Margaret Lazarus The Lion King Analysis

In her article, “All’s Not Well in Land of ‘The Lion King’”, Margaret Lazarus tells of the time she took her children to see “The Lion King”. Throughout her essay she explains what she thought of the movie and how it affected her. She explains how the animals in the pridelands are paying tribute to the “infant son that will someday be their king”. Margaret sees them basically as lion food and that they all live together in “supposed harmony in the ‘circle of life’”. She goes on to explain how outside the kingdom there’s a dark gloomy and impoverished elephant graveyard full of hyenas that she feels are stereotyped as African Americans. In Margaret’s point of view, this is the ghetto. Reading further into her essay, she goes on to tell how Scar

While I think it is a childish point of view and that she is a little too sensitive, I can still see it. I do not think that The Lion King was doing any stereotyping, nor do I think that Disney intended any stereotyping whilst making this movie. People are allowed to have their own opinions, no matter how stupid and irrational I think they are. Normally, reading people’s reviews on movies and similar things doesn’t make me angry, but reading Margaret’s opinion and her review of this fantastic movie has succeeded in making me a little frustrated. She even begins to talk about feminism in her review. She goes on and on about how these images and attitudes will lodge deeply in children’s consciousness. Seriously, come on. Children won’t be thinking of how The Lion King is sexist, or how they’re stereotyping gays and blacks. The only thing they’ll be focused on is either how scary Scar is, being afraid of the hyenas, or sad at the ending. No child is going to sit there and think “Oh my, this movie has loads of bigoted images and attitudes! I better stop watching this!” Children don’t understand that. They watch movies to enjoy them, to pass time, to have fun. Her statement about this affecting children in any way is laughable. This is easily the worst review of this movie I have read. That’s my opinion of this article, i’m not insulting her or saying her opinion is wrong, she’s allowed to think what she wants, but that’s what I