Lion King: Animated Film and

¶ … Lion King: Animated Film and Stage Play When the Disney film The Lion King (1994, Buena Vista) came out, it was an immediate hit with audiences and grossed $328,539,505 that year (plus home videos and merchandizing) making it "the fifth highest domestic grossing film in history (Honeycutt 13, 37). It is a children's story that adults are able to enjoy as well.

Although similar to other Disney animated films with songs and talented casts of voices, it grossed considerably more than earlier Disney films and won two Oscars and two Grammys for its music (Jolson-Colburn 5; Honeycutt 13). Most critics (with some significant exceptions, which we will discuss later) liked the movie as much as audiences did.

For example, San Francisco Chronicle critic Peter Stack wrote: "The Lion King is a beautiful, snappy piece of work that excites the imagination and regularly splashes you with good humor via a surprisingly intelligent screenplay..." (Disney's 'Lion King' Let Loose/Story). Rolling Stone's critic said, "It's a huge entertaining blend of music, fun and eye-popping thrills, though it doesn't lack for heart" (RollingStone.com). Unlike other animated Disney films based on already well-known stories, The Lion King was an original script.

Equally unusual, the film was followed by a Broadway play based on the movie. If the movie version was great entertainment, the stage production was that and more -- it was a work of genius. Julie Taymor, the show's director, won a Tony award for designing the unique costumes, and The Lion King was Tony winner for best musical. The stage version was a "runaway box office success" (Gold 21).

Naturally, this leads to the question, "What made The Lion King such a hit?" Perhaps Americans were ready for a story that teaches social responsibility. The story is based on deeply embedded cultural myths, which by their very nature illustrate moral values. In 1994 when the movie appeared, the country was very concerned about declining moral values. The Lion King is a serious drama with comic moments. Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun Times), remarked: "I think it's positive that 'The Lion King' deals with real issues.

By processing life's realities in stories, children can prepare themselves for more difficult lessons later on"(rogerebert.com). These "real issues" are guilt, despair, alienation, and the need to take responsibility. The main character is Simba. Simba learns when he is very young that some day he will take over the throne for his father King Mufasa. He does not realize that his father's brother Scar wants to be King and is plotting with a bunch of hyenas to kill Mufasa and Simba.

The hyenas are like inner-city hoodlums, ever ready for crime. Together, Scar and the hyenas manipulate a stampede of wildebeests with Simba placed in a vulnerable spot where he finds himself in mortal danger. Then Scar calls Mufasa to save his son. Mufasa saves Simba but is killed in a terrible fall after Scar knocks him from the edge of a precipice. Scar then convinces young Simba that it is his fault his father died. He advises Simba to run away and never come back.

Filled with grief and guilt Simba runs far away and nearly dies. He is rescued by friendly comical characters, Timon (a meerkat) and Pumbaa (a warthog). Simba stays with them and forgets all about his mission, responsibility, and role in life as King. Meanwhile, Scar has taken over the kingdom and abused his power. The hyenas have destroyed the environment, and there is no food to eat. The lions and the other animals are all starving.

Nala (Simba's childhood sweetheart) goes out hunting one day farther from the pride than usual and finds Simba with his friends. Once she recognizes him, she implores him to come home and save the kingdom by taking his rightful place as King. But Simba refuses. Because of his guilt, he refuses to assume his role as King. That night the mystic Rafiki shaman (a monkey) finds Simba and leads him into the wilderness.

When Simba looks up into the stars, his father's ghost appears and speaks to him! Mufasa tells Simba to remember who he is, the King's son and heir to the throne. He must go back and take on that responsibility. Simba is greatly moved. His father still loves him. He returns to the pride with his friends and Nala to overthrow Scar and the Gestapo-type hyenas. When Scar accuses Simba of murdering his father, Simba sees clearly that his father's death was not really his fault.

Then he learns that Scar actually murdered his father. In the end Scar is killed, torn to pieces by the hyenas who were his allies. In the final scene a new son is born to Simba and Nala (completing the circle of life theme) and the environment is green again and thriving because the King has returned and restored it. Anyone familiar with Hamlet by William Shakespeare will be immediately struck by the similarities of the stories.

Hamlet was a young Danish prince called home from school because his father has died. Hamlet's father the King comes back from the dead as a ghost. He tells Hamlet that his Uncle Claudius (again, the King's brother) murdered him by putting poison in his ear as he slept in his orchard so that he could steal the throne. He makes Hamlet promise to avenge his death and take the throne of his father. Hamlet's Uncle Claudius has already married his mother.

In The Lion King Scar does not marry Simba's mother but he does exploit her for her hunting abilities. Scar, Simba's uncle, is just as villainous as Claudius, Hamlet's uncle is. And Simba's father visits him from beyond the grave to remind him of his responsibility to the kingdom, just as Hamlet's father visited him and reminded him of his duty. Both fathers count on loyalty from their sons. Both Hamlet and Simba are banished from their homes. Both survive great dangers and come home to avenge their fathers' deaths.

Both Hamlet and Simba are introspective and very concerned about moral issues. They are the exiled children of rulers who must come back and restore world order. Of course, there are differences too. The Lion King is a children's story whereas Hamlet is for adults. A children's story cannot end tragically with everybody dead like in Hamlet. Simba overcomes Scar and goes on to be a good King, whereas Hamlet overcomes Claudius but dies (and his kingdom is taken over by strangers from abroad).

Both Hamlet and The Lion King are based on archetypal myth. Myths contain archetypal characters who speak to human beings at a deep level of consciousness. Simba and Hamlet are archetypes of the mythical child in exile (Gavin 55). An archetype is an image that appears over and over in literature and myths and so is familiar to us all. The stories of Jesus, Moses, Buddha and Perseus (as well as Simba and Hamlet) all are about the mythical child in exile.

Myths may not be literally true, but they contain essential truths, which resonate in the hearts of human beings. Myths always involve the "world of mystery and imagination, of feeling, participation and transformation...in the creation of order and of a secure reality out of darkness of the unknown" (Silverstone 57-58). Morality is basic to myth, which teaches "what it means to be a moral being..." (White 253).

Because myths touch us in a mysterious way, they are associated with the sacred and are "closely related to the transcendent, spiritual dimension of life and necessarily entail an axiology, a theory of values" (Ward 172). The Lion King is this kind of a story. It entertains us, but at the same time it promotes a certain network of values over other values. "It does so supported by the power of the mysterious, common cultural ideals, and references to the sacred, spiritual, or transcendent" (173).

Ward points out that The Lion King draws on several well-know, well-loved Bible stories, including the idea of Paradise (or Garden of Eden), the Fall (sin and guilt), Satan's reign (the wrong one in charge), our need for a savior, the destruction of the earth (or end of the world), and the return of the savior who re-takes his throne to restore peace and justice. All of this happens in The Lion King and so resonates with audiences. "The Lion King speaks in sacred myth to advocate morality" (Ward 174).

A significant number of negative critics spoke out against The Lion King as racist, homophobic, sexist, stereotypical, and violent. Scar, the villain, uses effeminate gestures and speaks in gay cliches (homophobic). And he is also black (racist), implying that gay people and black people are evil. Simba's (the hero's) mane is red, but Scar's (the villain's) is black (a racist message). The lionesses are unable to help themselves and must depend on a male to save them (a sexist message).

Female roles are minor, and there seems to be a message that the world would be fine if only the male (prince and heir) would take his throne and run things right (patriarchal message). The hyena hoodlums sound like stereotypical jive-talking, urban blacks (racist). Despite all this, however, the movie remains popular with children and adults (Twomey 120) who continue to ignore or remain unaware of these negative messages. What does it teach then? Mainly, that Simba must accept responsibility.

His mission is to be King and rule wisely so that the kingdom can prosper. He has to accept this responsibility in order to grow up. Another message is that the survival of society depends on loyalty to each other, good relationships, and inter-dependency. We have to care about each other. Finally, in the circle of life, death is not unnatural but a part of the cyclic nature of life, a New Age message. Both Simba and the new baby are baptized in ceremonies that point to life as sacred.

Where the animated film was tremendously popular and profitable, Adrienne Martini points out that The Lion King stage play has forever changed children's theater. Talking to children in a singsong voice and half-hearted clowning is no longer acceptable or desirable. The boundaries of children's theater have stretched because of The Lion King, and children's plays are now often "very full, very rich and a little scary in places" (Hartzell cited in Martini).

One of the most remarkable and unique aspects of the stage show is the masks, which make the characters seem both human and animal. The masks are non-traditional in that they do not cover the actors' faces, but they are done so artfully that before long the audience sees both the mask and the expressions on the face simultaneously. The masks also eliminate some of the problems of characterization noted in the movie. Scar, for example is not black -- he wears a mask both comical and frightening.

His face is exceptionally narrow with a crooked nose. One of his eyes arches upward and the other one downward. Scar's whiskers are not as prominent or well developed as the other lions' whiskers are, and his sparse mane looks like a few porcupine quills sticking out. A large dark scar mars the left side of his face. The play also makes use of life-size puppets, which the actors manipulate but do not wear -- the audience can still see the expressions on the actor's faces.

In this way the animal characters express human emotions but move the way a real animal would move in the wild. Masks were also created with face painting. Rafiki, for example, a baboon shaman in the film is human in the stage play, her face completely altered with bright vivid colors that change her features completely and highlight her expressions. In both the film and the stage play, artistry and pure entertainment value drew in audiences. But.