The Lion King

The narrative to The Lion King is liner story that follows the life of young lion cub called Simba growing up to become the king of Pride rock and facing up to his responsibilities and over coming the troubles in the past of his fathers Mufasas death and the lies that come from his uncle Scar.

The narrative of The Lion King follows Todovos theory the equilibrium, Simba is born and everything is going well the disequilibrium happens when Scar kills Mufasa and forces Simba to run away, a false equilibrium is established when Simba meets Timon and Pumba, Simba recognises the disorder when Nala finds him and explains what his uncle is doing and Rafiki teaches him a lesson, Simba repairs the damage when he defeats Scar in a fight and then the new equilibrium is formed when Simba becomes the new king of pride rock. 

Propps character theory that every film having eight character types is evident throughout The Lion King; the villain is Scar, the hero is Simba, the dispatcher is Rafiki this can be seen in the scene where Rafiki convinces Simba to return to Pride Rock, the false hero is also Scar as he acts like he truly cared about the deaths of both Mufasa  and Simba. He also lies to the pride to appear kind and be crowned king, the donor is Rafiki as he shows Simba a way to talk to his father through magic and teachers him that his dad is a part of him so he is brave and strong enough to fight Scar. The helpers are Timon and Pumba they save Simba from death and bring him up and continue to help him in the fight against Scar. The last two character types are the princess and the father who are represented by Nala and Mufasa respectively.

Barthes action code, that resolution can be found through conflict, can be seen in The Lion King in the final fight scene between good and evil and Simba and Scar, the resolution being the end of Scars reign and the rightful crowning of Simba. The enigma code, another one of Barthes theories, is also evident throughout the film shown by Simbas ignorance to the true nature of Scars character as well as Simba being oblivious to what is going on in the pride land during is self inflicted banishment under Scars rule.

The genre of The Lion King is an animated musical family adventure this is clear from the conventions and codes used throughout the film, some of the codes that are used are slapstick comedy (childish), talking animals, mostly upbeat catchy music, for the adventure side there are jungles, fighting and a quest to save pride rock, musical codes are spontaneous singing and dancing as well as good triumphing over evil. 

The film strongly sticks to the convention of changing weather and environment to reinforce the mood within the scenes as demonstrated in the opening scene  of the film Simba is being presented to the kingdom the sun is rising to show the coming of a new day and new king. Another example of this convention can be seen during Scars musical number, the sky darkens, the smoke from the geyser goes green to add to his menacing and dark demeanour. A third example of pathetic fallacy is during in the final confrontation between Simba and Scar as the sky starts to get dark and appears angry and aggressive this is followed by thunder and lighting which starts the fire reinforcing the danger and creating more tension within the fight, as well as reiterating the anger and aggression shown by the main characters.

It is a common convention in children animations the animals are often anthropomorphised, the facial features on the main characters are smilier to the faces of the actors that voice them such as Shenzi the hyena voiced by Whoopi Goldberg. The lions can also smile and show various other human expressions and actions they are naturally incapable of such as playful acts of ‘’noogying’’ when Mufasa and Simba are play fighting.

As in all musicals the songs advance the plot and help to tell the narrative, a common convention with Disney films are that the opening song of the film eludes to the plot of the whole film, although in a somewhat abstract way. The opening song The Circle of Life tells a story about how people are part of a great big plan, The Circle of Life and everyone has to take their place and play their part in that plan, so when Mufasa dies it is Simbas duty and his role in the Circle of Life to take over the pride and become king, although he tries to run away from this in the end he still has to do it as this is the Circle of Life.

When looking at the film The Lion King there is a diverse representation of stereotypical character archetypes. There is Simba who is the films protagonist he is large, muscular and healthy in appearance, all of which are good looking qualities and help portray him as the hero. Next is Scar the films antagonist, Scar, he is slim and underweight, he appears unhealthy and as his name implies has a large ugly scar down his left eye. this gives him a much darker and more evil appearance and demeanour and also creates binary opposites between the two main characters. Scar also has dark brown fur and a black mane, in contrast to the more traditional colours of the rest of the pride, this helps him to stand out and reinforces his image of an outcast and different. The contrast between him and the other lions that have bright yellow fur this singles him out as a outsider and its to show he is the villain. The monkey Rafiki is the dispatcher of the film. He is portrayed as a wise old man but is also made to be funny and lighthearted as shown by him being very animated in his speech, having a very over the top and infectious laugh throughout the film and even going so far as hitting Simba to teach him a lesson in one scene.

Another stereotype is provided by the bird Zazu who is the majordomo to all the kings in the film. He portrays an almost servant like role, obediently doing whatever is asked of him by both Mufasa and Scar, when they are king. Zazu is voiced by British actor Rowan Atkinson, this feeds into the the stereotype of British people as being posh as well as butlers, this convention can also be seen in the Batman film series.

The hyenas in the film are shown to be Scars henchmen and army that are represented to be scars army, they help reinforce Scars image of being a tyrannical dictator as shown in one particular scene, where Scar stands in a general position overseeing his troops and the hyenas are marching past in a similar way to the troops of the Nazi army.

Rafiki is the only character in the film with a thick African accent even though the film is set in Africa, this is because the film is aimed at an American audience, specifically children, and to make the characters easier to relate to and for them to easily identify who is good and who is evil. As is traditional in american films the good characters (with the exception of Zazu as discussed above)  have American accents from various regions and states. The main villain has a very posh English accent, which is common in a multitude of different American films. 

There are many different symbolic scenes in The Lion King, the first being the opening sequence of the film, when Simba is being presented to the kingdom for the first time. In this scene the sun is rising, showing the start of a new day and therefore symbolising a new era, the era of the new king or king to be Simba. 

In another scene Simba is seen to be stepping directly into his fathers paw print in the dirt, the connotations of this very literal symbol are that Simba has a lot of growing up to do if he wants to be able to fill his fathers place in the Pride, it also be showing that Mufasa has left “big shoes” to fill and it represents Simbas insecurity about never being good enough to be king like Mufasa. Thirdly after Simba runs away from the pride he falls down in the desert and is surrounded by vultures. Vultures traditionally represent death and in this scene they, along with the desert, are used to symbolise the apparent death of Simba and being alone in the world, until he is saved by Timon and Pumba. Finally the climax to the film once Scar has been defeated and Simba ascends to his place on Pride Rock. This symbolises his filling of his fathers “shoes” and he is literally stepping into Mufasas place as the new and rightful King.