characters being fittingly depicted and beautifully blended. This is the kind of effort more poster designers should aim for. (#20-#24, C/C-/C+/C/C) With varying degrees of creative energy, these other format posters range from awful (Dolby) to decent but overdone (Fandango). They really don’t merit any more attention than this.

Trailer Rating: B / C+ / C+

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Review: (#1, B) While it stumbles a bit into its final reel, the most detrimental element to the trailer is the complete lack of musical reference. There’s music but when the animals are dancing in circles and in other configuration, the songs are absent and while that might preserve some of the mystery, it inhibits most interest in the film. Sure it stats off with the Lion King opening number about the circle of life, but feels like it’s avoiding anything substantive. Otherwise, the effects look more impressive than the prior film’s did, so that’s at least a plus.

(#2, C+) Setting the story up in more detail is a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that it makes the film’s premise more sensical. The curse is that doing so makes the film look derivative and uninspired. Throw in the mix that as the trailer progresses, the plot begins to make less sense and you have a recipe for disaster.

(#3, C+) One thing that’s difficult for some to understand is that trailers aren’t generally progressive in how they present a film. Earlier ones shy away from giving away too much (often unsuccessfully) while latter ones give away most of the film. This feels like such a trailer as it goes through what seems like nearly every scene in the film and highlights its purpose. It’s a frustrating and unappealing effort.