Essay on The Lion King: a Hero's Journey

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.

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

Simba is a very young, naive and doesn't quite understand the responsibilities he would have to have to become king. He thinks that being king would just mean freedom.

A couple minutes after Nala leaves, Simba is graced with the presence of a crazy baboon named Rafiki who tells him that his father is still alive, inside of him, and that he should follow him if he wants to see for himself. Simba follows the baboon to a pond and looks to where the monkey is pointing. Unfortunately he only sees his own reflection but Rafiki tells Simba to look harder. He then sees his father in the water, realizing what the baboon meant. Mufassa is now in the dark clouds telling Simba that he’s forgotten who he was, therefore he’s forgotten him, and this triggers Simba’s emotions making feel disappointed in himself for not going home like he should have. His father then tells him that he needs to find his place back in the circle of life and says “remember who you are. You are my son and the one true king. Remember who you are.” His voice is very deep and almost sounds like he is hurting. Then in an instant he is gone with the storm and Simba is chasing after him begging him not to go.

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

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.

The Lion King is one of the most famous Disney animated feature of all time. It has captured the hearts of children and adults everywhere around the world and has made over Three Hundred and twelve million dollars. But The Lion king is much more than a movie that has made a lot of money, it actually is the story of a hero's quest or journey. The hero's journey is reflected everywhere, from a television show to great works of literature, and even movies. A Hero's journey consists of separation, transformation and initiation, and the return of what a hero experienced throughout his/her journey. The story of The Lion King shows how the protagonist Simba follows the Hero's Journey.

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.

Scar uses Simba’s adventurous and curious characteristics to his own advantage. Scar purposely lures Simba to the elephant graveyard even though he is aware of the dangers that could potentially harm Simba. “And he's absolutely right. It's far too dangerous. Only the bravest lions go there” (The Lion King). Scar is aware that in order to become king, he needs Simba and Mufasa to not be in the kingdom. During this scene Scar tricks

The Lion King has always been considered a symbolic film teaching children not to dwell in the past. To demonstrate that what happens in the past does not matter, it will prevail how the person grows from it. Simba’s past was not the best, however he grew from it. His uncle Scar made him think that he killed his own father. When he found out Simba still did the kind-hearted deed and spare his uncle's life.

As Simba runs away from the tribe he wonders over and over if there was anything he could have done to save his father. He doesn't stop wondering this and blaming himself for his father's death until he is taken under Timon and Pumba's wing and shown another way to live life. However, when he sees his father in the sky and wonders again if he could have done anything to save him, his father tells Simba that Scar killed him. This allows Simba to continue the grieving process healthily.

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.

As a young boy he liked to explore, he didn't do what he was told by his father, and as a result, Simba believes his father died trying to save him from a stampede of wildebeests, as he wasn't supposed to be in the gorge, and his father saved him, then seeming to fall to his death because of Simba (though as it turns out his uncle

could roughly be interpreted as a white-collar crime because as he is next in line with the disappearance of Simba he is a high-status individual in the management of the lion pride. Mufasa would be considered a born-leader, and not just because of the lineage that destines him to be the King, he has a natural talent and exercises fair and just rule over the pride lands. While Scar, on the other hand, is deceitful, sly, and selfish; a ruler obsessed with control and takes advantage of all of those who fall beneath him (Haywood, T., n.d.). The Lion King presents the fraudulence of politics to the younger generations and depicts what is to be expected.

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