Unpopular Opinion: Mufasa: TLK's character design never improved from 2019
Y'all need to stop acting like every single solitary criticism or even just people saying they couldn't tell who's who is ragebait. Or that every single person who dislikes it is just a fan of the hedgehog movie or a grifter. I mean my goodness. I like both franchises, I have since I was a kid. But I still think these Mufasa TLK and TLK 2019 are bad (and honestly the worst thing to happen to this franchise but we don't need to get into that here. >_>) and one of the biggest flaws is and will likely continue to be its character design.
Disney not using 2D animation is not the actual issue with the movie. The problem is they can STILL make characters unique in their 3D shows and movies, and even in TLG which used flash puppet animation. They can make beautiful animation, but refuse to make interesting character designs and locations. Nobody is out here confusing Mirabel with her sisters. Nobody is asking "which one is Tiifu and which one is Zuri"? Whereas almost every single lion in Mufasa (the obvious exceptions being Kiro's pride, naturally) is beige or brown. Scar doesn't even have his black mane or green eyes as teen or adult, and his scar practically blends in with his fur in 2019. Every lion has to look ridiculously similar to each other for realism's sake. And realism does not, and will never fit TLK in the way the cgi movies handle it.
Also, these designs tell you nothing about their personality. Which is something character designs should reflect on some level. Mufasa's designs evoke a very regal lion- what might come to mind when you think of a lion king! He gives off an air of wisdom- and he can be plenty strong when he needs to be too. Scar on the other hand is much skinnier compared to his stronger brother, as he himself mentions in the movie. This shows that he's physically weaker than Mufasa, and since he can't take over the pride by dueling him...he'll need to resort to underhanded tactics instead. His green eyes show off his envy, his black mane- and being the only lion in the pride to have a black mane truly highlights that he is an outsider among his pridemates. A black sheep, if you will.
Scar's scar (specifically in the 1994 movie where it was unexplained) gives you something to ponder; just how did it happen- did he challenge Mufasa before and lose, and that's why he got it? Could that be why he ends up resorting to his sneakier methods of grabbing for power? Not to mention his more angular design highlights just how menacing he is by using shape language, compared to Mufasa's softer features. TLK 2019!Mufasa has none of that. He is just a large lion. That's it. There is nothing unique about him, there is nothing his design implies. Scar? He is a bit scrawnier, but that's about it. And even then, they got rid of him being a coward and groveling to the hyenas, and they made him smack Mufasa off the cliff instead of throwing him off. He actually fights Sarabi instead of just hitting her hard enough to knock her down. (And even Scar knocking her down in 1994 could be read as her simply being weakened from hunger rather than a testament to Scar's own strength.) So does it truly matter if he's scrawnier than Mufasa? Because at least to me, hoo boy is that not reflected in how violent he acts.
Like yeah, Scar in 1994 tried to get Simba and Mufasa killed but it was underhanded from the start; he planted the idea of going to the elephant graveyard in Simba's head because he thought the hyenas would kill him, he planned the stampede to kill Simba and Mufasa in one go (and even knocked out Zazu to make him quiet), and when Simba survived he manipulated him into running away from home and sent the hyenas after him to finish the job. His strength is his cunning and he doesn't need to smack Mufasa around or start fighting Sarabi to show off how much of a threat he is.
TL:DR: These designs are so weak it's disingenuous to say nobody could confuse them for each other. Visual disabilities or otherwise.
