the lion king analysis

The Lion King – A Lesson for Life

Throughout the history of the movie industry, there is a famous animated film which is the highest-grossing hand drawn one ever, a film that even after seventeen years since its first release, despite advanced technology, still remains one of the best animation movies of all time. That is The Lion King, the 32nd feature in Walt Disney Animated Classics series, released in 1994. Being the last hand drawn animation movie of Disney, The Lion King had a budget of less than 100 million dollars, but it brought back nearly 800 million dollars in 1994. The film is widely appreciated for its meaningful story as well as its music.1 The Lion King won 24 awards and was nominated for 22 other, 2 Oscars for its music and a Golden Globe for the film. It is not just a mere entertainment product, it is truly a lesson for everyone who has pondered its hidden message.

The Lion King is a story about a young lion prince, Simba, son of King Mufasa. When Simba is born, the whole kingdom is very happy, except his uncle, Scar, because that makes him second in line to the throne. Filled with jealousy and ambitions, Scar plots with the hyenas to kill King Mufasa and Simba. When Mufasa is dead, Scar makes Simba believe that he causes the King’s death, and tells him to run away from the kingdom. Time passes by, Simba, after years living in the jungle trying to forget his sin, has the courage to face the past. He comes back home, fights with Scar to regain his throne, taking his place in the great “Circle of Life”. It is said that the movie is based on William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a story of a young prince whose uncle kills his father to be king. After being away from home for a long time, the prince receives some advice from his father's ghost and comes back to take revenge. Besides the inspiration from Hamlet, the movie also has similar plot with the story of King Agamemnon in ancient Greek as well as the Osirian family myths of Ancient Egyptian mythology2.

The Lion King is not only for children. It’s an animation movie full of metaphors and symbols from the themes to its characters. While the story seems to be quite familiar, what makes The Lion King a huge success is the deep implications behind the story, one of which is that everyone has to find and take his place in the “Circle of Life”.

The idea of the “Circle of Life” can be explained in many ways. There are those who think its meaning is that all the animal and plants are connected to each other, including the Earth. On the other hand, there are some who see it as a lifetime, everything is born and then dies, one’s life after another, making it a big circulation. The idea of the “Circle of Life” is said to come from Eastern philosophy, such as the conception of reincarnation.

In my opinion, a circle has neither beginning nor end. In fact, the starting point of a circle is also the end point, and the end point is the start of a new circle. In other words, the “Circle of Life” means life is endless. Every living thing is born, grows up and dies; every life is a circle. In the great circle, everything has its own place, all of them are connected, making life endlessly continuous.

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion_King2 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110357/trivia

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The movie starts with a magnificent scene of the red rising sun with an African harmony. The sun can be seen as the symbol for the “Circle of Life”. A lifetime is similar to a day. When the sun rises, one’s life starts; and when the dusk comes, it means our life is coming to an end. As the day begins, it’s also the start of Simba’s life as a prince. The author also wants to imply that everyone has his own “place” in the world, it’s fate. Simba’s destiny is to be the King, while other creatures have their job, such as the tiny ants’ are workers. Although the concept is quite connected to feudalism, in which the King’s son will be the next king, while other will never be, it’s true that everyone has his position in the society.

When Mufasa shows Simba the whole kingdom, he mentions the limitations of time. “A King’s time as ruler rises and falls like the sun”, which means nothing can last forever. A King’s time is limited, and so do ours. He also tells Simba to stay away from the “shadowy place”. Generally, when we think of the dark, we think of something bad or evil. That “shadowy place” is definitely dangerous. “Everything the light touches” can be seen as the outside world, while the “shadowy place” is the inside. They’re the metaphors for the good and bad choices that we make in life respectively. Mufasa also teaches Simba “the delicate balance”. Mufasa understands that living things are connected in nature. Carnivores eat herbivores, but when carnivores die, the grass absorbs nutrients from their bodies to grow, then herbivores eat plants. That circle goes on and on, which creates the equality among all the creatures. It also reflects the “Circle of Life”. This part helps us understand why Mufasa

is a good king and Scar isn’t. Understanding the natural rule, Mufasa knows how to maintain the balance and respects other creatures, although he is the king. On the contrary, Scar thinks that a king has the highest position as well as absolute power over all the creatures.3 Simba also has that thought.4 However, Simba doesn’t understand everything because he’s too young and innocent while jealousy and the thirst of power make Scar blindly follow that crazy idea.

Another metaphor in the movie is the crescent moon. In Western culture, it is considered as the symbol of evil. The crescent moon appears twice. The first time is when Scar and the hyenas finish their “Be Prepared” song, as they’ve planned to extirpate King Mufasa and Simba. The moon foretells the threat from Scar and the hyenas, the evil ones. Later, after Mufasa died and Simba ran away from the kingdom, the moon appears again when Scar comes to the throne. Evil has won and it covers the whole kingdom in a deathly atmosphere.

From my point of view, while the sun represents King Mufasa’s time, the moon symbolize Scar’s. The sun shines on its own, like Mufasa fit to be king. With his knowledge and virtue, it’s natural that he is a good king. On the other hand, the moon cannot shine, it just reflects the light from the moon. Likewise, Scar is not worthy of being a king. He’s in line of the throne just because he is Mufasa’s brother. It can be assumed that Scar is just like

3 Will be mentioned later4 Will be mentioned later

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Mufasa’s shadow. Moreover, Scar’s moon isn’t a full moon. The dark covers most of it, like the evil side has conquered Scar.

Besides those metaphors, there’s a small detail that also carries deep implications connected to our own life. When Rafiki tells Simba to follow him to see Mufasa again, he purposely leads Simba through a narrow thorny path with a lot of obstacles. These obstacles are difficulties that all of us will definitely encounter in life. It’s the same for Simba, if he wants to see his father again, he has to overcome those obstacles. Life is absolutely not easy for anyone. Success doesn’t come to anyone, we ourselves have to find it. Nonetheless, the road to success is always narrow and thorny. Only those who are patient and determined can walk the long path to open the door to success.

In the fierce fight between Scar and Simba, fire and rain appear as two incompatible natural elements. The fight between fire and rain is the fight between Scar and Simba. In Western culture, fire is the symbol of hell and evil, in this movie, fire represents Scar. Rain or water is the opposite element of fire. Water can eliminate fire. Water is the good. Simba is water, only Simba has the ability to fight with Scar to take back the kingdom. Although lightning brings fire first, the following rain will immediately extinguish it. Scar may win and control the kingdom, but when the time comes, Simba will definitely take back what is his. In other words, justice always win in the end.

One of the remarkable points of The Lion King is its messianic theme. Some believes that the messiah in the movie is Simba, because he comes back to save his kingdom. However, to me, the real messiah in The Lion King is Mufasa. He teaches Simba everything he needs to be king, he sacrifices himself to save his son from the wildebeest stampede. What a great king, a great father!!! When Simba loses his way and doesn’t know what to do, it is Mufasa who reminds him who he is and his responsibility. Mufasa saves Simba from the fear and shame. Without Mufasa’s reminder, Simba may not realize what he should do. Mufasa is truly a messiah to Simba and the kingdom.

The Lion King also carries a message about good and evil. In this world, they always exist together. Without darkness, we don’t know what is light. Without evil, we don’t realize and treasure good. In this movie, the sun represents good. The moon and darkness represents evil. When Mufasa is on the throne, Pride Rock is covered with greenery. The scenes are so colorful and lively. But when Scar takes the power, the whole kingdom sinks into darkness. Withered trees, animal bones are everywhere. The color of black, white, grey creates a deathly atmosphere. When Simba return, the sun is shining brightly, promising the success of good. When he takes back the kingdom, day after day, Pride Rock recovers to its former condition, lively and colorful.

In life, good and evil is inside everyone. Sometimes, being unaware, we let evil control ourselves. At times like that, someone might help us to realize our mistakes. However, others cannot help us correct, we have to fight on our own, otherwise evil will destroy our lives. The war between good and evil is fierce, but in the end, good will win.

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The Lion King’s symbolism doesn’t show only through the themes, but also through the characters.

Mufasa is the King. In the movie, he is not the hero, but he is the motto for the hero. As a mighty king, his image is built with muscular body, yellow fur, brown thick mane and brown eyes. It’s an image of bravery, strength and royalty. Even his voice emits a sovereign power. It’s bold, loud, and powerful. He speaks in a confident way. Mufasa is respected by everyone (except Scar and the hyenas). He knows the rules of nature and respects them. He maintains the delicate balance and follows the circle of life. Mufasa is a great king. Besides that, he’s also a kind-hearted and devoted father. Whenever he hears that Simba is in danger, he comes to save his son. He teaches Simba important lessons to be king. When Simba disobeys him, Mufasa doesn’t punish him but explain and forgive. When Simba loses his way, he tells him to remember a king’s responsibility. However, Mufasa also has mistake. Is he unaware of Scar’s evil intention, or is he turn a blind eye on it? In either cases, that is his biggest mistake. Maybe he hopes that Scar would change, or he doesn’t know what to do. This indirectly results in his death and lets Scar takes the throne.

Simba, which means Lion or Courageous Warrior in Swahili, is the hero of this movie. At the first scene, he’s presented as a cute naive cub lion. He is introduced to kingdom as the prince on top of the rock as the sunlight radiates upon him. Simba takes after his father with yellow fur, brown eyes. As he grows up, he becomes a naughty boy. He’s such a naive prince when thinking “a king can do whatever he wants”. He’s so eager, “can’t wait to be king” that he tries to roar. He wants to prove that he has grown up. Scar knows that, so he makes use of his youthful ignorance and naivety to takes the throne. When Simba flees from the kingdom, he learns the philosophy of Timon and Pumbaa, Hakuna Matata (No worries). However, perhaps he has never forgotten the tragic past. Until seeing his father again, Simba realizes that he has to save the kingdom from destruction, he has to take his responsibility as a king. Deep inside his heart, he still scares that others would know that he killed his father. Once Scar admits that he was the murderer, Simba is awaken, he transforms into a “Courageous Warrior” to defeat Scar and takes back what is his. But the kind-hearted Simba doesn’t kill Scar. He doesn’t want to kill his uncle, he wants to be forgiving like his father. There’s no doubt that Simba will be a good king like Mufasa.

Contrasted to Mufasa and Simba, Scar’s image shows his evil. Scar has black thin mane, weak body, a big scar and green eyes. Among the lions, Scar is the only one with dark fur and his claws are always shown.5 All of them makes Scar seems evil enough. He first appears in a dark cave, toying with a small cute mouse. His voice isn’t powerful, he just whisper evilly. However, he is intelligent, and he knows that “as far as brains go, I got the lion’s share”. His words are always full of riddles and metaphors. Unfortunately, he uses his genius in the wrong way. To Scar, the king can do whatever he wants and with his intelligence, he deserves to be king. It’s a shame that he doesn’t understand or doesn’t want to understand the “Circle of Life”. This misunderstanding leads him to the evil road. Scar

5 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110357/trivia

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lures Simba to the graveyard by saying “Only the bravest lions go there”. He can manipulate Simba because he understands that Simba is naïve and wants to prove himself. To kill Mufasa and Simba, Scar takes advantages of the hyenas. He is compared with Hitler, a clever yet wicked person. Pride Rock, under his management, becomes death land. He destroys the balance, making other animals die gradually. When he loses to Simba, he makes another mistake which leads to his death. When Simba lets he live, he still wants to follow the destruction path. He doesn’t understand that he will never be king not because of Simba but because of himself. He lacks the virtue needed to be king. Finally, the hyenas kill him. “As the call, so the echo”, he reaps what he sows. The evil loses.

An interesting pair in the movie is Timon and Pumbaa. Timon is a meerkat, he is small with yellow and brown hair. He always acts high and mighty and thinks that he’s better than Pumbaa. However, when facing danger, he is the first to runaway. He agrees to save Simba so that Simba will protect them later. Generally, his motivation is selfishness. Timon just thinks about himself, he’s afraid of death. In short, Timon represent the “ego” of us. As Timon is small, the author wants to imply that our “ego” should be small. On the contrary, Pumbaa, a warthog, is big and has red hair. He seems silly sometimes, but he always act calm and kind-hearted. He saves Simba but he doesn’t need the recognition like Timon. Pumbaa is the heart of a person, and our heart should be big like Pumbaa.

In conclusion, The Lion King is a wonderful movie, not only for children but for adults as well. Everyone of us has our own place in the “Circle of Life”, and the good will always win in the war with evil. For anyone who hasn’t had a chance to enjoy The Lion King, it’s a must-see movie, not only for entertainment, but also for a lesson.

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the lion king analysis

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