I haven’t watched Lion King in a really long time, but I
remembered all the songs, especially Hakuna Matata, which was probably my
favorite part. I was watching the film when one of our family friends came
over, and they have a four-year-old daughter who hadn’t watched Lion King
before, so she watched part of it with me. It was the scene when Mufasa went to
confront Scar, and she pointed at Scar and then Mufasa and said “that’s the bad
lion and that’s the good lion right?” and I was like “Yeah, woah” and I totally
didn’t know how to respond. Makes sense, however, because Scar is depicted with
the long face and sort of moustache figure like Jafar, and he was dark and had
that deep voice as well. That got me thinking... Is Scar really the bad guy? Is it his fault that lion government runs on a patriarchal system where the biggest and strongest lion gets to be king, and not the smartest? Is it his fault that if the king has a son that he's all of a sudden surpassed to next in line for the throne? Scar is super cunning and deceitful, but he's really, really good at it.
The opening scene of the Lion King was jaw-droppingly
amazing. The story behind how this was Disney’s first time using an actual
movie clip as a trailer was really interesting, but that clip would have
definitely gotten me to watch the movie; just the choice of music and animal
animations were spectacular. It’s surprising to think that this movie was assigned
to the “B” team, and just how well this production turned out to be. While many
regard this as the first “original” Disney film, not be based off another story,
I see a few striking parallels between this story and Sundiata: The Lion King
of Mali. Sundiata is very clearly Simba, in the fact that they are the children
that are destined for the throne, and they are the ones that get driven out of
their home land to a foreign area, only to return to their home land one day,
save the people there, and become king. It is also possible to relate Sundiata
gaining his strength once he was away to Simba growing up and gaining his lion
roar because both Scar and Sassouma made fun of the children’s weaknesses, only
for those children to grow older, gain strength, and come back to defeat them.
The movie in general was a warm, comfortable atmosphere. With
the exception of the scenes where Mufasa died and where the hyenas were in
their cave, the movie was absolutely wonderful to watch (which totally reminds
me of the dog that was crying when Mufasa died SO SAD :,((( ). I enjoyed the
emphasis on the strength of family in the film; Mufasa and Simba were very
close, but I see more of a familial connection with Simba, Pumba, and Timone.
This serves as grounds to emphasize the fact that family doesn’t always mean
blood, it’s the people who would do anything to see you smile.
I’m not sure if I’m the only one here, but I felt really
encouraged and empowered after the Simba and Rafiki scene. I’m not sure exactly
what it was, but just the way it all unraveled, I guess. Rafiki tells us that
everyone has a past and sometimes it’s good, but sometimes it’s bad, and we
have two choices – we can either run from it, or learn from it, which made me
think about all the things that’s happened to me, and how I should constantly
be learning from my mistakes in order to become a better person.
In all, top ten movies of all time.
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