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This new Jungle King is a roaring success: MATTHEW BOND reviews Mufasa: The Lion King
It seems entirely fitting that Mufasa: The Lion King is not only dedicated the memory of James Earl Jones but begins with those deep resonant tones ringing out over the African savannah one final time.
The great James Earl Jones, best known as the voice of Darth Vader in Star Wars and Mufasa in The Lion King, died three months ago at the age of 93. Yes, the photo-realism that has replaced the old-school animation of the 1994 original still takes a bit of getting used to, particularly when Simba and the gang start to talk and sing, but we get there quicker than we did the first time Disney tried it in 2019. Nick Park’s trademark stop-motion animation is perhaps a little smoother than it used to be, and there aren’t quite enough cheese gags for my personal liking, but it’s lovely to have another outing with tireless inventor Wallace – now voiced by Ben Whitehead following Peter Sallis’s death in 2017 – and his canine sidekick, Gromit, whose devotion is well and truly tested by the arrival of Norbot, a domestic robot gnome.
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