An Analysis of Life Themes in The Lion King (3)

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Wainwright 1 Chaela Wainwright Professor Yang Animals and Cinema 14 December 2023 An Analysis of Life Themes in The Lion King This paper aims to observe the depiction of life themes in animation films centered on animated animal figures. The notable animated film The Lion King (Minkoff & Allen 1994), directed by Rob Minkoff and Roger Allen, successfully showcases diverse life experiences through the film from a lion's perspective. Nevertheless, it is proven that audiences can identify life themes in the film by following the story of the lion protagonist, Simba, from a young cub to his transition to an adult lion. Moreover, this paper will further discuss how the phrase "The Circle of Life" in the film applies to animal life and how it can symbolize the "coming of the full circle moment," which can be a famous phrase that applies to human life. The observation of the life themes showcased in the film The Lion King (1994) can raise critical research questions, such as" How can animals be used in animation to illustrate life lessons, and why does the phrase "the circle of life" apply to both humans and animals? To address these questions, I argue that animals in animated films, as embodied by The Lion King (1994), serve as powerful storytelling tools for communicating life themes and how the concept of "the circle of life" applies to animals and humans. The beginning of animals being transformed into animated figures can be traced back to 30,000-year-old cave art in Europe, where cave painters drew animals "in the act of motion of running" (Jardim 31). This historical fact proves how animation can form fictional characters

2 representing real-life animals and how animators control how they represent these animated figures. Similarly, the use of animation in cinema has the power to create fantasy worlds where audiences can observe these fictional animated characters and how their use will be represented in the film. For example, in the first feature-length animated film produced by the Walt Disney Company, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Hand, Morey, Jackson, Sharpsteen, Cottrell, Pearce 1937), the animal characters were represented as inferior to the human characters in the film (Jardim 33). The animal characters in that film were supposed to represent the nature aspect of the film, and they were "completely muted" throughout the movie." (Condis 42). Similar to this, in the Walt Disney film Dumbo (Sharpsteen et al., 1941), where the main protagonist is an animal, the character of Dumbo does not speak in the film. Although, due to the lack of the character's verbal voice in the film, this does not take away from the fact that the character of Dumbo can be seen as an example of a bicreature. A bicreature can be defined as a "creature that is neither human nor animal but can embody both traits of real-life animals and humans" (Wells 103). The real-life animal aspect can be seen through Dumbo because the character of Dumbo is a reference to the American circus (Geist 6). Also, Dumbo is based on a real elephant named Jumbo Jr., who gained fame because he was seen as the "world's largest elephant (Geist 6). In contrast to the film, Dumbo is presented as the "world's smallest elephant, but his height can be seen as catering to the portrayal of a baby elephant. The animator of Dumbo, Vladimir Bill Tytla, used "his baby son rather than real elephants as inspiration for how the character of Dumbo will be designed (Geist 7)." By assigning Dumbo to appear to have a small height, it also shows how the technique of animation is used to help determine the physical appearance of Dumbo (Wells 101). Also, this can be connected to anthropomorphism because Tytla is using his son's human traits in order to create the representation of a baby elephant through the character of Dumbo (Jardim 6:36). Also, by

3 informing audiences that Dumbo is a character who is a baby, it can be implied that they can see the connection between the baby elephant and a real-life baby. An additional point is that the success of the film Dumbo opened a door of opportunity for Disney to continue incorporating animals to be used as the main protagonists in the 1942 film Bambi (Geronimo et al., 1942). Bambi can be seen as an essential film in animation because it was the first film to feature all animal characters where there was no human presence throughout the film. However, it could be implied that the humans are seen in that film as "dangerous" for the animal Bambi to encounter (Ward 15). The main character, Bambi, is a deer, and the cinematic environment of the film is in a forest setting. This fact shows how this can be seen, presenting how Eco cinema can be observed in films. Eco cinema can be defined as a way to understand the building of a film world and the film's relationship with the "extra-film world," as well as the combination of visual and auditory elements in the film narrative in order to create the environment of the world (Ivakhiv 90). The film Bambi focuses entirely on the idea of animals in nature and its representation of how different species can become friends or communicate with each other in one language (Chandler 331, 337). Bambi succeeded in building the world of Bambi because this film can be seen as leaving a "powerful national symbol of nature (Lutts 17). Also, it has proven that the audience enjoys a film that revolves fully around an animal perspective and its environment. For example, a commentator states that she vividly remembers watching Bambi in her childhood and still remembers it as an "extraordinary lyrical beauty of the forest setting" (Lutts 16). However, some audience members reflect on how the film has had a sentimental impact and still affects her cry because of Bambi mother's tragic death, conveying a "powerful anti-hunting message" to her (Lutts 16). This information implies to me that a contribution to the success of the film Bambi was that it was able to create a believable

4 environment for its audience that demonstrated animal life in nature and that through following and learning the story of Bambi, it could convey critical messages that could touch the hearts of audiences. An influential message in a film about life can also be viewed as a life theme. A theme can be defined as the overall idea or concern of the film (Meghan 33). "Animated films incorporating life themes have the potential to communicate how life themes in stories can be shared with larger audiences and that sharing those stories in films can inform about different life experiences that humans go through in their lives (Kunkle 3). Aside from this, life themes were first introduced in the twentieth century using myths and fables (Meghan 23). The purpose of myths and fables was to tell stories that reflect "issues and morals in everyday "human life by placing animals as the main characters in these stories (Meghan 23). The use of animated animal figures shows how it is possible to "use animals as a way to have these serious conversations about the lives of those characters. Moreover, the creation of cinema further allowed filmmakers to "discuss critical issues and life themes in society" such as The Great Depression (Kunkle 10). From 1929 to 1939, the Great Depression was seen as the "worst economic crisis in American history (Tatham 37)." During this time, animation grew hugely popular because of its ability to "cater to the suffering Americans'' during this hard time in their lives and allow for them to have an outlet to escape from the real world and their problems (Tatham 35)." The Walt Disney Company was widely popular during this time and was one of the top companies producing animated shorts that achieved high success in their animated work (Tatham 37). For example, Disney's The Three Little Pigs (Gillett 1933) was able to fill "Americans with optimism during the Great Depression through their specific themes in the film that mirror how the Great Depression was affecting the country (Meghan 11). The film was released during President Roosevelt's first hundred days in office (Tatham 39). This film was

5 able to express "confidence in the creation of the new deal" and showcase how the Big Bad Wolf serves as a "metaphor for economic depression" and how the pigs represented a response to the great depression as symbolizing themes through the characters of "hard work and self-reliance" (Tatham 39). As a result of the success of this film, the song from the film "Who is Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" becomes an "anthem for depression and promoting the success of the new deal (Tatham 40)." This film helped establish Disney as being able to show that they can present an emotional truth to the audience where the truth can be communicated through diverse life lessons through the animated animal figures in animation (Meghan 11)." This infers that cinema can be a vital tool as a visual platform to bring the conversations of essential life lessons to the forefront and to be discussed. The classic film The Lion King follows the journey of the young lion, Simba, to becoming the King of his homeland, showing his life from childhood to adulthood. The story of the Lion King can be seen as following the Disney tradition "of enforcing positive life lessons (Ward 173). The theme of this particular film revolves around the "coming-of-age story through the character of the lion, Simba, learning how to take responsibility in order to become king of his homeland" (Chandler 331). For the making of this film, the creators were inspired by the film Bambi and wanted to stir in that direction of having a complete absence of humans and the entire focus on animals, specifically the lion perspective. Additionally, the creators also wanted to incorporate the "royalist ideology" from the Bambi as well (Perez 15). Bambi is also seen as a future king because he is the "son of a stag who rules the forest," and Bambi is seen as the "prince" of the forest to other animals who would soon be the King of all the forest (Perez 15). Similarly, Simba is seen as "the future King of Pride Rock because he is the son of Mufasa, who is King of Pride Rock (Ward 172). The bicreature can be seen in this film through characters like Simba because they are animated portrayals of real-life animals. That is why the

6 audience can see Simba's life from birth to adulthood because, about the coming-of-age theme, the creators wanted to symbolize "the birth of a child that becomes a man" (Chandler 331)." In addition to this, Eco cinema can also be seen in the lion because, based on Bambi, the environment was set to represent a "vision of African wilderness" (Giddings 84). "Also, the Simba home, called Pride Rock, will signify the continent of Africa, where the lions dominated the space as the upper class and animals such as the scavenging hyenas represented the lower class. (Morton 311)." To the point discussed earlier about how the Lion King inserts the royal aspect in the society of these worlds, the reasoning behind the lions being the rulers of the animal kingdom in these films relates to how, in real life, lions are seen as prime predators in the animal kingdom (Watanabe 400). Moreover, their dominant power in real life in the animal kingdom can be compared to being the King of the animal kingdom in real life. Following this, anthropomorphism can also be seen in this film because Simba and the characters can talk, think, and make facial expressions that can be identified with human facial expressions. Using anthropomorphism can allow "humans to see these animated animals in a closer perspective where features such as their eyes can be adjusted to correlate with human facial expressions " (Jardim 15)." In order for Disney to make the characters in this film believable to audiences, they used a "naturalistic approach when designing the behaviors and movements of the characters in the film and even brought in real-life animals such as lions to study up close to be accurate in their animation (Grazi 26). This communicates the importance of researching and studying real-life animals to give accurate portrayals of them in animated films for audiences to enjoy and understand. Overall, on March 28, 1995, The Lion King (1994) grossed 312.8 million, making it the "highest-grossing animated film released at that time domestically and internally (Ward 24). The Lion King film can be seen as an empowering film because it can serve as a "moral educator"

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