Film Review #27: The Lion King

This is it.  The big one.  The most successful traditionally animated film of all time, the most acclaimed film of all time, and the film from which my writing name derives from: The Lion King.  If words could describe this film's impact on popular culture, it would probably be in Swahili.  The tragic parable of finding your place in the "Circle of Life" after hardship is the most enchanting story of all time.  But the film had almost unreachable goals to reach.  Could the film be a contender with the previous four films, when they were all such great films?  Or is The Lion King one of the more overrated films of all time?  Let's venture into the African plains and take a look at the epic that is The Lion King.

Plot: In the savannahs of Africa, lions reign as King of the Pridelands.  The current king, Mufasa, is celebrating the birth of his newborn cub, Prince Simba.  As Simba grows, Mufasa teaches him the ways of being one with the "Circle of Life" and how to be a good king and rule in his father's stead when his father is gone.

But all is not well in the African plains.  Mufasa's jealous brother and Simba's Uncle, Scar, who was passed over in line to succeed Mufasa when the little cub was born, plots to kill his naive nephew and reclaim his spot as King.  Allying himself with the a pack of amusing and loud mouthed hyenas, Scar attempts to have the hyenas kill both Simba and his friend Nala in the Elephant Graveyard, but Mufasa intervenes.  This leads Scar to plot to kill Mufasa.  The next day, Simba is lured into the gorge, where the hyenas scare a herd of wildebeest into a stampede and send it thundering towards Simba.  Mufasa is able to save his son, but Scar throws him back into the stampede and Mufasa is killed.

Scar is able to convince Simba that he is responsible for his father's death and urges him into exile, ultimately hoping that the hyenas would finish him off.  The guilt stricken young lion is able to elude the hyenas, and goes into exile a long way from his home.  Luckily, Simba is taken in by a warthog named Pumbaa and a meerkat named Timon.  Simba adopts their "Hakuna Matata" philosophy and forgets about his sorrow and lives in the jungle for a long time, eventually growing into an adult.

Nala arrives in the jungle and reunites with her friend and tries to urge him to return to his suffering home, which Scar has brought into despair, but Simba refuses to do anything, because of his guilt about his father's death.  Eventually, Simba sees a vision of his father in the clouds, who tells him that it is time that he returned to Pride Rock to face Scar and reclaim his throne.  Simba decides to leave and goes off to save his kingdom and dethrone his treacherous uncle.

What's Bad?: The film is a story about the relationship between us and our parents, or us and our children.  This film was vastly different all of the other blockbusters that proceeded it, because it did not require a love story.  Unfortunately, based on somebody's stupid decision, the film has an unnecessary love story.  This would begin the long trend of overusing formulas that would lead to the downfall of the Disney Animation Studios in the 2000's.  Nala's character was completely pointless to the overall story.  She wasn't needed to be Simba's reason to return, because that is why he sees Rafiki and his father's ghost.  The romance was only implied, and not really sent into detail.  If the story is about Simba and Mufasa's relationship, why is the romance here?  In Bambi, it made sense because the plot of the movie was his life, and since most people do find love in their life, it was reasonable to have Faline in the movie.  But here?  It made about as much sense as The Phantom Menace did.

What's Good?: The relationship between Simba and Mufasa is the strongest relationship between two related people/animals.  Mufasa cares deeply for his son and Simba idolizes his father.  It makes the deep sorrow Simba feels for his father's death so moving.  This is the highlight of the movie, as the father/son relationship even had my usually tough father to break down.

Scar is a truly sinister villain.  In his third straight villain drawing performance after Gaston and Jafar, Andreas Deja crafts the slimy and sinister lion Scar and transform a retreading of the weak and paranoid King Claudius into a scheming and cold-hearted murderer who destroys the Pridelands in his terrible reign.  It also helps to have the extremely talented Jeremy Irons as your voice over artist.  Irons is able to combine the brash and overconfident Shere Khan, the scheming and maniacal nature of Jafar, and the cold efficientness of Maleficent, to create one of the greatest villains in cinematic history.

The songs are still really good.  While the film version of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" irks me, Elton John's version is great.  The two best songs in the movie are "Circle of Life", the opening number when Simba is presented to the animals, and "Be Prepared", which is Scar's revelation of his plot to murder Mufasa and Simba.  But what amazed me the most is Hans Zimmer's chilling score, which is one of the greatest Film Scores of all time, Star Wars and Godfather included.

The animation is breathtaking.  The scale they give to the African Savannah is marvelous.  The epic tone of the movie is really interesting when compared to the average scale of it's predecessors.  The highlight for me is the wildebeest stampede.  The CGI is seamlessly blended with the traditionally animated elements to create a gripping scene and a landmark achievement in Disney history.

Overall: The film met it's expectations, but did not improve on Aladdin.  That doesn't mean that the film is bad, but the expectations for the film were set so high, that they couldn't possibly be reached.  Nevertheless, the film is a masterpiece that does belong in the same category as it's predecessors.  And, despite it's flaws, I do believe it deserves to be the most successful animated film of all time.  It may just take a few re-releases to get it done.

Report Card

Hero:                                       A
Heroine:                                  C+
Villain:                                    A+
Side Characters:                    A
Songs:                                     A-
Musical Score:                       A+
Animation:                             A+
Special Effects:                      A+
Themes:                                  A+
Story:                                     A+

Final Grade: A