The Lion King Scar's Narcissistic Villain

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a largely known tragic play with many different interpretations, one of them being The Lion King. The Lion King is a Disney film indicating that the film was targeted for children. Considering Hamlet is largely violent it would not be suitable for children, hence differences were required to make it suitable and understandable for children. However, to keep the origin of Hamlet in The Lion King similarities are also required.

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.

When if he knew the truth he could be king and not scar who was being an evil

The instinct for justice to be served and the idea of revenge to be sought has existed upon us to be a natural part of human nature for many years. Hamlet by William Shakespeare and Disney’s 1994 film “The Lion King” directed by Roger Allers share many parallels between the relationship of brothers, resulting for the seek of revenge and restored order to compare. Green with envy, Scar and Claudius result to murder to achieve victory in gaining power over the thrown. The comparison between Claudius and Cain are evident to portray revenge upon their brothers and later to be exiled With both king deaths, Mufasa and King Hamlet bring meaning and actions to lend hand in the motive to their sons to restore what is right.

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

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

Though many reviewers like to focus on the comic relief characters of the movie: Timon, Pumbaa, and Zazu, the characters that truly drove the movie were Simba and his conniving uncle, Scar. In one journal done by KINEMA a journal for film and audiovisual media, the writer describes how “... the physical portrayal of the two characters themselves already reveal their inner qualities” (KINEMA). Simba, at least as a child, is seen around vibrant colors, and the character himself is always energetic. Scar on the other hand, is always seen with poor posture and grim lighting (KINEMA). The way these two contrast throughout the movie, and then collide with their colors in the final fight scene of the movie, really ties the film together in a way that no other characters could.

In Bruno Bettelheim’s book The Uses of Enchantment he writes in his essay “Fairy Tales and The Existential Predicament” that there is a widespread refusal to let children know that the source of much that goes wrong in life is due to our very own nature–the propensity of all men for acting aggressively, asocially, selfishly, out of anger and anxiety. Bettelheim implies in his essay that safe stories do not give children opportunity to experience in his or her mind the good and bad in life. In the scene where Scar meets Simba in the gorge for a talk, Scar tells Simba to stay there while he fetches his father. Scar deceives him by lying about the reason he wants him to wait in this location. What follows is a horrific scene. Earlier, there was a plan set-up by Scar with the hyenas to trigger the antelope to stampede through the gorge putting Simba’s life in danger. Scar runs to Mufasa telling him about the stampede and that Simba is in the gorge. Mufasa runs to save Simba.

Scar’s character in The Lion King mirrors his apprehensions of his father’s abandonment and neglect while manifesting those feelings towards his longing for a sense of power. His sense of anger towards his brother Mufasa, also illustrates how he feels small in front of him not only as the younger sibling but also because his fathers respect and acceptance of him made Scar have a inferiority complex. Scar felt like he has to be the opposite of his brother who is generous and has a understanding of how the Pridelands can flourish, these aspects shows how Scar has always been consumed with resentment towards the adults in his family. Scars character validates how power corrupts, and eventually poisons the people and habitat around you.

The world is coming to a great end and a young man with a scar down his face walks down the local street in front of your home. Then you begin to wonder… Is he the man that is destined to be the savior of mankind or the man that will bring this great earth to an end? The scar and or disability in which he or she may have is a valid representation of how the character has come to be. That scar can either drive the character into grave insanity, delving him or her into a life of hatred and despair, or it can also be the cause for the character’s drive for justice and peace.

In 1994, the critics hail an animated masterpiece, not only for its artwork and music, but also for the plotline: an evil uncle displaces the heir to the throne and sends him into exile. Years later, following both a prophecy and an encounter with the ghost of the old king, the heir is persuaded to return to his home, avenge his father's death, and take his proper place as the ruler of the kingdom. At first glance, Disney's The Lion King has all the classic motifs of the revenge plot. These archetypal patterns occur in many stories, and Disney writers Jim Capoblanco and Irene Mecchi may well have built the plot's structure from the ground up. However, if we disregard the Serengeti setting, the

Mufasa was the brother that was more extroverted, he had the throne, the strength, and all the good looks. Throughout the scenes in the movie you could see Mufasa had a personality of someone that was a strong, proud, and the dominant ruler of his kingdom. He was willing to protect his kingdom prepared to fight when he thought Scar had challenged him. He did all of that until his death, dying when recusing Simba from the stampede of wildebeest. He puts his trust into his brother who very easily betrayed him. Scar was the more introverted brother, he was much smarter than Mufasa, but didn’t have the looks, and his longing for the throne made him very deceptive. He produced the plan to at first kill his nephew, and then his brother. The first plan to kill Simba was by tricking him into going out into the elephant graveyard to be attacked and eaten by the hyenas. When that didn’t work he came up with the plan to kill Mufasa by not actually having to do it himself, giving the hyenas instructions when to create the stampede in which he had placed Simba right down in the middle of, knowing Mufasa would try to save him, because that is his son. These two brothers were very different Scar had a dark side going on while Mufasa was more of the bright light. One could say the message is that it it is brawn over brains which gets you money, power, and respect in the world we are living in

I softly said to Scar “I’m sorry, I’m too late.” We hugged with each others tears flowing onto our backs. But Scar wasn’t done fighting, she whispered to me,

He was at a soccer game when the man next to him cheered loudly after a goal.

There are also two most successful types of antagonists. One of them is truly evil character, sneeky, smart, somewhat scary. The second way is to make it, intentionaly or not, fall into the uncanny valley.