![]() It’s an entirely subjective, disagreeable and contentious notion, but I’d argue that we’re in the same sad, lion-shaped boat. Whether the vision is real or not, Simba is confronted with the truth: he’s forgotten who he is, and what really matters. It’s a chilling scene that rivals the best of what CGI has to offer now. Later in the film, Simba grows up and is confronted with a vision of his father in the clouds. ![]() But Mufasa didn’t just feel like Simba’s dad, he felt like a king he represented everything being all right with the world, and then he gets thrown off a cliff by Jeremy Irons. Admittedly, they’re on screen for less time than Mufasa and you don’t really have time to build such a connection to them. And that’s despite the fact that the seemingly perfect parents in Frozen are killed in the opening minutes on a boat in no-longer-relevant-to-the-plot land. Frozen, Wall-E, How to Train Your Dragon and Wreck-It Ralph are all examples of similar, cleverly structured modern movies that deal with the same themes, but they’re nowhere near as brutal. You’re given roughly 20 minutes with a happy, slightly dislikable lion cub before his dad is murdered, his mother is enslaved and his home is driven to the brink of ruin. The Lion King is just a sheer mass of loss. But Toy Story 3 is derivative: it works because it reminds you of the first film, and those innocent, happy days when toys came alive when you weren’t looking. Especially Toy Story 3, whose ending seems tailor-made to make everyone of my generation cry. The Toy Story films come close to the Lion King as rulers of I-shouldn’t-be-crying-at-this-as-an-adult city. ![]() Not even Jeremy Irons’s velvet tones are enough to break the spell: you’re meant to feel angry that Scar is tricking his nephew into thinking he killed his own dad, but none of it seems to matter because of how much your face is leaking as Simba runs into a desert to die. When I was younger there were fewer tears more just a strong sense that something was very, very wrong. The scene in which Simba desperately tries to bring his dad back to life is where my face contorts most. When I watch the film these days, my face is frozen into something like Zazu’s look of displeasure when he’s forced to sing Lovely Bunch of Coconuts crying doesn’t feel natural. Logically, the film shouldn’t affect me, especially not when I know everything that’s going to happen, but emotions don’t work that way: sometimes simple hits hardest. I have no connection to the world of The Lion King because if I think about it, really think about it, it makes no sense. It’s a patriarchal, “good” strength over “evil” ambition rule that you’d expect from a children’s movie set in the animal kingdom. Lions dominate their world they have free rein to kill and eat their subjects when hungry, because of “the circle of life”. ![]() From an adult perspective, the world of The Lion King is an authoritarian nightmare. ![]()
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