Disney's the Lion King

I hadn’t seen Lion king in a very long time. But as soon as I began watching, I was hit with a wave of nostalgia. The song for the circle of life was a lot more meaningful, and the idea that we are connected particularly struck a chord with me. Right off the bat Scar is portrayed as the ‘bad guy’, but a a very developed ‘bad guy’. He talks to his food, almost as if he relates to it, and is the neglected younger brother of the king, who got denied his power with the birth of Simba. Within the first 10 minutes of the film, Scar is already one of Disney’s most interesting villains.
James Earl Jones voice is of course iconic from the minute he starts talking (however as a star wars fan it is a little disconcerting to hear darth vader’s voice as well), and I’m not sure how I would feel if he were not playing Mufasa in the live action film as well. The song Just Can’t Wait to be King, is one of my favorites, and I didn’t remember how interesting the animation was till rewatched it. The sequence with all the animals was very cool, and truly highlighted the variety of animals, just like in the Circle of Life sequence did. Simba and Nala running off to be rebellious had a very child-like feel to it, I think this film captured this youthful desire very well. The scene with Mufasa and Simba talking about their ancestors and such, is the scene that that Black Panther reminds me the most of (the dream T'Challa has when he is becoming king). Until rewatching the Be Prepared song, I had forgotten how much I liked Jeremy Irons’ voice as Scar as well. He does a perfect posh british villain. I’m pretty sure as a child I didn’t understand the majority of the meaning behind the song, because I’m just now getting a lot of the meanings behind the lyrics. Everytime the scene with Mufasa’s death comes around, I get really sad because it is a very traumatizing part of the film, and is more traumatizing than most Disney films. Hakuna Matata is and always will be a bop, and reminds me how much I love Nathan Lane as a voice actor (I love a lot the voices in this film). The sequence of Simba growing up is iconic, and now reflecting on it, he was basically living his best bachelor life. Of course when Scar rules the kingdom, it is dark and everyone is hungry. There was a really nice transition from the hyenas talking about how hungry they are, to Simba, Timon, and Pumba talking about how full they were from eating. This was an emphasis on the difference between the ‘good’ guys and the ‘bad’ guys. The final confrontation between Scar and Simba was a classic Disney fight, with Simba having noble intentions, and Scar miraculously being killed indirectly. I read up on some commentary about the criticism about the film, and while there isn’t that much there were two main controversies that stuck out. One was that apparently the Lion King bares a striking resemblance to a Japanese series called Jungle Emperor, and that Disney managed to escape the lawsuit with their best lawyers. The second controversy I found interesting was that out of all the people of color cast in the film (of whom there are very few of) aside from James Earl Jones, they encompass both of the Hyenas with speaking roles. Hyenas are the villains in the film. This article goes into depth about this.