Sundiata: The Lion King of Mali

I had mixed feelings after reading the Sundiata: The Lion King of Mali. On one hand, the pacing was pretty good and action-packed all the way throughout. However, the story was almost entirely predictable all the way throughout, following the Hero's Journey almost step by step from start to finish. One thing to note before delving into how the story follows the Hero's Journey is how there are also different types of heroes, typically as a result of what time period they came out of, which may be why Sundiata can be considered a "boring" hero. Sundiata doesn't do anything to "gain" his power; it was prophesied that he would be a powerful and strong king, and even though he doesn't start off seeming like he's going to fulfill that prophecy, he doesn't have to go through any adversity to reap the benefits of that prophecy, as far as his own natural strength is concerned. He just one day needs to decide that he wants to walk and make a bow out of metal, and he is already endowed with that ability. In this way, Sundiata is a classic hero from the hero archetypes, as he inherits divine superpowers and is superior in some way. Of course, this makes it hard for a hero to be relatable because their defining trait is that they aren't like everyone else, which is Sundiata's problem.

One more common trope that I saw from Sundiata was that of the mother making her child king, despite the king's wishes. Two examples immediately came to mind. The first was a biblical example, in which Isaac wanted Esau to be king, but his wife tricked him into crowning Jacob as king. The second example was Cersei Lannister scheming to make her own son, Joffrey Baratheon, king, even though Robert's dying wish was that Ned be the protector of the realm.

As far as Sundiata's hero's journey, it's fairly easy to follow. Although I won't go through all the steps, I'll leave that to you, the clear parts are the refusal of the call by being idle, crossing the threshold through exile, tests, allies, and enemies through the friends he makes, approach of the innermost cave when he returns to fight, and the reward, as he claims his empire. 

One of the main messages I personally enjoyed from the story was looking past what was on the surface, in particular, physicality. The original king didn't think it would be below him to marry Sogolon even though she was described as hideous because he knew what good would come of it. Additionally, Sundiata was no beauty queen either, but he was still loved by all after he brought the empire together.

I definitely see the parallels between the Disney story and this one, from the exile, to finding yourself in foreign lands, to returning to bring justice to your people. Clearly, there are stark differences, but this is one fairy tale where I understand where Disney made all their decisions from.