VFX BREAKDOWN MUFASA
VFX BREAKDOWN
Production VFX supervisor Adam Valdez on crafting the Pride Lands for Mufasa
WORDS OLIVER WEBB IMAGES DISNEY
M ufasa: The Lion King serves as a prequel to the events of The Lion King and is the origin story of the titular character, father of Simba. After a chance encounter with another lion named Taka, the heir to a royal bloodline, the two must journey across the plains in search of a new destiny. Adam Valdez served as production visual effects supervisor on the film, with a team of over 1700 artists and production crew at MPC delivering the visual effects. Valdez initially met with director Barry Jenkins for an orientation, as it was Jenkins’ first animated feature. “We had phone calls and meetings, and then he asked if I could do the movie,” Valdez recalls. “I said yes because he’s a great filmmaker and a wonderful person. It felt
like a great experience to work with him, especially since I’d done similar movies before. Barry had lots of questions about how to elicit emotions from lions. His focus is on telling emotional, intimate stories, and he really views the world from a character’s point of view.” Making Mufasa was a four-year process, with Covid-19 significantly impacting production. “I was initially working from my house in London, while Barry was in LA,” Valdez explains. “Our production designer Mark Friedberg was in New York City. Fast-forward many months, and we were all in LA, finally shooting and prepping. The first year was this strange hybrid where we initially couldn’t be together but gradually moved toward the day we could all work under one roof.”
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