Let’s talk for a moment about “Disney Adults”. While this is a highly subjective term, it’s typically used in a derogatory way. The implication goes far beyond a mere overzealous fan who’s pledged their full allegiance and most of their disposable income to the Disney brand, loyally consuming and ardently defending every piece of media that Disney produces. No, to call someone a “Disney Adult” is to effectively call them a child who refuses to grow up. Their nostalgia is their fortress, and their consumption of Disney media is their ongoing effort to keep on living in their fond childhood memories associated with the brand.

The video game world has something similar: We call them “Sonic fans.”

Sonic the Hedgehog is an anthropomorphic rodent defined solely by his reckless and brash attitude. Such cartoon characters and corporate mascots were a dime a dozen in the immediate aftermath of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Sonic is so inextricably rooted in the ’90s, everything about him is so horribly dated, that he could only be kept afloat through ’90s nostalgia.

In fact, it’s rather intriguing how both Sonic and the Disney Animation Renaissance follow similar timelines in their ’90s rise through to their fall in the early ’00s (respectively with the collapse of the Sega Dreamcast in 2001 and the release of Treasure Planet in 2002). And then of course we’ve got 2006 — the year in which Disney acquired Pixar and Sega released “Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)” — which was truly the point of no return for both.

Yet here we are with Mufasa: The Lion King and Sonic the Hedgehog 3, competing with each other in multiplexes right now. One is a prequel to the 2019 remake of The Lion King, made entirely in photo-real CG animation because live-action remakes aren’t really possible with movies about singing animals. The other one is a second sequel to a live-action/animated video game adaptation that was all but dead on arrival.

And yet, because Sonic the Hedgehog had the good fortune of hitting multiplexes just before COVID lockdown, the movie fluked its way into a sixth-place finish in the highest grossing movies of 2020. So a second film was made, both demonstrably better than the first film and closer to the spirit of the games, neither of which is saying much. As for The Lion King (2019), I have no fucking idea how that movie grossed $1.65 billion worldwide. I can only chalk up the success of both franchises to the rabid support of the Sonic Fans and the Disney Adults.

(Side note: Mufasa begins right out of the gate with a voice clip and a title card in memory of James Earl Jones, getting that out of the way before literally anything else. Classy.)

The premise to Mufasa is pretty straightforward: It’s an animated prequel in which two fated rivals (Mufasa and Taka — later Scar — respectively voiced by Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison Jr.) grew up together as adoptive brothers and lifelong best friends. They’re forced to go on a long journey and battle an evil dictator (Kiros, voiced by Mads Mikkelsen) so the protagonist can take his place as the rightful king while his brother becomes a treacherous villain with a lifelong vendetta.

Does that sound familiar? It should — Transformers One came out three months ago. I have to wonder if that one bombed at the box office because everybody knew Mufasa was coming out a short while later. If so, joke’s on the audience, because everything Mufasa did, Transformers One did so much better. But I digress.

The plot to Sonic 3 is also pretty straightforward: The threat this time is a mad scientist (Dr. Gerald Robotnik, estranged grandfather to Dr. Ivo Robotnik, both played by Jim Carrey) who’s trying to destroy the world. The first big step in his evil plan is to free Shadow (voiced by Keanu Reeves, of all people), another super-fast hedgehog who crash-landed on Earth and he’s been kept on ice for about fifty years.

And yes, Ivo somehow survived the climax of the second movie. No, we never get an explanation.

Both movies are heavily focused on themes of teamwork, family, friendship, and so on. In the case of Mufasa, he and Scar are trying to reckon with how Mufasa is the orphaned outsider who’s demonstrably more fit to lead, while Scar is royal by blood and incompetent by nature. As for Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz), he’s still trying to figure out how to work as a coherent unit with Tails and Knuckles (voiced by Colleen O’Shaughnessey and Idris Elba, respectively).

But then we have the villains. Shadow and Gerald are both grappling with the untimely death of Maria (Alyla Browne), Gerald’s granddaughter and the only one who ever showed Shadow any kindness. Gerald and Ivo spend a lot of time trying to figure out whatever new family dynamic they have, or what kind of relationship might even be possible between two such heartless lunatics. Hell, even Agent Stone (Lee Majdoub) finally gets a character arc, re-evaluating his relationship with Ivo after two movies as his one-dimensional lickspittle.

Over on Mufasa, what does Kiros get in terms of the family theme? He’s upset because Mufasa apparently killed his son in an action sequence early on. I don’t even think Kiros’ son gets a name or a line, blink and you’ll miss him. I honestly can’t believe I’m saying this, but Sonic 3 does considerably more and goes so much deeper with the themes, in large part because the heroes and villains are constantly portrayed as foils for each other in this regard.

Then there’s the matter of the wretched comic relief. Mufasa is repeatedly interrupted by a framing device in which Timon and Pumbaa barge in with “jokes” that serve no purpose aside from putting Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen on the marquee and giving them paychecks. There is absolutely no need for these characters to be here as our comic relief when we’ve got Zazu (voiced this time by Preston Nyman) in the story proper and making useful contributions to the plot in the bargain.

Meanwhile, Sonic 3 somehow found a way to cram Wade and Rachel (respectively played by Adam Pally and Natasha Rothwell) into the mix once again. And gods help us, the filmmakers somehow found a way to make the characters even more useless and unfunny and obnoxious and frustrating than they already were. But at least these godawful characters were only given extended speaking cameos this time and not a full-on subplot. Even Tom and Maddie Wachowski (James Marsden and Tika Sumpter, respectively) are barely in this movie. I appreciate how the filmmakers keep gradually scaling back the human characters who have nothing to do with the video games.

But then we’ve got Krysten Ritter, in the role of… hell, I don’t even know if Ritter knows what she’s doing here. She’s way too overqualified for the dogshit she got stuck with in this picture, I hope she got paid well for it. At least in Mufasa, we got bit parts admirably played by such talents as Thandiwe Newton, Lennie James, Anika Noni Rose, and Keith motherfucking David, all of whom admirably elevate what they were given.

I was astounded to see the credits for Sonic 3 and discover that it apparently took three writers (namely Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington) to put this script together. This wretched dialogue, these groan-worthy jokes, this plot that couldn’t even hold gravel — much less water — and it took three freaking writers. Then again, considering these are the exact same three writers who served on Sonic the Hedgehog 2, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.

Likewise, the script for Mufasa was written by the exact same team that wrote the script for The Lion King (2019). And the team is comprised solely of Jeff Nathanson. At least the dialogue is okay and the plot makes enough internal logic to get by. The only real problem is that it’s boring.

This is a story built around such burning questions as…

• “How did Scar get his eye split open?”
• “How did Mufasa come to be king?”
• “Why do Mufasa and Scar hate each other?”

But then we get into the questions that aren’t as vital, but might still be potentially interesting.

• “How did Mufasa meet Sarabi?”
• “How did Mufasa meet Rafiki?”
• “How did Mufasa meet Zazu?”

And then we get into the questions that nobody in their right mind would care about.

• “Why is Pride Rock shaped like that?”
• “How did Rafiki get his stick?”

The overarching problem here is that each and every one of the above questions is given the laziest answer possible. It’s deeply frustrating how this prequel continues the larger trend of the Disney live-action remakes, taking their classic stories and larger-than-life characters and dragging them down to our level, robbing them of what made them iconic.

Taka is another solid example of this. No joke, the characters all spend literally the entire movie dunking on Taka. He’s an idiot. He’s a coward. He’s a weakling. He’s spoiled and entitled. There is not a single damned thing Taka is good for. Yet the Scar we all know and love to hate is a conniving, deceitful, manipulative mastermind. Remember, Scar is one of the rare few Disney villains to successfully kill off a main character.

And I’m supposed to believe that Taka will eventually become Scar? No. Hell no. I all but literally burst out laughing when Kelvin Harrison Jr. brought out his best Jeremy Irons impression. You’re not that guy, Taka. Sit the fuck down.

All of that said, the voice actors are all putting in solid performances and special kudos are due to the animators. It’s genuinely impressive how all these animals are so emotive and vividly animated through all the numerous extreme close-up shots. (Seriously, these filmmakers love their extreme close-up shots.) More to the point, we get various shots that depict dream sequences and visions and other such fantastical elements that Favreau couldn’t or didn’t indulge in 2019. It feels so much like director Barry Jenkins was straining to deliver something on the epic scale of the ’94 original film, but he kept getting held back by the photo-realistic CGI mandate of the previous film.

By comparison, the CGI and animation in Sonic 3 works perfectly because these were always meant to be cartoon characters without even the flimsiest pretense of realism. I recall an old tenet of animation: Something animated to look photo-realistic now will look like slop in ten or twenty years, but a really great cartoon will always look like a really great cartoon.

I said it back in 2019, and I’ll say it again: “Photo-realistic” doesn’t always mean “better”. And that’s especially true with regard to movies about talking animals. Gods above, we already bought the ticket with the expectation that animals are going to talk and sing and get along with each other and act in ways no real animal ever would. Nobody wants or needs this to be “realistic”. The ’94 Lion King understood this. All three Sonic movies understand this. Yet the Disney execs and their loyal minions have apparently lost sight of this.

Literally everyone in the Sonic films is playing a cartoon character, and that’s doubly true of the live-action actors. Every last one of the actors on set and in the voice booth are clowning around like they’re having a blast. None more so than Jim Carrey, playing opposite himself to near-seamless effect. It’s equal parts annoying and impressive how Carrey keeps bouncing around and mugging for the camera like… well, like Carrey is still in the prime of his career, back in the ’90s.

Getting back to my earlier point, ’90s nostalgia is a huge part of why we still have new movies for both of these franchises in goddamn 2024. The difference is that only one of these movies features a character shouting out — in pretty much these exact words — that the ’90s were the greatest decade ever. And that line didn’t go to an animal character.

On a final miscellaneous note, I’d be remiss not to mention the new songs for Mufasa, courtesy of Lin-Manuel Miranda. Imagine my disappointment to find that the songs here are actually somehow even worse than those of Moana 2 — at least some of the songs in Moana 2 had a halfway decent hook. Meanwhile, over in Sonic 3, we’ve got a new rendition of Crush40’s “Live and Learn” playing over the climax.

While Mufasa: The Lion King is the technically superior film, I have so much more respect for Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The difference is that Mufasa reads like a brilliant filmmaker doing his best to create a masterpiece on the level of the ’94 original, only to be curtailed at every turn by mandates from a studio more interested in generating “content” than movies or stories.

Sonic 3, for better or worse, was made by people who knew exactly what they were doing, what they were adapting, who they were making the movie for, and refusing to apologize for it. Say what you will about Sonic fans (and I know I’ve said a lot), but there’s a fanbase that genuinely wanted Shadow to make the leap onto the big screen and the filmmakers delivered as best as anyone could’ve expected. There was an audience for this, and that audience got the movie they wanted.

By contrast, I have no idea who Mufasa was made for. By all appearances, this is the latest in a long and disappointing line of Disney movies that should be so much better for how expensive they are. I should point out that this is partially our fault, for giving over $1.6 billion to that uninspired soulless remake from 2019.

The ’94 Lion King — and those who grew up with it — got a drab and uninspired movie that didn’t live up to anywhere near what they deserved. But the Sonic franchise and its fanbase got a loud, flashy, juvenile, aggressively braindead, yet fiercely passionate movie that was exactly what they deserved.