If you’re an adult who remembers the magical luster of the original Lion King, it’s back, this time with quasi-life-like digital cats voiced by celebrities. If you take a youngster, this will be the film that defines their childhood with t-shirts, lunch boxes and the guaranteed purchase of the Disney stuffed animal.
Mirrored by the original animation of 1994, the Jon Favreau directed Lion King opens with the beasts of jungle-and-plain gathered mountain-base where an infant cub, Simba – the future King of the animals – is presented to the world on Pride Rock. King Mufasa (voiced by James Earl Jones) dotes on the baby and his mother, his loyal Queen, Sarabi (Alfre Woodard.) It’s a sentimental opening where the ‘Circle of Life’ is explained to ‘us’ humans. It’s here too, in these gentle frolicking paw-play moments, that we meet Zazu (John Oliver) a comical dodo bird sidekick to the Court of the King.
Mufasa’s brother, Scar (Chiwetel Ejiofor) doesn’t attend the presentation of the new King cub, as he and his brother, Mufasa, have a long line of jealousy over who might actually rule the throne. As before, Scar schemes to first kill Simba, the rightful heir, and then rid the world of Mufasa, by turning to his despicable hyena friends. The pack is led by Shenzi (Florence Kasumba) far from a fuzzy-fuzzy character for a child to see life-like (previously in animation buffered the fright.)
Yet, the visuals are mesmerizing…engaging every one of our senses as we can smell the plain, and taste its dry salt, all to the leap and stride of computer-generated animals. As Mufasa’s mane ruffles in the breeze, it is here that he explains his wisdom; a King’s time as ruler rises and falls like the sun. Mufasa preaches to young Simba – stubborn to be independent and rule the monarchy his way – that “a true King doesn’t take…he gives.”
The audience learns some lessons or hierarchy but also of that circle of life. The one that says the lion eat the antelope but when the lion dies, their dust becomes grass, and the antelopes eatthe grass.
Young Simba (JD McCray), and his gal pal Narla (Shahadi Wright Joseph) are defiant to Mufasa’s warnings. Simba “can’t wait to be King” as the song goes, and instead the two escape beyond the safety-net-of-home to where mayhem and murder might take place. Most of us know the rest, or maybe we don’t, but what the film really gives us is a sense of compassion, empathy and longing, especially if we too, have lost a parent. It’s the side by side of father and son silhouetted in the shadow of the moon; the longing to have a place called home where we belong as a family again. The movie easily reflects our greatest human fears.
Like Simba we must remember that whenever we feel alone, just look to the stars. Our Kings, our fathers, and even our mothers, are there to guide and watch over us. A prominent and soul-scratching soundtrack by Hans Zimmer guides us through that lesson.
Simba grows to have no sense of the food chain; forgetting that he’s a carnivore. Instead he deliciously dines on crème-filled maggots and worms so visual we can – gulp, spit– taste them. But while it’s a visual feast, it’s also emotionally frightening for young children. There is violence, death and hyenas abound. There’s the good with a lot of the bad that easily equals Shakespearean proportions. It’s the tension found in the original once hidden behind colorful animation, that makes this version raw…as if BBC’s Planet Earth stepped in with a 3D stampede. Fortunately, it’s off-set by a comical wart-hog boar named Pumbaa (Seth Rogen) and his sidekick, wise-cracking prairie dog, Timon (Billy Eicher.) They deliver the familiar, much-welcome relief that perhaps is the very reason we always loved “Hakuna Matada.” It’s a respite from the violence, heart-break and fear. Its translation “No worries!”
In the end, what the film really delivers is a reminder that our own father’s words make our chests swell in the paradox of pain and pride, knowing we come into this world alone and goes out alone. It’s the in-between that matters. It’s what we leave in those spaces of time that create our legacy, even if we aren’t King of the Jungle. One day, too, like Mufasa, we will look down from a darkened sky and remember all we instilled on the future generation.
In the meantime, as Simba and Narla grow into the voices of Donald Glover and Beyonce, yes, we “Feel the Love Tonight.” Though real lions don’t sing like Beyonce, we still get the message loud and clear: The circle of life carries on….
Like Bambi (Mother loss) and Doctor Doolittle (talking animals) before it, thisis a flawless film, and Favreau’s direction does this pure justice and then some. The deep emotional content might go over a child’s head, but generations young and old will agree that the legacy of the lion lives on. So…long live The Lion King garnishing four tiaras from the Queen of Screen.