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In the heart of Laikipia in northern Kenya, lies a popular sundowner spot on the Borana Conservancy that costs tourists a generous amount of dollars to enjoy a meal, or a drink as they catch the sunset.
Some visit the spot at dawn to do yoga as they catch the magnificent sunrise.
So popular is the spot nowadays people do advance booking.
A great grey rock dubbed ‘pride rock’ hunches over the vast plateau of the 32,000-acre conservation like a gigantic frog about to leap onto the savannah below. In the far distance rise the massive shoulders of the second highest peak in Africa, Mount Kenya.
It is this rock that is the famous battle scene in the popular Hollywood animated movie and the biggest Walt Disney franchise
The Lion King is fought in the latest prequel Mufasa: The Lion King, to be released next Friday on December 20
th.
It was for this pride rock in Borana Conservancy that
Simba the lion cub fought his battles. From this rock, his father
King Mufasa ruled the savannah plateau that stretched to Maasai Mara dubbed ‘Pride Lands’ in the film, until his wicked brother, Scar, murdered him. This rock has formed a significant element of Walt Disney production,
The Lion King sequels, and spinoff, which has grossed millions of dollars worldwide.
It was in 1991 when the Walt Disney team first visited the Hell’s Gate National Park in Naivasha, Kenya’s dramatic geothermal park, that they drew inspiration for their characters' names: the pride lions of Mufasa, Simba, Scar, Kiros, Nala, Kiara, Kovu, Pumba the warthog, Rafiki the monkey among others.
But it was here at Borana Conservancy that they finally found the epic stage upon which the great drama loosely modeled on Shakespeare's play Hamlet would be enacted. It was an epic choice as The Lion King was to become the most successful traditionally animated film of all time.
The making of
Mufasa: The Lion King job fell into the hands of director Barry Jenkins who spoke to this writer ahead of the movie premier, on Kenya’s influence in this project.
“The original Lion King was sought of set out in southern Kenya and maybe somewhere along the border (of Tanzania). But in this story, Mufasa gets washed away and we mapped out where we thought he might get washed up. And then he tries to make this journey back home to Kenya and he is journeying all through these different regions (countries) with all these different cultures. And as he goes through all these landscapes he picks up all these friends and their cultures throughout the journey which I think is a beautiful way of storytelling.”
“That was important for me because if the story was going to be this massive sort of movie that travels all across the globe, then how much of the African continent and its differentiated African experience could you capture in a movie like this” he says.
Jenkins believes what he injected to this prequel was freshness and telling the story differently.
“There is only so much complexity of the African continent that a movie like this can relate to. I loved working with several characters who were born in Africa as they helped to break down the very Western way of approaching dialogue in this movie. I told them if they felt like they wanted to put it into their native language, please do, and then we will figure out the translation later.”
“So when Kagiso Lediga (South African) who plays the young Rafiki enters the film in minute 43, you start to hear the language of the film shift and there are things he is saying that are taking the dynamics between the characters and placing them out of the context of me and my Hollywood screenwriters into the context of how actually people speak to one another in an African setup. So the dialogue has all these different shades and complexity as is no longer being pushed through this filter of sought of Hollywood screenwriter and myself and the limitations of our experience of the continent”
In this latest Lion King movie, 32 Grammy Award winner Beyonce will again reprise her role as Queen Nala, with her daughter Blue Ivy Carter joining the cast as Kiara, the daughter of Nala and King Simba, voiced by Donald Glover.
Aaron Pierre will play Mufasa, Kelvin Harrison Jr. is Taka, Tiffany Boone is Sarabi, Kagiso Lediga is young Rafiki, Preston Nymon is Zazu, and Mads Mikkelsen is Kiros.
Thandiwe Newton is Taka’s mother, Eshe. Lennie James portrays Taka’s father Obasi, Ankia Noni Rose as Mufasa’s father Masego, Kagiso as Rafiki, Seth Rogen as Pumbaa, and Bill Eichner as Timon.
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