Deconstucting the Lion King

WALT Disney's animations have always been popular, largely of course due to their aesthetic appeal, vivid characters, interesting plots, and for the parents, obvious moral standards that save their time teaching their children.

The artifact this paper is going to study is one of Disney's most popular animation The Lion King released in 1994 both in the US and in Hong Kong. The film broke all records in the first weekend, grossing USD42 million. It was similarly popular when it was released in Hong Kong during the summer vacation in the same year. Simply put, the story is about how a regal lion is victimised by his uncle: experiences an exile and a life free from responsibility: free by whim or by chance, when he grows up, meets up with his friend and goes through a period of identity crisis and introspection: and finally, the lion gains back his throne by challenging the illegitimate king, his uncle.

Though in the form of an animation which one would naturally think is dedicated to children, and which is generally thought of as being surrealistic, which at most contain moral lessons. The Lion King, in analysis, is more than a fable. I will argue that The Lion King should "rightfully" (a term often appears in the script as we will discuss later) be an adult's film. Hinson (1994) said, "Of the 32 animated films Disney has produced, this story of a young African lion's search for identity is not only more mature in its themes, it is also the darkest and the most intense. Shakespearean in tone, epic in scope, it seems more appropriate for grown-ups than for kids." Ebert (1994) also expressed that the superbly drawn animated feature was surprisingly solemn in its subject matter and was too intense for small children. And actually the violence depicted and the death illustrated are always commented as too much for the children.

The animation is not a mere light entertainment either. It is not just one that depicts the lovely cub's life cycle, nor is it true in describing the real life of the animals. As Neufeld (1996) said, the characters in The Lion King exhibit behaviours that are uncharacteristic of animals they portray. First, the mix of the animal kingdom is just a dream. Who will think of all the antelopes, elephants, leopards, lions, etc living peacefully together? And the caring relationship between the mother lions and the cubs, and between the lions and lionesses cannot really be seen in real life, where the non-father males will kill other male's offspring and cubs are always abundant and dying of starvation. The relationship, and hence the struggle, depicted is more human in nature.

Apart from the moral lessons said to be inculcated in children, as many other animations do, a number of themes emphasised by different critics abound in The Lion King (e.g. social interactions, familial relations, bravery, responsibility, vulnerability, faith etc. See Schwalm, 1995; and The Lion King -- Production Information, 1994). This paper will, however, probe into the theme of "hegemony," both in the senses of power and male dominance, as well as the perspective of Hong Kong Chinese people in this regard, arising out of the fact that the animation has been so popular when it was released.

The Lion King

Here Comes the Hero, Simba

In this section, we will study the text in question using Jungian's concept of "archetype". According to Jung, archetype refers to a universal image or theme found in dreams, myths, religions, philosophies, and works of art. It exists beyond the realm of the personal unconscious found in all people (Berger, 1993). The archetype under study will be the "hero" archetype, which as observed, should be of note since:

* it resembles the Chinese archetypes; and

* it reinforces the existing hegemony

The Structure

The original script of the text contains 26 scenes, which can be reduced into the following plot:

* The birth of the regal cub Simba, the ritual ceremony and its life in the kingdom

* The tragic death of the father lion Mufasa and the exile of the cub

* The life of the cub (and the young lion with the passing of time) in the wilderness

* The young lion meets its destined wife-to-be Nala and its introspection

* The young lion fights back and gets back its throne as the Lion King

The plot above, in analysis, closely resembles the monomyth, a universal story line which explains plot development (Jewett and Lawrence, 1977; W. Martin, 1986; in Rybacki & Rybacki, 1991). The monomyth theory of plot claims that there is a common plot structure in all narratives in popular culture that contains three elements: a hero of royal birth -- the hero escapes death in childhood -- the hero goes on a journey and marries a princess or is given great honour. From this plot typology, we can develop the archetype of The Lion King as follows: the trial of the hero -- the awakening (baptism) of the hero -- the return of the hero -- the victory (rebirth) of the hero.

Falling into this universal mode, The Lion King thus inculcates in the audience several beliefs:

* the causal relationship of heroic birth and heroic victory. And hence, let's have faith in and rely on the hero;

* the antagonism of the legitimate and the illegitimate where the legitimate always wins or is awarded the honour. And hence, we should obey the legitimate (but who decides which is the legitimate?); and

* the hero, in order to achieve something (usually peace and happiness brought to the general populace, in addition to personal glory), has to go through a trial. And hence, it implies that people have to be patient and endure the hardship, if there is any, together.

The Characters

Here we will look into two characters of the text: the hero (the Lion King Simba) and the villain (Lion King's uncle Scar who stole away the throne) in order to elicit the themes of the story.

In Jungian model, the heroes have the following characteristics:

* they are good (in contrast to villains, who are evil; Simba is good-tempered, kind-hearted, loyal to friends and brave, etc);

* they are active (whereas many other characters are passive;