Mia and the White Lion

Original title: Mia et le lion blanc

2018
PG
1h 38m

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

6.6K

YOUR RATING

Thor and Daniah De Villiers in Mia and the White Lion (2018)

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Animal Adventure Adventure Drama Family

Mia moves to South Africa with her family to manage a lion farm and develops a special bond with Charlie, a white lion cub; however, things change when she uncovers her father's secret.Mia moves to South Africa with her family to manage a lion farm and develops a special bond with Charlie, a white lion cub; however, things change when she uncovers her father's secret.Mia moves to South Africa with her family to manage a lion farm and develops a special bond with Charlie, a white lion cub; however, things change when she uncovers her father's secret.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

6.6K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Upon getting the idea for the film, co-writer/director Gilles de Maistre asked specialist Kevin Richardson about the possibility of filming a child with a lion. He was told that it would be impossible, as the only way for the lion not to harm the child would be that they grow up together, a three-year process for a lion and much too long for a film shoot. Undeterred, de Maistre found Daniah De Villiers a young South African girl already familiar with lions to grow up with the titular white lion cub, and shot the film over 2 1/2 years, from May 2015 to December 2017, with the other actors regularly flying in to shoot their scenes.

Goofs
There are several closeups of the white lion in which he seems to be purring. Lions do not purr. They can roar, which smaller cats cannot. The largest cat that can both "meow" and purr is the cougar, or panther.

Quotes
[John explains to Mia why it is dangerous to play with Charlie]
John Owen: For now, he's a cub, and you want to have fun with it. Soon he'll just want to kill you. Go past this fence, and any one of these lions will tear you to pieces in five seconds flat. It doesn't matter if you've fed themnor bathed them or cuddled them, or if your name is Mia or Kevin or Obi-Wan Kenobi... a wild animal is a wild animal, and you can never change that, no matter what you do.

Connections
References Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

Soundtracks
The Lion Sleeps Tonight
Written by Solomon Linda, Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, George David Weiss and Albert Stanton
Performed by Kids United Nouvelle Génération

User reviews56

Review

Featured review

Entertaining movie with a conservation message.

My wife and I watched this at home on DVD from our public library.

Because the story involves a white lion growing from a newborn to an adult male over a three year period, and a young girl, Mia, growing from about 11 to about 14, the movie was actually shot over a three year time period. So there is no substitution of characters, we actually witness the lion and the two kids growing up.

Mia lives with her dad, mom, and brother on a farm in South Africa, primarily raising then selling animals that otherwise would be in the wild. Like lions. One day dad brings home this tiny, cute white lion cub, and they call him Charlie. At first Mia is annoyed with the cub, wants him to leave her alone, but they eventually bond.

When Charlie is about to be sold Mia finds out the actual fate of most of the "trophy" animals, they are sold to become targets of big game hunters in a captive environment, still a legal activity in South Africa. Mia decides to take drastic action to try and save Charlie from that fate.

There is a good "extra" on the disc telling about the process and what had to be done to train the lion to become the young actress' friend and not eat her.