Movie Analysis: Lion King, State Propaganda?

[carlip]

After listening to the review of Fight Club and Seven Year Itch it donned on me that at a very early age I may have been tainted by the statist propaganda virus.

 

I have started listening to the podcast from episode 1, currently in the lower 200's, and while I have had these thoughts my whole life it is great to have them shaken before me like breadcrumbs for pigeons. I was always a kid who would ask questions to the point of drawing anger from my "victim", teachers, parents and the like. If you told me not to do it, I wanted to do it even more just to see what would happen. This has gotten me in some trouble in my early life though I have come to understand it is best to just leave some stones unturned in certain circumstance.

So I spend my work hours taking in the podcast and some leisure time picking random debates on the internet to hone my logic process to see what needs more clarification. This has gotten me to a point where I feel it would be good to help unwind the springs of my childhood to see what makes the clock of life tick.

 

So I thought about Disney's; The Lion King. At first it seems like a very innocuous film for children to enjoy, but as Stefan says, art mirrors society. If first thought that it was a simple parallel of communism vs. monarchy, but under further scrutiny I found much more to the story. It seems that Scar represents Hitler/German Govt. Looking at the personality traits of Scar, he is smart and cunning yet also evil and physically weak. Much the same Germany was weak after WWI with reparations holding them down. It was only after he massed the hyenas behind him was he able to take down his powerful brother Mufasa.

Simba would represent the United States, a young gun of sorts. The USA was just getting to its place as in the food chain of power, not sure that it wanted to get too involved in the war. So too Simba was not able to sense the danger Scar represented until it was too late to do anything.

Mufasa could be said to draw on the likeness of France, just as France helped the USA in its early days to gain ground and get a feel for being a world power. Mufasa thus helped Simba grow and learn to be a king. Mufasa was killed by Scar while trying to save Simba, I view this as Frances complacency in allowing the appeasement to go on, which ultimately lead to their defeat because Germany got too close.

Nala is the United Kingdom, while their spirit is crushed by Germany yet they continued to fight, so Nala remained in the pride, waiting to get rid of the evil Scar who held them at the precipice of death. Also to note the love story between Simba and Nala, who came to rule the pridelands, is a clear parable to the empire shared between the USA and UK.Timon and Pumbaa, I feel, are the USSR. They live outside the realm of the pridelands and according to their own rules. They have no specific allegiance to anyone, they just do what they have to do to get by. The USSR, being the only well established communist government at the time, also had no particular interest aside from keeping its power base. Timon and Pumbaa only join the fight against Scar when they find out, from Nala, that Simba is the rightful king. Here you see the USSR not quite willing to full out declare war on Germany.

Rafiki is the character I have trouble placing perfectly, but I draw parallels from the Zionist movement, perhaps even David Ben-Gurion in particular. The physical likeness is quite striking as well! Rafiki is there to give moral support to a young Simba and give him further encouragement to press and attack against Scar.

Zazu is the only character I can't really think of anything for perhaps Switzerland, but I don't really know much how they interacted within the context of WWII.

The fight between Simba and Scar is also very telling of the end of WWII. Simba did not kill Scar he let Scar's own demons do the job. Clearly this shows likeness to the Nuremberg trials yet Hitler committed suicide to avoid the shame.

 

In all the movie seems to be telling kids that fighting to get back what was birthed to you is a totally moral justification to tearing down an empire, disregarding the fact that universal suffering is the real evil. I hope you enjoyed reading this rather rough outline of a former childhood favorite of mine. It was fun for me to contemplate too! Throw some feedback my way and maybe we can work out some more of the details. Thanks!

 

[st434u]

Interesting analogies, but I still think Scar represented communism/democracy, and Simba and Mufasa represented absolute monarchy. Timon and Pumbaa represented primitive anarchists.

 

The hyenas represented the mob, whereas the lioness pride represented the capitalists, merchants and the aristocracy.

 

Most every other animal like the elephants, giraffes, rhinos, and the birds, represented the workers.

 

Rafiki was the priest who validated the rightful king in the eyes of the workers. Nala was part of the aristocracy and was arranged to marry Simba, the future king. Zazu was Simba's private teacher and babysitter.