The Lion King

The Lion King has always been one of my favorite Disney movies, so getting to rewatch it was great, I even forced one of my friends who had never seen it before to watch it with me. The humor still hit all these years later, and I still found myself tearing up both when Mufasa died and in the scenes leading up to his death where he bonds with Simba. The music is also undoubtedly one of the most beautiful parts, from the main, catchy songs, to the cinematic music in the background (Hans Zimmer can do no wrong).

One of the main themes the movie really pushes is the whole "Circle of Life" concept; essentially that we all live our lives, and tragedy happens, but we have to keep moving forward. According to Disney, we're all interconnected in this natural system and breaking it (i.e. Scar with the Hyenas) can cause severe consequences. There is some interesting parity introduced with this concept, as it brings both the strongest and weakest animals to the same level, but at the same time, the Lions obviously still dominate the kingdom in their monarchy. I love what the song says about life, and pretty much have it memorized.

Another major theme the movie advances is that of responsibility. Simba's main growth as a character revolves around his concept of responsibility. As a child, Simba is completely irresponsible, disobeying his parents, and his whole concept of being a king is doing whatever he wants, with no obligations. Of course, this doesn't stick, and when Mufasa is teaching him, responsibility comes up. The whole "Hakuna Matata" stint with Timon and Pumba was interesting because Simba benefits from it as a person, but not in the field of responsibility. In fact, his whole conception of the idea was that since the past happened and he can't do anything about it, he has no responsibility towards it. Rafiki and Nala both counter this view and help him grow. Nala straight up calls him out on his lack of responsibility towards his people, while Rafiki teaches him that just because you can't change the past doesn't mean you lose your responsibility to learn from it. After this, Simba realizes he is responsible for his people and needs to go back and fix what went wrong, in particular, what he viewed as the wrong he caused. An interesting foil to this is Scar, who at the end tells Sarabi that since he's king, he can do whatever he wants, a strikingly similar worldview as child-Simba.

One interesting thing I found about the movie was the portrayal of Scar vs the portrayal of Simba and Mufasa. It was very much a Slytherin vs Gryffindor ordeal, with Scar being cunning, ambitious, and deceitful, while Mufasa and Simba were portrayed as having brute strength and bravery. Additionally, Scar was often pictured with a green backdrop while the latter lions were always gold and red. It's also interesting how Scar's snakiness eventually kills him when he says that the Hyenas are the enemy.

As much as I love the movie, though, there were some things I thought needed some touching up on. First and most obvious is Disney's use of a person with mental illness purely for comedic effect. Ed's disability makes him a joke for the entire movie, but this comedic approach is very harmful to people with various disabilities, so I'm not sure what Disney is going to do in the live action remake. On the more feminist critique side of the movie, it's clear that only the male lions can hold positions of power in the pride. Additionally, the female lions don't do much unless it involves the male lions in some way. Finally, Simba's whole evolution of a character, while incredibly relatable to most viewers must also be viewed with the perspective that he was the son of a king. Hence, the opportunities that he had for greatness were much more accessible than to all other animals in the Pride Lands. While the movie argues that hard work and doing the right thing will be rewarded, Simba's background of privilege must also be taken into account.

Overall, though, I still loved the movie and it remains one of my favorites of all time.