The Lion King: Simba’s Journey Towards Sanity and Morality
Walt Disney’s The Lion King opens with a magnificent introduction to the forthcoming King of the Pride Lands, providing the audience with an impression of the intriguing journey that is on the verge of unfolding. As the story progresses, it becomes evident that Simba is in the midst of a quest. Such evidence is portrayed in the film through his possession of heroic qualities, such as courage, love, and perseverance. In addition, the process of undergoing trials, receiving aid, fighting enemies, and succeeding at attaining the treasure sought, contributes towards sanity and morality within him (Myth of a Quest: an Archetype). Therefore, in the film The Lion King, Simba’s journey would be considered a quest for sanity and morality since throughout the film the main character deals with a darker evil side, comes to terms with some kind of personal integration and reaches a self-understanding.
In the beginning of the narrative, a portrayal of various characters and their relationships with Simba demonstrates their contribution towards Simba’s ability to comprehend the existence of a darker, evil side. First, the jealousy emanated by the antagonist, Scar, towards the position that Mufasa upholds in the kingdom, provides an insight to the evil Simba faces. Consequently, as a young child, Simba understands the difference between good and evil through the juxtaposition manifested in the behaviour of both his father and
Characterization is the representation of a fictional character. A key element of any story is character development. The LION King's cast, created by Jonathan Roberts, Linda Woolverton and Irene Mecchi, mirror the characters of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The characters involved in this scene from Hamlet include Hamlet, Gertrude (The Queen), and King Hamlet’s ghost. In The LION King Mufasa’s Spirit share the moment. Each prince and their fathers spirit share close similarities. Both Hamlet and Simba are at first shocked to see the spirits. While Hamlet has witnessed the supernatural before, this is Simba’s first time. The two characters are equally in need of guidance and they each rely on their father, whom they trusted, to remind them of themselves. They have both along the way forgotten parts of themselves, Simba being his destiny and Hamlet being his humanity and task. The spirits arrive after something triggers the princes into a state of insecurity, depression, and anger. Hamlet had killed an innocent man and felt betrayed by his mother. Simba's memories of his dark past resurfaced and he felt like he was being pushed to return to it. Each character's father is soft spoken and direct, but not harsh. They do not engage in a conversation, but
As a child, I can remember watching the Lion King movie several times because my family loved this timeless movie. I always just thought of it as a story about the “circle of life” that we all hear so much about in church and from our parents. However, for this assignment I chose to watch this movie once more; giving particular attention to details and thoroughly examining Simba’s life stage development in relation to Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stages and Jean Piaget’s cognitive development stages. Needless to say, I was able to find significant evidence relating to these developmental theorists. The story not only displays the hardships of maturation, and the perplexities associated with growing, but it also deals with the search for one’s own identity and responsibility.
At the beginning of the film the camera angle looks up towards him, the lights shine on young Simba; the importance of his birth is immense, although Simba may be oblivious to the fact at the time. Another parallel is the fact that both Simba and Hamlet at one stage wish to be dead. When Timon and Pumbaa find him, they believe Simba to be dead when they first find him. He is not – but wishes to be. The same could be said about Hamlet when he questions his life – “To be, or not to be”. Like Hamlet, Simba tends to need to be on his own to reflect. Hamlet and Simba are near perfect examples of tragic heroes. Both are tested to the extent of their inner strength and faith in the triumph of good.
"The King has returned." These are the powerful words Rafiki uses when telling Nala, Timon, and Pumba that Simba has gone back to the pride lands to overthrow Scar. Before making his entrance to Pride Rock, Simba's "palace," he gains three helpers to assist him in gaining his kingdom back; Nala, Timon, and Pumba all offer their services to him. There are a few scenes in the story that can be easily compared to the Odyssey. First, Simba wants everyone to continue to think he's dead, as Odysseus did prior to his own entrance. Second, Simba uses Timon and Pumba as a form of "Trojan Horse" to distract the hyenas while he and Nala sneak in. Third, Simba tells Nala to "rally the lionesses" as a form of weapon against the hyenas which are like suitors in his palace.
The Lion King is another example where we see the physical, mental and emotional growth of Simba. When Mufasa dies, Simba tries to bring him back to life by nudging him and telling him to come back. Simba reminisces of
Simba and Hamlet, the main protagonists of The Lion King and Hamlet, can represent both the exiled child and tragic hero archetypes. In The Lion King Simba was compelled to leave his homeland because he was led to believe he had killed his own father. In Hamlet, Hamlet was forced to leave by his uncle’s order. Likewise in The Lion King Simba’s leave was also influenced by his uncle’s action. Unlike Simba’s unawareness of his uncle’s role in his father’s death, Hamlet is fully aware of his father’s killer being his uncle. As of the beginning of Hamlet, he meets his father’s ghost who asks Hamlet for vengeance, as the ghost leaves he says “Adieu adieu Hamlet remember me”. This scene can be compared to when Simba also meets his father’s ghost, who says to Simba as he leaves “Remember who you are”. Simba’s father appears more concerned about Simba’s state of mind and convinces him to return to The Pride Lands, whereas Hamlet’s father shows little concern for Hamlet and wants to be remembered and avenged. Hamlet is older and spends less time than Simba in exile whereas Simba spends a few years exiled without a care, which is shown in the song Hakuna Matata. After his father’s influence, Simba returns. Upon both of their returns, a fight occurs. Hamlet kills his uncle and is also killed himself whereas in The Lion King Simba doesn’t actually kill scar but says to him “Run away Scar...Run. Run away and never return.” however Scar pounces on Simba and their duel begins, in the end, Simba throws Scar off a cliff leaving him to the hyenas. Hamlet and Simba both represent the exiled child and tragic by being forced to leave their homeland and to kill, fight their own uncles to save their homeland. The Lion King’s ending was altered to have almost no death to make the film
Almost everyone in the world is familiar with the infamous Disney movie The Lion King, but very few have gone into detail and analyzed the rhetoric within the film. Each scene is filled with a sense of pathos that tugs on the emotions of the audience and inevitably pushes them to one side over the other. It is interesting to see how the voices, color, and actions of each character have such an effect on their personalities which then has an effect on the audience and leaves them judging the morals of the characters. For people who grew up watching the original Disney movies, this is a great film to watch in depth and really figure out the meaning behind each scene.
Simba’s heroic qualities don’t just stand out when he is found by Nala begging him to return to Pride Rock to save everyone and the community, but also when he meets Pumbaa and Timon. He is learning how to survive on his own and how to be a true friend. Simba shows all characteristics of a hero throughout his journey, it begins with his separation from his family, and his choice to runaway. Simba has to deal with guilt and is tested emotionally, he has been told that he killed his father and needs
The original Disney cartoon of a lion cub blamed for his father's death has been remade into a Broadway musical acclaimed all over the world. Seen by over twenty five million people in over 15 thousand performances this intricately designed wonder has taken over 37 thousand hours just to build the puppets and masks. Julie Taymor the director and costume designer was faced with a problem of whether to create humans or animals playing the part and she decided to make masks that show the animal face, as well as, show the human face giving the character his or her personality. As for expressing other animals that are not part of the main cast or to express a certain theme, 2 different kinds of puppetry were used
The 2016 film Lion, which was first a book called “A Long Way Home”, is a film where a boy named Saroo was separated from his brother in the train station, which leads to Saroo getting on a train taking him thousands of miles away from his family and his home. Saroo, who was only five-years-old when he got lost, had to learn to survive alone in Kolkata, West Bengal. Days after arriving to Kolkata, the city the train left him at, he got admitted into an orphanage, which later turned out to him getting adopted by an Australian couple. But twenty-five years later, he starts to wonder where his first home and family are at the moment. With only his memories, determination, and Google Earth he starts looking and searching where his small
Out of spite, both protagonists plan to take revenge on their evil uncles. Hamlet ponders on the idea of revenging his father’s death, but it wasn’t until Claudius’ guilty conscience was exposed during the play and also when the Ghost orders Hamlet to “Revenge his soul!” that Hamlets purpose was clear. In the end, Hamlet confronts Claudius but it is pointless ending in a blood battle. Simba on the other hand was told, “Run away and never return!” after believing it was himself who killed his father. Wanting to do what was right, Simba followed his uncle’s orders and it wasn’t until a chance encounter with Nala, that he realised the damage he had caused. Trying to take back what was rightfully his, Simba defeats Scar but instead of death as his revenge, he banishes Scar from The Pride Lands, telling his “to never return”. Both antagonists in the texts experience the heartbreak and misfortune of revenge but deal with it in ways their intended audiences will understand and learn from.
The story begins with the hero’s father being a king. In this story Simba is the son of king Mufasa of Pride Land. He is also reputed to be a Son of God, because Simba is the supposed to the be the successor to Mufasa’s reign. During his birth an attempt was made to kill him by his uncle Scar. Not only does Scar try to kill Simba but also his brother and king, Mufasa in order to gain the throne.
The lies and jealousy are within the theme of good verses bad in which the good prevails, as it always should in a Disney movie. The main plot is Simba verses Scar in order to be king. Scar manipulates the situation to make Simba believe he is responsible for this father’s death and he is not ready to be king. After Simba grows up he come back to take responsibility for everything. This part promotes that people should take responsibility for their actions and to face the consequences because it is the right thing to do.
When first looking over this assignment, my first thought was why is the The Lion King on this list? Being one of my favorite Disney movies, I felt like I remembered most of the movie pretty well and there were none of the concepts sticking out to me. After tracking the movie down to watch again, I realized how wrong I was. There are so many psychology concepts in this movie and it truly was a different perspective to watch it while watching for these concepts also. While explaining the concepts I found, I will try not to use Simba in each one!
The movie The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride follows the life of Simba and Nala’s daughter Kiara. She falls in love with Kovu, a male lion from an exiled pride known as the Outsiders who was once lead by Simba’s evil uncle named Scar. Separated by Simba’s prejudice against the Outsiders, who are followers of Scar with a vindictive plot planned by Kovu’s mother Zira, Kiara and Kova struggle to overcome the two obstacles that are keeping them apart. Desperate to be together, Kiara and Kovu become the key to join both prides at peace. This paper will be focused on Kiara’s life within the movie and also examine Kiara’s process of development through Freud’s psychosexual and Erikson’s psychosocial stages, and as well as Piaget theories.