When discussing the greatest films in Disney’s library, one of the most commonly brought up movies is The Lion King. Releasing during one of Disney’s greatest decades, often referred to as the Disney Renaissance, The Lion King took the world by storm being praised by critics as well as managing to set the record for best selling home video of all time, which it still holds to this day. What makes this film so great? And what does it possess that so many other great films of this era do not? While The Lion King has absolutely stunning hand-drawn animation coupled with an astounding soundtrack composed by industry legend Elton John, many other Disney films can boast similar accomplishments. What truly sets The Lion King apart and makes it the crème of the crop is its character development. The film makes more of an effort than other Disney films to focus on a compelling story that tackles real issues. Film reviewer, Roger Ebert, discusses this topic in his review of the movie.
“Despite the comic relief from the hyenas, the meerkat and the warthog, “The Lion King” is a little more subdued than “Mermaid,” “Beauty” and “Aladdin.” The central theme is a grim one: A little cub is dispossessed, and feels responsible for the death of its father.” (Ebert)
The distinction between the development of Simba’s character vs Scar’s character is genius and the way the film uses its fantastic visuals, dialogue, score, and a plethora of other techniques to paint this amazing and believable picture (or moving picture I should say) is an absolute marvel in the animation industry.
Starting from the beginning, the film sets the stage with an intense musical number, “The Circle of Life.” During the song the audience is greeted with a ceremony that presents the newborn cub, Simba, to all the animals of Pride Rock, an animal kingdom in Africa ruled by the land’s mightiest lion, Mufasa, Simba’s father. The ceremony is led by a baboon named Rafiki, who is introduced with a visually stunning entrance where he emerges from the crowd with the sunlight shining from behind him. On top of being pure eye-candy, this entrance gives Rafiki a very prophet-like introduction, not unlike depictions of the angel Gabriel who approached Mary in biblical times. This is very intentional and will become more apparent later in the film. Rafiki greets Mufasa with a warm embrace, showing their good relationship, and then takes Simba to the edge of Pride Rock and presents him to the animals in that iconic pose. Going back to the song itself, words cannot describe its absolute power and perfection. Many critics praised this song in particular for how perfectly it complements the scene and sets the overall tone of the film. In his music review of the film, David Bowling mentions how the song is “just about the perfect movie song,” (Bowling) and “a philosophical celebration of life.” (Bowling) Those may sound like exaggerations, but listening to the piece shows how it truly lives up, it is nothing short of a masterpiece. In The entire sequence, between the character movement, music, lighting, and much more, all carry a very epic feel that is established here and then persists throughout the rest of the film. This is the perfect opening scene to a movie as it sets the perfect tone for the film as well as introduces the audience to all of the main characters… all but one.
Mufasa’s brother, Scar, is arguably the most complex and most well-written character in the entire film. Scar was not seen at all at this ceremony, he is instead introduced immediately after with a scene of Mufasa confronting him about skipping the presentation of his son, the future king. This is genius as it allows the audience to understand Scar disdain towards Mufasa and Simba due to him not being first in line to the throne without having him say anything about it at all. It is all told through the decisions he makes offscreen and his body language and attitude towards the whole situation.
Transitioning to the protagonist of the film, Simba, we see at a young age he is full of energy and desire to be a king, and his actions and goals reflect that. He wants to be the biggest bravest king there ever was and will do anything to get there. In the first scene the audience gets between Simba and Scar, Scar brings up a dark, dangerous territory beyond the borders of their kingdom. He goes on saying things such as “its far too dangerous” and “only the bravest lions go there.” This of course convinces Simba to go check this place out only to be nearly killed by a pack of hyenas. Luckily for Simba Mufasa came to save him, and as they leave the camera pans up to Scar watching the whole thing go down, revealing that this is was ploy to get Simba killed the entire time. This entire sequence of events shows very important traits in both Simba and Scar. It shows the audience not only how far Scar is willing to go to get to the throne, but how cunning and deceiving he is, posing him as an incredible threat. It also shows how young and naïve Simba still is, he still doesn’t know what it means to be king. The most in genius part of this scene though? No one, not even Simba, realizes that all of this was Scar attempting murder. He carefully crafted a plan where he put Simba’s life in danger all while keeping his hands (or paws) clean.
Fast-forwarding in the movie a bit, after Scar has successfully murdered Mufasa, convinced Simba it was his doing causing him to run away, and successfully taken the throne, the audience can see that Simba has found a new home in a luscious jungle with meerkat Timon and warthog Pumba. It is here that the audience sees Simba grow up into the powerful lion he had always dreamed to be as a child… almost. While Simba has physically grown into an adult lion, he hasn’t grown as a character AT ALL and it shows in the first few scenes of him as an adult. He has accepted the fact that Scar (who he still believes is completely innocent) is the king and that he will live the rest of his life running away from the fact that he killed the king. This is made especially apparent when Simba reunites with Nala who tells Simba of the terrible state that the kingdom is in. In response to this news Simba says how he doesn’t want to do anything in response to this and just keep living far away without any worries. After Nala’s failed attempt, Rafiki comes in and, with the help of a visually-spectacular Mufasa ghost, helps Simba grow up and realize his purpose (remember that Gabriel connection made earlier? Well there it is). At face value, the whole story is really building up to Simba growing up. In the Hollywood Reporter staff’s review of the film they mention how it is “a coming-of-age story as the young Simba grows and matures to a point where he is ready to reclaim his birthright and, more importantly, carry on the harmonious work of his father.” (THR staff) and that’s exactly what it is. This method of developing Simba as a character is ingenious as it allows the audience to see his full journey of realizing who he is, as opposed to having that gradually happening as he physically grows up off-screen.
The final sequence of the movie is one that moves this film from being great to being legendary. After discovering his true destiny, he rushes back to his home to face not only Scar, but his past that he has been running from his entire life. Long story short the truth is revealed and a fight ensues. When Simba gets the upper hand, Scar goes on to say how it was all the hyenas’ doing, yet another blatant lie. Simba pays no attention to Scar’s attempt at deceiving him once more, all he does is tell Scar to leave the kingdom. Scar agrees, or so Simba thought because right as Simba was letting him up to leave Scar makes one last attempt at killing Simba. They struggle for a bit more, until Simba pushes Scar off the rock they were fighting on and Scar falls down with the pack of hyenas who overheard his betrayal and then proceed to murder him. This whole sequence of events is genius because it emphasizes not only how Simba grew as a character, but how Scar did not. Scar spent the entire film lying and deceiving others to get his way, all the way up until his death where it came back around to bite him. Simba, on the other hand, was thrown through the ringer facing not only a terrible tragedy, but the weight on his shoulders of being responsible for it. He had to learn how to move on from loss, take responsibility, and become a strong leader all without the proper parental figures to guide him. He showed extreme and impressive growth, and its this distinction between Simba’s development and Scar’s lack thereof that makes The Lion King one of Disney’s greatest films to date.
