The Lion King is a great animated feature. It is
well produced and has some good musical numbers and some great animation.
However, it requires a rigorous assessment in order to de- mystify the
sanitized portrayal of the pride lands presented in the film. The
screenwriters, by attempting to create a sense of harmony, make the story
appear ludicrous despite its grandiosity. In fact its grandiosity makes the
film appear even more ludicrous. So I will here de-mystify this great animated
film by highlighting the true nature of the kingdom on the Serengeti by
assessing a couple scenes. I have always wanted to do this but the time is now
before the next anniversary edition dvd/blu ray is released. It is also a
successful broadway hit and so people must not get carried away with this
success because the story is mediocre and hollow. I won’t touch on all elements here. I know they made it for children but a lot of lies pervade the film and undermine its integrity.
Firstly, the opening musical number,
the ‘Circle of Life’, is an amazing visual set piece however it is still a ludicrous scene. Why? Because
none of the lions’ everyday meals would ever come to the unveiling of a heir to
the great terrestrial carnivore of Africa. In reality the prey of the lions
would maintain their distance or if they wished to venture forth to witness the
light shine on Simba they would be
hunted and some would be eaten. They would rather kill him than bow down to
him. The buffalo bowing to a lion is a comic sight not an endearing one. The screen writers play it off with a smiling
Mufasa hugging a baboon, Rafiki. Lol. Is this a joke? Are we really to believe
that this is possible because of the circle of life concept? It must be the belief
that the animals forget their place because of the circle of life. When have Lions
ever smiled with birds and Baboons without attacking them?
After this strange ceremony Mufasa
visits Scar who did not attend the ceremony for good reason. Mufasa berates him
and Scar says he did not attend because he is being denied kingship as a result
of Simba’s birth. He makes a blush by saying Mufasa should not turn his back on
him. Mufasa asks him if that’s a challenge and Scar replies that he would never
dream of challenging him. There is something truly wrong here. Firstly, when
male lions (usually 2) begin a pride they call that a coalition. Mufasa and Scar
would have had all rights to the females and there is no succession planning
here because when male cubs, like Simba, mature they are earnestly driven from
the pride and become nomads wandering until they can conquer or form their own pride. Scar should have had
his own children in the film but this would complicate the sanitized,
harmonious portrayal in the film. Within the context of succession it is also
ludicrous when a brother wishes to succeed his brother. In history when another
sibling envies his brother that leads to conflict not curtsy as Scar puts it. If
Mufasa lived to an old ripe age would Scar still wait to succeed him? What a
terrific blunder by the screen writers.
When Mufasa asked if that’s a challenge Scar should have stated openly
that it indeed was one. The sibling can only succeed the one in power if the
one in power is dead. This is why Mufasa is killed in strange circumstances. In
reality though the coalition do not challenge each other and are more likely to
drive out the young males who pose a threat to their pride of females. Young males like Simba.
Why is a baboon the bush man? This
hints at something with an ethnic bias because Rafiki, the baboon in the film,
has the only African voice and he is the resident bush doctor. Would it have
carried weight if he had an American accent? I don’t think so. Correct me if I am
wrong. Everyone else has an American and English accent, the sanitized element, apart from
Madge Sinclair, who is the voice for Serabi and has a particular accent due to
her Jamaican roots.
Mufasa offers to his son, Simba, a
buffoon like explanation of the circle of life. He says firstly, in truly comic fashion, that
whatever the light touches is his kingdom. Welcome to Jamaica King Mufasa. Lol.
Did he forget that lions are primarily nocturnal and so to see them get up to
witness the sunrise is an amazingly absurd event? It is introduced in grand
fashion and there is an elephant graveyard, shrouded in darkness, where simba must
not go because it is the domain of the hyenas. The truth is lions and hyenas share the same space along with the wild dogs in the competition for food. The hyenas
are demonized to give the lion priority in this film. While they walk as the antelope passes
by Mufasa continues to corrupt poor simba by saying that all the animals are
connected in the circle of life from the crawling ant to the leaping antelope. This
is a truly overblown concept in the film. Simba correctly asks ‘but don’t we
eat the antelope?’ and Mufasa seeks to assure the inquiring mind by saying
absurdly ‘Yes Simba but when we die our bodies become the grass and the
antelope eat the grass and so we are all connected in the great circle of life.’
Lol. Our dead rotten carcasses become the grass? If that’s the case then
whenever there is a drought the lions could encourage the great herds of
antelope, gazelle, zebra and buffalo to return to the dry lands by just
dropping dead. No need for rain. This is an amazing piece of wizardry and mysticism
spun by Mufasa. Rotten carcasses are more likely to encourage the proliferation
of vultures and maggots. No grass in such a situation.
Also the issue of Simba and Nala is
a joke and an absurd joke based on what we are telling our children. Zazu
explains to Nala and Simba, as he escorts them to the waterhole, that they are ‘betrothed,
intended, affianced.’ Nala and Simba look at each other in consternation and
then exclaim that they are best friends and that it would be ‘so weird’. Best
friends? They are brother and sister. It is an incestuous relationship being promoted
in the film. They even have a song ‘can you feel the love tonight (between
brother and sister)?’ to promote this incestuous relationship because brother
and sister are in harmony with each other. Lions are not incestuous to any large degree as it is being promoted here. Has anyone
ever asked who Nala’s father is? Her father
is Mufasa because he controls all the females in the pride and screws all of
them because that is what occurs when a male lion controls a pride comprised
largely of females. What a joke.
3 Hyenas cannot start a wilderbeast
stampede. When scar tells simba to run away and never return and then orders
the hyenas to kill him it is another absurd moment. In reality he should have
killed simba, since he planned to take over the pride, because rival male lions
normally kill the offspring of the one they have conquered in order to ensure
loyalty and importantly to make the mothers stop producing milk so that they
will breed for the new conqueror. I am surprised that serabi did not have
children when simba returned.
Mufasa’s
death was a joke. He did not even fall that far to the ground that would result
in death. Injury perhaps but not death. Even then, what about his instinct of
landing on his feet. They tried to make a
human death, we all see in other films, apply to the death of mufasa. Did
Simba really believe that he was responsible for the death of his father when
he was a child?
Lions do not hang out with warthogs
(Pumba) and meerkats (Timon) and eat bugs and worms. They portrayed it in such
a manner in order to avoid the reality of simba actually hunting for food in
the form of meat kind. With that diet on bugs and worms simba would be shriveled,
mangy and skeletal in his appearance. The screen writers skip this over by
having simba bob his head in unison with timon and pumba as the rhythm of the
song hakuna matata is being played. He miraculously grows up consuming no meat
kind. Another great joke. Nala attacks Pumba, realistically, but is thwarted by
her brother and she immediately forgets her hunger.
Mufasa, conjured by the bush man in
spirit, tells simba that he must remember who he is. What he is truly saying
is: Simba remember the rubbish I told you when you were young? Put it to good
use and reclaim your rightful place.
When Simba returns to claim his
rightful place he encounters his old decrepit uncle scar in his now shadowy kingdom.
This is realistic for lions because none of the prey wants to be their friends
but no simba must return to restore harmony in the circle of life after all he
never ate meat since his exile at a young age. The natural prey should warm to
him. It is surprising that scar has sired no heirs in Simba’s long absence particularly
since he is now in control of the pride. Why would he not seek to create his
own successor? This is what male lions do when they control a pride they seek
to create their own offspring.
Anyways these are just some examples of the glaring faults in The Lion King. I provided a more realistic
portrayal of the lion king as he lives on the plains of Africa.This is part critique and part
commentary.
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