Last year when I reviewed Disney’s 101 Dalmatians I mentioned that it was my favourite Disney film
until a certain film from the Disney Renaissance came along; and this is that
film. The Lion King claimed the throne as my Disney favourite movie when
I was a kid and all these years later it still reigns supreme.
Now I am a big fan of cats so that is certainly something
that gives this film a big edge, but it isn’t the only reason I like it, love
it really. I mean I was literally obsessed
with this movie as a kid. I had stuffed
toys, games, those annoying push and play books, and more; in fact I now own
four copies of the film. The original
VHS version, which has horrible cover art.
The special edition, that has awesome cover art, and the re-mastered DVD
and blu-ray editions; that have okay cover art.
Or at least the individual covers do.
I actually bought the box set of all three films in the so called trilogy
and it looks great; even if the other films in the set are less than stellar. But I’m getting ahead myself we’re looking at
the great film first.
And a great film this is just by looks alone, especially
with the re-mastering. The film has
never looked better. The picture is
clear and crisp and the detail is amazing.
I’m noticing movements and background colours I never have before
because it’s now so clean looking. I
love that this film has such size and scope to it. They really used the story to show off a lot
of different landscapes. We have
deserts, jungles, the elephant graveyard, pride rock and more. And I like that they have a lot of great
contrasting colours with all the locations.
The bright sprawling pridelands and the dryer cramped look for the gorge
during the stampede, also the scene has some great shadows and angles when Scar
is doing his menacing walks along the cliffs as Mufusa tries desperately to
save his son. The bright reds and
yellows in the climax when Scar and Simba face off. The nice dark purples and blues for the night
time scenes. I also love the image of
Simba stepping into his father’s paw print and the shot of the size difference,
showing the great shoes he will have to fill one day. The creepy purples of the elephant graveyard
and how it shifts to eerie greens as Scar sings about his plan to assume the
throne; and of the course the Nazi imagery in the Be Prepared song.
The characters in front of the gorgeous backgrounds are also
really good. I won’t even go into the
animation, it’s Disney the character animation is wonderful as usual, but the
personalities truly match that great animation.
Mufusa brings a great balance as a dad who is personal with his son
while also being wise, a great acting job from the legendary James Earl Jones. Scar is an interesting character as a villain
to me because he succeeds in his plan for the most part. He does get to become king, he does kill his
brother, most villains don’t get to be anywhere near that successful. He also has a nice design and great voice,
and a good villain song too. Timon and
Pumbaa are fun side characters although the flatulence stuff with Pumbaa is
annoying, but not enough to ruin my enjoyment of the film.
Simba is still wonderful to watch and is one my
favourite Disney characters. He’s a fun
kid with room to grow and I think that growth works; partly because his good
traits are shown as a cub along with his bad ones. Yes he is reckless when he goes off to the
elephant graveyard after being told not to, but he also goes back for Zazu when
the hyenas capture him and he goes to help Nala too. Showing that he does care for others, even
when he thinks Zazu is an annoying banana beak.
When he goes back for Nala he shows that he is brave because he is
willing to run back and whack Shenzi across the face to help his friend even
though he is scared. So we see the good
in him even as we see the brash bratty kid that he has to grow out of
being. He starts off with the idea that
being king will be all about what he wants, and I like that Scar mirrors
that. He is Simba’s viewpoint taken to
the extreme and we see the consequences of that. That the circle of life is broken and must be
fixed and to do that Simba must take responsibility for his actions and grow
beyond his self-centered world view. To
learn that you can’t turn your back on the world and that you have to worry
about the past even though you can’t change it, because it affects the future and you can
learn from it. Simba has to take his
place as king not because he really wants to, but it’s for the good of others
that he does so. What I think I like most
about his conflict is that it’s personal and that it doesn’t just go away in an
instant. When he slumps against the
rocks after telling his friends the story Mufusa told him as a kid about the
kings of the past watching over him.
When he yells at the stars that his dad would always be there for him
and he is not you can see that Simba is still wounded from his father’s death.
Unlike my complaint about James T. Kirk in my Search for Spock review you can see that he is still hurt from this,
it’s clear in his actions and his words.
This role even gets a great voice performance out of Matthew Broderick
and that is no easy feat. I also like
that Simba is a lot more pro-active than his counterpart Hamlet who doesn’t get his
act together until he is being carted off to England. Simba realizes he must face his past when
Mufusa’s ghost appears to him and then does so.
While we’re on the subject of comparing source materials I
will say that I will not being doing any comparisons between this and Kimba the White Lion. I haven’t seen that show in forever and then
it was only clips. The only things in
common I’ve noticed so far are that the main characters both lose their fathers
and have a journey to reclaim their kingdoms.
Also they have similar names but Simba is a real Swahili phrase, meaning
lion, so I’m willing to bet they got his name from there rather than taking
Kimba’s name and switching a letter.
While I may do a comparison at a later date right now I don’t have
enough familiarity with Kimba to give
an opinion on whether I think The Lion
King is an homage to it, a rip off, or if it's all just a big fat coincidence.
Getting back to this film I have to say that the music works
wonderful here too with Elton Jones songs and the mixing of the African vocals. The Circle of Life is unforgettable of course
and sets the tone for the picture beautifully.
The orchestra just by its self is awesome too. Who can ever forget the theme to the wildebeest
stampede or the final battle for pride rock?
And personally Can You Feel the Love Tonight is one of my favourite
Disney love songs, both the theatrical version and the full version Elton John
sings. I even like the romance between Simba
and Nala. Could it have been developed a
bit more? Sure, but the romance wasn’t
really the driving force of the story, it was a point in which the story could
be driven forward by Simba having to confront this person from his past. Also the cliché of best friends falling in
love with each other later was as old as dirt that even as a kid I knew it was
going to happen so that never bothered me, and I think it works well enough because
Nala doesn’t change drastically when she becomes the romantic interest instead
of just Simba’s best friend. She’s still
a great fighter, she’s still feisty, and she is still funny like when she
quotes Simba’s line from the elephant graveyard back to him. So the love song works and I think the romance
works. There is only one song that I didn’t
think worked at all was The Morning Report song. The special
edition of the film had the addition of this song along with new
animation. Well the animation is pretty
good the song isn’t. In fact it is my
least favourite song from the Broadway version of the film. For me the scene really never worked because
the song is comedic and I don’t think it fits the tone of the rest of the scene
properly or the movie for that matter.
We have Mufusa talking about their place in the circle of life then Zazu
coming in all formal for the report, and then he starts it with a song that
basically adds nothing to the story. I Just Can’t Wait to Be King is also bouncy
and fun, but it’s serving two purposes, one is to distract Zazu so the cubs can
get away and second is to showcase Simba’s self-centred idea of his role as
king that he will have to mature out of over the course of the film. Also Zazu keeps his stuffy no nonsense attitude
in that song which he utterly loses in The Morning Report and it’s jarring as
all hell. All in all I’m glad that song
was cut out again in the later releases.
To conclude this film is still my favourite in the whole
Disney canon. It’s gorgeous in all
ways. The animation is wonderful, the
backgrounds are lush and grand, and the colours are striking. The music matches the broad scope with the
African theme and vocals. The story
works, the characters are diverse, interesting and fun, both in their animation
and their voices. I love how good it
looks and sounds. I love that it deals with
a personal struggle of grief and blame and loss and that it carries on throughout
the piece. I truly think it’s a great
film and deserves its place among Disney’s best works.
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