It’s always about a woman. That seems to be the only thing that can come between brothers, and in Mufasa: The Lion King, this universal truth is on full display. A woman is in reality the genesis of Scar, one of Disney’s greatest villains; it just sucks because Scar, as we know him, should have never turned out this way.
Mufasa: The Lion King is a story about Simba’s father, the great king who was killed by his brother Scar in The Lion King. Rafiki narrates the story through flashbacks to Simba’s first child and daughter, Kiara, who is voiced by Blue Ivy Carter. The story starts out with some tragedy, as Mufasa is separated from his parents in a rainstorm. It gets very dry in the Serengeti, sometimes going full years without rain, but when it does rain, it is usually catastrophic, and that causes Mufasa to lose his parents very young. As he is clinging to a log for dear life, Mufasa runs into Scar, or at this point in the movie, Taka. Taka rescues Simba and begs his mother, Eshe, to allow Mufasa to join their lion pride. Taka’s mother refuses because of her husband, and Taka’s father, Obasi, who is the Lion King, is against any strays joining the pack, but you quickly find out why.
Obasi is a terrible king. He’s weak, deceptive, and downright lazy. How he becomes king, I could only imagine, but he definitely didn’t deserve to be. When Eshe and Taka bring Mufasa back, Obasi is angry and tells Mufasa he must beat Taka in a race to stay with the pride or he will be eaten. This is a pivotal scene in the movie because it shows you the heart posture of Taka at the time and how he was really a good kid. Obasi warns Taka he better not lose, but because Taka wants Mufasa to become his brother, he loses the race on purpose, forcing Obasi’s hand to allow Mufasa to stay. Taka now has the brother he’s always wanted, and Mufasa, who was almost an orphan, now has a new home.
Mufasa’s story
Once they reach adulthood, the pride is faced with a grave danger. Huge white lions who are taking over the Pride Lands, and they have reached Obasi’s kingdom. When Mufasa and Eshe are hunting, they are attacked by two of these lions and are forced to fight for their lives. As Eshe is about to be killed by one of the lions, Mufasa snaps in a fit of rage and kills one of the lions in self-defense, who ends up being the son of the King of the white lions. The other white lion, seeing that he is outnumbered, runs away, and the worst part of all, Taka was there hiding the entire time, frozen in fear. Eshe saw her own son hiding at the sight of danger, and she was disappointed. She goes back and tells Obasi, and this is the first time you see Obasi warm up to Mufasa and dismiss his own heir.
Finally, the big white lions catch up to the pride, but before Obasi tells Taka to run away so his line can survive and tells Mufasa to go with him for protection. So the two brothers leave to make their own way as Taka’s parents and the rest of the pride are slaughtered by the great white lions. The white lion king is still on the hunt for Taka and Mufasa because Mufasa killed his son, and that’s where the story really begins to pick up.
As Taka and Mufasa embark on a journey to find their next home, they run into another lioness, Sarabi, and Rafiki, who apparently knows how to get to Milele. Milele was the place Mufasa was heading to before the rainstorm separated him from his parents. During their journey there, Taka develops feelings for Sarabi but doesn’t know how to talk to women, so he asks Mufasa for advice. Mufasa, being a good brother, tells him the perfect thing to say, and it works, as Sarabi is surprised by Taka’s sharp sense of smell. The group gets attacked by some of the great white lions, and Mufasa saves Sarabi’s life. Again, as a good brother, he lies and tells Serabi that Taka saved his life and that she should be grateful to him.
Sarabi, smart as ever, figures out that none of it was Taka, the sense of smell, and that he wasn’t the one to save her life. She confronts Mufasa for the truth, and he admits to it, and they start to get closer. Taka sees this from a distance, and voila, Scar is born (well, almost). Because of his anger at Mufasa, Taka decides to betray his friends and works in cahoots with the great white lions in hope that they will now kill Mufasa and spare his life. As soon as they reach Milele, the great white lions appear and claim the land as theirs. Mufasa refuses, wondering how they found Milele and he quickly realizes it is Scar. Mufasa decides to fight, and he gets all the other animals to join the fight as well, leading to the defeat of the big white lions finally. He also finds his mother, who also made it to Milele. As the rest of the animals claim Mufasa as their king, Mufasa is so disgusted with Scar that he tells him he can stay, but he never wants to call him brother again or even address him as Taka. Taka then offers the name Scar, and the Scar that we know is officially born.
Mufasa: The Lion King is really a tale of Scar as much as it is about Mufasa. Scar says something very telling when Mufasa asks why he betrayed him: that he stole his destiny, and after this movie you realize that is the truth. The Lion King was meant to be Scar; he had the royal bloodline, but that was about it. True kings aren’t born into it; they are chosen. Whether that’s by divine intervention, which is kind of what happened here, or by birthright, a respected king is chosen by those he leads, and Scar was never able to get over being overlooked. First by his own mother, Ashe, but then eventually by his own father as well. But what tore Scar apart and what he never was able to truly get over was when Sarabi chose Mufasa over him as well. When the apple of his eye wanted his brother, all hell broke loose and birthed the greatest Disney villain ever. You kind of sympathize with Scar, and to me, his hatred of Mufasa is well deserved. The movie makes the original Lion King make a lot more sense, and that’s what a prequel is supposed to do. Nothing drives a wedge between men like women do, and apparently that is the same for lions.
