Review of Simba's Revolution: Revisiting History and Class in the Lion King

The article, Simba's Revolution: Revisiting History and Class in the Lion King, by John Morton responds to the ideas in Robert Gooding William's article, Disney In Africa and the Inner City: On Race and Space in the Lion King. Morton starts off with explaining Gooding-Williams claim of The Lion King portraying problematic views of race and class structure. In an immediate contradiction, Morton states that he believes the animation represents a "stable social class" which works as one in order to bring about the idea of history. He also mentions that Gooding-Williams holds a marxist bias in his writings and mainly focuses on the "fetishism of urban poverty."

Throughout the rest of the article, Morton focuses on the web of life and the interactions between Mufasa, Simba, Scar and the Hyenas. What I thought was a good point in his argument was his claim that Gooding-Williams mentions nothing about Mufasa and the fact that the kingdom is run with legitimate order. The kingdom is meant to show capitalism and with capitalism comes the idea of survival of the fittest. It is merely the way life works; in the wild and in real life. Another valid point of Morton's was his segregation of the relationship between Mufasa and Rafiki and Scar and the Hyenas. Mufasa and Rafiki are shown to have a trusting, healthy relationship, whereas Scar and the Hyenas have mutual distrust. This reveals to viewers that there are two different relationships in which leadership can work, and as in real life, the relationship of Scar and the Hyenas is bound to fail. The final point I believed was accurate was the claim that Timone and Pumba are seen as closer to the Hyenas rather than Rafiki. I believe as well that since Timone and Pumba are closer to the bottom of the food chain, they are more similar to the Hyenas; therefore, are more likely to interact with them. Also, Rafiki serves the King in a way that Timone and Pumba do not, so there is another reason as to why the Hyenas are rarely seen with Rafiki. 

On aspect of Morton's article that I did not find particularly strong was his wordiness. Many times I found myself saying, "ok, get to the point" because he seems to use too many words to introduce his main claim (either that or the introduction to his claims did not connect well). Another aspect of the article that I found confusing was Morton's use of history. I understand how he developed the idea of "the circle of life and death" but I'm not entirely sure the history behind that. If history repeats itself wouldn't someone eventually come up and change that course? Is that shown in The Lion King with Simba because Scar and Simba are both revolutionaries? This connects back to the idea that Morton was too wordy. All I need is a straight forward claim of "how is history created from the circle of life?"

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