All people loves Rafiki, the sensible outdated mandrill voiced by John Kani within the new animated musical prequel “Mufasa: The Lion King” (Disney, December 20). However not everyone — together with IndieWire’s “Display screen Speak” podcast hosts Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio — loves Barry Jenkins’s quote-unquote photorealistic animal journey that traces the origin tales of Mufasa (voiced by Aaron Pierre) and even Scar (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), identified first as Taka.
Within the film’s dedication to sensible photos, what will get misplaced is any sense of creativeness or, even worse, enjoyable. Jenkins himself has been candid in regards to the digital set as being not likely his bag. We want Barry Jenkins’s voice, which is hardly right here in any respect. Nonetheless, the youngsters’ film would possibly nonetheless find yourself taking in dump vans of cash over the vacation season. (Learn IndieWire’s combined assessment by Alison Foreman right here.)
Elsewhere on this week’s episode, we take within the 2025 Academy Awards shortlists in 10 classes, together with Finest Worldwide Function Movie, Finest Documentary Function, shorts, crafts, music, and rating. Popping out forward are “Emilia Pérez” with six spots and, in fact, motion pictures like “Depraved” and “The Wild Robotic.” It’s not stunning “Anora” isn’t on this listing — it’s not a film heavy on rating or sound design or, clearly not, visible results — however we do focus on latest web controversy across the movie and Mikey Madison explaining why she declined Sean Baker’s provide to convey an intimacy coordinator onto the set. (That went viral out of Selection’s Actors on Actors particular phase with Pamela Anderson, although Baker and Madison have made this reality identified since Cannes.)
In the meantime, “Display screen Speak” is breaking on December 27 however will return on January 3 to preview the Golden Globes, which occur January 5.
Hearken to the episode under or watch within the video above.
Display screen Speak is produced by Azwan Badruzaman and obtainable on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and hosted by Megaphone. Browse earlier episodes right here, subscribe right here, and make sure you tell us if you happen to’d like to listen to the hosts tackle particular points in upcoming editions of Display screen Speak.