The Lion King is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd Disney animated feature film, and the fifth animated film produced during a period known as the Disney Renaissance.
The Lion King tells the story of Simba (Swahili for lion), a young lion who is to succeed his father, Mufasa, as King of the Pride Lands; however, after Simba’s paternal uncle Scar murders Mufasa, Simba is manipulated into thinking he was responsible and flees into exile. After growing up in the company of the carefree outcasts Timon and Pumbaa, Simba receives valuable perspective from his childhood friend, Nala, and his shaman, Rafiki, before returning to challenge Scar to end his tyranny and take his place in the Circle of Life as the rightful King.
3 thoughts on “The Lion King (1994)”
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It surely is an all-time favorite for many, although at the same time, we may question the kind of social hierarchy implied in the film’s Kingdom: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/07/10/lion-king-is-fascistic-story-no-remake-can-change-that/.
Is the ‘Circle of Life’ really an ecological phenomenon when its constituents obey a hierarchical societal order with the alleged strongest on top? A point for discussion…
Jean Trenton argues that The Lion King presents an “androcentric society inhabited by nonhuman animals” and suggests androcentrism, i.e. a male-oriented or otherwise ‘masculine’ worldview, as a concept to both characterize and critique the film as an example of ecocinema (See http://www.ecomediastudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Annotated-Keywords-Trenton-Jean.pdf).