Lion King Movie: Simba's Heroic Journey

After the process of making their way back home, both princes end up with fighting with their uncles. In “The Lion King”, Simba fights with Scar and Scar gets killed by the hyenas. Prince Hamlet in Hamlet kills king Claudius with a poisonous knife. Both “The Lion King” and “Hamlet” allows the main character to overcome a moral struggle. In “The Lion King”, Simba must act and be the king of his palace for sake of the animals of the kingdom and his father instead of running from what happened in the past. In “Hamlet”, prince Hamlet must decide to kill his uncle and take the risk of getting himself killed, or to keep the secret of King Claudius killing King Hamlet and live with it for the rest of his life.

"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.

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.

Heroes are present in movies, tv shows or games. A “hero's journey” shows a character's journey on gaining the title of a “hero”. A movie or tv show may show a character or multiple characters go through very difficult times but it the end show how they overcame adversity and is now known as a hero. In the Lion King, Simba can be seen as a hero with the challenges he endures and what he overcomes by the end. Simba has many heroic qualities his wisdom, compassion for others, moral reasoning and responsibility makes him stand out above all other characters. Simba as a young lion, was very selfish and naive to many things happening at Pride Rock . His choice to run away at a young age showed he didn't want to face his problems or accept what he thought he did. Simba begins to gain heroic qualities as he is now living his own life in a faraway jungle, he is learning how to be independent, and how to live his own life instead of being in the shadow of his dad, the king of Pride Rock.

He then told the hyenas to chase the wildebeest into the stampede area that Simba was in. Which in doing so almost killed Simba and killed his father. After Simba knew his father was dead Scar told Simba it was his fault and he should run away. Simba was tricked in to believing it was his fault and ran away. This affected him because he lived half his life in shame that he killed his own father, when Scar actually killed him.

At the beginning of the movie, you can already tell that Scar has an attitude toward the king. This would show how he is and how he treats Simba throughout

Simba takes his rightful place on pride rock on his road back home. Simba is resurrected he is accepted back into the Pride and he returns with the Elixir and the pride lands are returned to normal. Simba went through the journey from start to finish in what that viewer saw as continual growth and development of courage.

Although The Lion King and Macbeth seems like two different stories. One is set in the medieval era while the other is set in postmodernity, but both displays the similarities of the character’s strategic battle for power. Scar, known as the villain in the movie, The Lion King, committed selfish acts to fulfill his distorted desires. As Simba was at the edge of the cliff, about to be murdered by Scar, Scar snarled at him, “That [is] the way your father looked before I killed him” (The Lion King). Simba leaped up from the side of the cliff, and pushed Scar to the ground demanding him to confess to his crime of killing the king, his father, Mufasa. This quote proves that Scar’s ambition leads him to do ruthless acts, wanting to kill Simba, who was next in line of the throne. These malevolent plots are what fuels the battle of evil against the good. Scar stated to his three murders, the Hyenas, “We [are] going to kill him. And Simba, too” (The Lion King). In the movie, The Lion King, shows that Scar is resentful of the king, Mufasa, and the power he retains. In this quote, he plans a plot on who he wants to kill with the three hyenas to help him finish the deed, which shows his strong ambitions. Another

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.

In a very sneaky way Claudius wanted everyone to think he was sending Hamlet away to be treated for him being crazy. He tried to make sure no one knew he was sending Hamlet to be beheaded in England. on the other hand Scar sets up a well planned trap for Simba. While he sets up for simba to be trampled Scar claws Mufasa on the cliff making him fall to his death. Scar then convinces simba that it was all his fault , and instructs the hyenas to scare simba off and tell him to never return again. Thinking of scars perspective he had a backup plan if Simba was to escape from the herd of beast he would get him to run away out of shame.

Nala explains the wretched condition of the Pride Lands since Scar became King and urges Simba to return. Simba comes in contact with the wise baboon. He hesitates out of fear, and out of his rebellion he has a vision of his father that prompts him to return home. When he returns he challenges Scar and wins. He becomes King of the Pride Lands as his father had taught him he would. Nala gives birth to a cub of their own completing the circle of life.

The Lion King has an underlying religious theme and it is positioned to speak on Christianity and contains a lot of theological references that can be acknowledged as important to understand the story. At one point, Simba believed that he killed his father and ran away from Pridelands to avoid humiliation. This notion can be compared to Moses ditching the desert after he had killed an Egyptian. After Mufasa’s death, the animal kingdom was quite lost and didn’t know

On the other hand, in Disney's The Lion King, Simba's father is killed after he falls from a cliff into a herd of antelope. Simba falls into a deep depression after Scar twists things around and convinces Simba that he is the one responsible for Mufasa's death. Simba can not deal with what has happened and Simba exiles himself where he meets a warthog and meerkat, named Timon and Pumbaa, and develops a carefree lifestyle with them. Later on in the story, as an adult, Simba returns to the Pride Lands to reclaim the throne from Scar.

Next, the author makes her interpretation of the main villain in the movie. It is a lion named Scar, and he “speaks in an effeminate, limp pawed style given voice by actor Jeremy Irons” (118). She calls him a “seemingly gay caricature” (Lazarus 118). If Lazarus is the accomplished filmmaker, she seems to be; she should have studied movies and would know how a typical British Monarch would act. Jeremy Irons portrays Scar as an uppity, well to do lion that is in charge and does not want to get his “paws” dirty. He spends his