Lion King Film Analysis

Outline
THESIS: The concept of the circle of life is a dominant theme in the film reflecting the state of things in the modern society.
1. The Lion King belongs to the trend of detailed naturalism.
2. African nature is presented as a stereotype of wildlife.
3. The film raises the questions of hierarchies and family relations.
The Lion King: Nature and Representation
The narrative of The Lion King can be termed “circular” as it begins and ends with the birth of the king. This is a story of struggle for power, the significance of family relations and fighting for what is right. The concept of the circle of life is a dominant theme in the film reflecting the state of things in the modern society. The visual imagery of the cartoon is an excellent

The epic solemnity of the story is replenished with a true-to-life effect of animal movements. To achieve this, animators studied the movements of real animals in order to create a “plausible” screen version. African landscape is “alive” with bright colours, which attract the human eye.
The first scene informs us what the whole movie is going to be like. At sunrise animals wake up and move across the colourful plains to venerate the newborn king. The king’s successor, just a baby, is held up in the sun to be adored by the subjects.
Quite the opposite is the place of hyenas and the dwelling place of Scar. Dark and almost desaturated colours here bring in an air of gloominess connected with the “dark” character of the king’s rival. This opposition has something in common with the religious images of paradise and hell, which contribute greatly to the promotion of understanding the importance of nature

Mufasa: Yes, Simba, but let me explain. When we die, our bodies become the grass. And the antelopes eat the grass. And so we are all connected in the great Circle of Life. (Minkoff & Allers, The Lion King)
Environmentalists find this dialogue encouraging since we need to understand the ecological system. It looks like everything is equal and there should not arise any questions why lions eat antelopes, for this is just the circle of life. However, a careless intrusion into the system can lead to ecological catastrophe: the Prideland turns into a desert under the rule of Scar (Whitley, 2008).
In The Lion King “Nature” forms a concept of wildlife in a given landscape. Ecological apprehensions go together with the vision of Africa as an archetype of wilderness. It is the first Disney animated feature movie, which has no human characters. Since the territory of the Prideland is presented as a natural order of things, the gloomy home of hyenas is opposed as something