The Lion King Review

After watching The Lion King again, I forgot realized how long it has been since I had revisited the story/songs. It is such an iconic and well known film that I didn't expect it to be different when actually watching it. Since we are on the topic of race, I was trying to focus on more of that theme throughout the movie. I did notice, as many articles have stated, the African American tone/speech of the hyenas compared to the British or American characters. The difference between the two is that the hyenas are the evil characters whereas most if not all of the British/American characters are good (besides Scar...obviously); therefore, children are more likely to connect dangerous people to African Americans. Other than that racial stereotype it was difficult for me to find racial slurs. Since this movie deals with animals, it is difficult to differentiate race because the animals do not have race. In this way The Lion King is beneficial to where children are able to more easily identify with a vast array of characters.

There were some parts of the movie that I hadn't remembered from when I was younger. For instance, I didn't remember the song Be Prepared where Scar has an entire army of hyenas. I also do not remember many of the visuals in the animation, such as the landscape in the Circle of Life or the forest/watering hole in Hakuna Matata. It seems like I was more able to remember the songs instead of the visual effects from the movie. After watching it again though, I am able to interpret and remember the visual scenes in order to appreciate the movie more.

I believe that it is necessary to talk about villainy in this review, since this film gave me the most scarring (no pun intended) death scenes of my entire life. Scar, the evil uncle of Simba, is intending to kill Mufasa and rule the entire kingdom. The most standout trait of Scar to me though is his voice. The voice actor, Jeremy Irons, brings a conniving and sinister suave to his voice, which makes viewers feel an immediate reaction to Scar as the villain. There are also some physical traits that are dead giveaways in identifying Scar as the villain. For example, he has a scar on his eye meaning that he has survived a wound perhaps from a battle that he won (valiance). Scar also has piercing, neon green eyes and a jet black mane. His green eyes are extremely unnatural and they seem to look off with him being a lion and all. Even his black hair is a sharp contrast to the light brown of the other male/female lions. Although Scar is the villain of this movie I enjoy watching him as well as hearing him. The "brother kills brother" action in order for him to receive the crown gives a story originating in early European history where Monarchies were present. Overall, Scar is definitely a villain that is evil both inside and out.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review on Henry A. Giroux's "The Disneyfication of Children's Culture"

The Disneyfication of Children's Culture, by Henry A. Giroux is an article that argues how Disney's facade of "innocence and moral virtue" has underlying themes that can be harmful to the education of adolescent minds. Giroux focuses on the fact that Disney is an economic powerhouse that is trying to make their money off of movies that are most of the time not politically, morally or historically correct. Disney is such an influential and readily available source that children are exposed to it everyday, yet their most famous movies (since 1989) include stereotypical ideologies of race, gender and conservative world views. Giroux goes on to suggest how teachers, cultural workers and parents can change the course of Disney pedagogy, and hopefully help children come to the realization that the happy go-lucky animations aren't always correct. Based on the title of this article, I had the preconception that it was going to dote on how Disney was positively influentia
Read more

Thoughts on David Crewe's "Animal Harm: discrimination and difference in Zootopia"

Image
The article,  "Animal Harm: discrimination and difference in Zootopia"  by David Crewe writes about the meaning and nuances of the Disney animation Zootopia. Crewe starts off giving a back story as to the previous plot line of the film, which eventually changed due to need for a happier story. He then begins to talk about all of the themes intertwined within the movie, for instance "optimistic equality, systemic inequality, intersectionality, good intentions," etc. Overall, this essay speaks to how Zootopia connects to the real world as well as what messages come out of it's colorful scenery. There are many claims to Crewe's argument that I appreciate him including. He dotes on the topic of optimism in the film, which is a factor that one cannot ignore while watching Judy Hopps. The difference between Zootopia and other Disney films though, as mentioned by Crewe, is that Judy's optimism becomes dismantled many times throughout the story. It is
Read more

Review of Giroux's, "How Disney Magic and the Corporate Media Shape Youth Identity in the Digital Age"

Giroux's second article, How Disney Magic and the Corporate Media Shape Youth Identity in the Digital Age , brought his ideas to a more respectable level. The publication of Giroux's first article was in 1994 and his most recent one was published in 2011, which is significantly more relevant to the "modern" Disney era. Although the context is more recent, Giroux still finds a way to make his pessimistic opinions about the Disney name known. The article focuses more on Disney as a corporation and how it influences children into being high end consumers of today's society. Large companies are able to have such control over cognition by way of technological advances, and now, as Giroux would say, Disney is able to insert product advertisement into "every waking moment of children's daily lives." Giroux still argues that Disney has this power because nobody is willing to stand up and criticize their facade of innocence/joy. He even goes on to say how the
Read more