In addition to fans disliking the trailer nearly 150k times, they’ve also been offering director Barry Jenkins their thoughts on Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King on social media, which sees the director respond.
Barry Jenkins is known for Moonlight, which was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, The Underground Railroad, True Detective, and more.
Follow below.
Responds to “Iger’s soulless machine”
Following the trailer release, one fan commented via Twitter, “Barry, You’re too good and talented for this Iger’s soulless machine.”
Jenkins responded, “There is nothing soulless about The Lion King. For decades children have sat in theaters all over the world experiencing collective grief for the first time, engaging Shakespeare for the first time, across aisles in myriad languages. A most potent vessel for communal empathy.”
Another fan commented who actually interviewed the director before, “Come on man. I interviewed you when you premiered Moonlight at TIFF, and that Barry Jenkins wouldn’t have said what you just said. You can do a Disney movie for the check, in order to work on your passion projects at a later time, but you don’t have to shill like this.”
Jenkins responded, “Bruh what kind of logic is that? How about this, here are a few videos from the ‘same Barry Jenkins who premiered Moonlight’ (as you put it) showing some of the things I was doing in my spare time AT THE SAME TIME I was writing Moonlight..”
Jenkins then provided the following examples and replied, “Children have figured prominently in every single one of the projects from Moonlight til’ now without exception. Like… BRUH. You can say whatever you want about the film but telling ME that something I SAID about why something is meaningful to me for children is CAP? Nah bruh.”
https://t.co/smgVtOkEj3
— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) April 29, 2024
A Haunted House short film I supervised the production of for an afterschool Skate Club in San Francisco because the kids wanted to make a movie (THIS was a fantastic shoot!)
https://t.co/aGn7kFJiAE
— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) April 29, 2024
And that time I took a gig because it seemed fun to throw forty or so tenth birthday parties all over the world (and this one was shot by the same DP as GLASS and US, my buddy Mike Gioulakis)
Children have figured prominently in every single one of the projects from Moonlight til' now without exception. Like… BRUH.
— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) April 29, 2024
You can say whatever you want about the film but telling ME that something I SAID about why something is meaningful to me for children is CAP? Nah bruh
