Movie Review

Arriving in theaters with a roar, The Lion King became one of Disney’s top-selling movies of all time. The movie is about a lion prince named Simba, who goes through a struggle to find himself. This tale begins with the death of Simba’s father, Mufasa and the blame being placed on him by his conniving uncle named Scar. Scar was always jealous of Mufasa, because he felt that he should be king and after the birth of Simba he knew that would never happen. After the death of Mufasa, Simba runs away out of shame and thoughts of disloyalty to his tribe. On his adventure he meets two outgoing, fun spirited animals, Timon and Pumba who teach him the true meaning of life. As the movie goes on Simba runs into one of his childhood friends named Nala, who convinces him to return home and fight for his rightful power as king. At the end of the movie Simba and Scar fight for the throne and of course Simba wins and Scar dies.

This movie had many different concepts that could be related to our everyday lives, which is why I feel it became one of Disney’s top-selling movies of all time. It wasn’t like many of Disney’s other movies, such as Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast; it showed real life traumas from an animal’s perspective. Almost everything that happened in The Lion King can be related to our personal lives.  For example, we have all have or had someone jealous of us or our accomplishments in life. There are so many people in today’s society who will do anything to bring others down in order to make their way to the top and that is exactly what Scar did. He took advantage of Simba’s ignorance, in order to become king.

Another concept I felt related to today’s society, is when Simba ran away from his tribe and in the end returned home. I feel like this  was important, because it showed the viewers that you cannot just run away from your problems, eventually you will have to face them. Children being the intended audience for the film, I think they should be able to connect to this concept and relate it to a time in their lives. When I was a child my grandmother died and I thought it was because I was constantly asking her to take me places even though she told me she was tired. So, when she died I thought it was my fault and for a while I avoided going over her house or even talking about what had happened. Seeing the way Simba faced his fear of returning home, inspired me to confront my own problems. The point I am trying to make is Simba did not have a fairy god-mother to help him become king; he had supportive family, friends and determination to gain back his power as king.

I personally recommend that everyone should go see The Lion King. It’s a movie with adventure, betrayal, and passion that will keep you alert and entertained the entire time. Some viewers claim this movie as “The best movie ever”, (Tianna Gardner) or “One of their favorite movies of all time” (Erica Wilson) and I can truly say I must agree.

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movie review link: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_lion_king/reviews/#page=2&type=user  Should have my name by it.