Theme of The Lion King - Essay Example

Theme of "The Lion King" "The Lion King" is a wonderful story with a major theme of the circle of life and how everything works with a natural progression. This concept teaches about balance and how everything in life is always in balance. It is also a coming of age story for a young boy who has a destiny to fulfill. The movie opens with the sunrise and the song, "Circle of Life." This song is significant because it implies that everyone and everything is part of the circle. As the sun rises, the audience witnesses a new birth of a lion cub. The song and the sunrise symbolize new birth and we understand that this new cub is not an ordinary cub, but he is the son of the king. The audience also witnesses a naming ceremony for the young cub as he is presented to the rest of the pride and brought into the circle of life. This ritual is showing the audience a very old African ritual. The cub is named Simba and it is very clear that his destiny is to become the next king. Each person in his pride has a job and a certain place in the circle. Simba will also join the circle in his rightful place but he has to be taught what he must do as a king. Simbas story is like many other ones where a young boy is reluctant to take responsibility for his life. In this case, although Simba is being primed for his job by his father Mufasa and Zazu a hornbill who is attempting to make Simba mind him, he would rather be off playing with his friends. After all, in his mind when he gets to be king, he can do anything he wants because he is the ruler. The song, "I JustCant Wait to Be King" is a perfect example of a small childs dream about what he will do when he is king. At this point in his life, Simba really just wants to explore his childhood. He has no reason to be a king at this point and it is essential to him to just fool around. He meets two friends, a warthog named Pumbaa and a meercat named Timon. These two are more trouble than anything else but they appeal to Simbas sense of adventure. They teach him "Hakuna Matatta" which means, "no worries" which falls right into what Simba wants to do. Although Zazu chases after Simba and tries to make him act appropriately, Simba has no reason to be king at this point. The relevance of this is that most young boys and teenagers have little respect for their destiny or their elders. Simba will need something to make his become a better man in the end and to accept his place in the circle of life and in his pride. The situation that will turn Simbas life around is his uncle Scar. Scar is the nemesis in the story and he knows that if he kills Simba, he will be the next one to have the throne. He engages hyenas to help him. The only challenge is that no matter what he does, he cannot kill Simba because it is Simbas destiny to be king, not Scars. If Scar were to become king, he would not be in balance. Simba eventually understands that Scar is trying to kill him and in the process he finds the reason to step up to learn to become king: Scar kills his father in the process. Symbolism and Imagery One of the major things that anyone needs to survive is water. If they are denied water they will die. In the movie, water is a major symbol of life. There are several times when no water comes into play. Simba is lured to the elephant graveyard where there is no water. The hyenas nearly kill him there. He goes to a gorge where Scar has set it up for him to go. He figured that sending Simba to the gorge with no water would kill him slowly; instead of killing him, he is almost run over by a stampede. The issue here is that water is part of the circle of life and since Simba is a part of it, he is able to "manifest" those things that he needs to stay out of the way of death. Water also flows, ebbs, and changes. In this aspect it could symbolize Simbas change and water is everywhere in the movie. In fact, the watering hole has a large amount of water and Timon and Simbaa live in a plush forest of trees. Water again, with the ebb and flow is symbolic of the circle of life again because it flows through everything. Just before Mufasa dies, he is laying under a tree branch. At this point, Simba cannot get to him and now the tie between son and father is severed. Now Simba is virtually on his own because Mufasa cannot help him. Again, the audience is brought back to the major theme of the circle of life in that the natural course of life is for a father to help his son develop. So many times in life, a son is left without a father and then has to make decisions about their lives and what they are supposed to do. Although Rafiki and Zazu are available to help, its not the same as a father. Once Mufasa dies, he symbolizes a figure like Obewan Kenobi in "Star Wars"; he becomes the mentor of his son as a spirit and helps him to eventually beat Scar. Once Mufasa dies, Simba must leave the tribe. At first this looks like he has left the pride for good but it is important in the scheme of things because he must have time to regroup and to realize his destiny. Acting Although the acting is made through cartoon characters, it is very strong. Scar is a very ominous character and all of the things he does show this fact. As an example, Scar sings the song, "Be Prepared." The words to this song tell how he is going to overtake the throne and get rid of Simba. Rafiki, the shaman of the pride is very wise. He shows this throughout the process from the naming ceremony to the appointment of Simba as king. Zazu tries always to work with him and the song, "I JustCant Wait to Be King", epitomizes the frustration and difficulty of raising a young child. Mufasa is a very strong father character and with James Earl Jones voice, it makes him more powerful than the other characters which show that he is a strong king. The women in the story are a bit docile and quiet (except when it comes to their cubs) but everything in the acting comes back to the theme of the circle of life. Pumbaa and Timon are more the comic relief of the movie, but they are the friends that he has throughout the movie. The hyenas are definitely acting like the natural hyenas. One of the things that is clear from the beginning is that the Disney writers paid attention to what animals really acted like because although these have characteristics of humans, they are very much like the animal. It seems to me that this theme is very appropriate for the movie. Every scene is showing that everything is a part of life, even in death. When Mufasa does, he comes back as a spirit to talk with his son. Lighting The lighting in the movie is very strong and gives the feeling of what the audience is seeing. The beautiful sunrise starts in darkness and then rises in the sky. When Scar and the hyenas come around, there is always an ominous darkness around them; they also meet in a caves or other dark places because Scar is moving within the shadows. Once scene in particular is almost frightening when they are in the cave and the shadows on the wall grow bigger. When all of the hyenas are coming together to kill Simba, the audience gets the feeling of dread. Conclusion "The Lion King" was an interesting movie to watch from the perspective of this assignment. One had to watch closely to understand not only the story line, but what was happening within the different scenes. In some respects Scar could have been the representation of any type of evil ruler and the hyenas acted as his henchmen (though they were not very intelligent). There was more to the move than met the eye in this and it was not only a fun movie to watch but it was also a beautiful one. It would be interesting to watch the movie again in a couple of months to see if I thought the theme was the same, or to find other themes within it. Read More