Barry Jenkins on Mufasa

Wassail Wassail Wassail! Christmas is almost upon us, and we’ve got a gift of a guest for you this week: Barry Jenkins, AKA Mr. Moonlight. He chats to Simon about ‘Mufasa’, the origin story for Simba’s father and the long-awaited prequel to 2016’s live action animation Lion King. When a flood washes the cub-Mufasa away from his homeland and parents, he finds himself an outsider in an altogether new territory—where he stumbles across young lion Taka and begins a life-changing new journey to becoming the King of the Pride Lands we all know and love. Simon asks the Oscar winning indie director how he ended up helming this huge Disney musical, and what he’s learned from the four-year journey to its release. We’ll hear Mark’s take on ‘Mufasa’ too, along with reviews of two more animation releases this week. We’ve got ‘Sonic 3’, where the speedy blue hedgehog and friends face new adversary Shadow—and Aardman’s Christmas gift to us all, the new Wallace & Gromit adventure ‘Vengeance Most Fowl’. The nation’s favourite plasticine pair are up against their old glove-headed adversary Feathers McGraw in this noirish stop-motion treat. You can hear Mark and Simon in conversation with co-director…