Reviews of The Lion King (1994) and related work
- Spin-off: “Stand by Me” (1995)
- Sequel: The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride (1998)
The Lion King (1994
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A step back from The Fox and the Hound (1981), where Pearl Bailey plays a friendly owl called Big Mama. Liong King is environmentally dysfunctional racist plagiarism of Tezuka Osamu, pasting Hamlet (1603) over a larger fascist metaphor for how minorities (blacks and Hispanics cast as hyenas, worse than the urban Hispanic stereotype Chihuahua in Oliver & Company) threaten to spread from their containment and parasitize moral society through handouts (Scar literally handing out meat). Scar presents as gay and women (lionesses) are weirdly powerless to do anything about him, while prey animals apparently just want their predator king back to... restore the climate? Because local people would have to be black, the humans who hunt and accidentally start a forest fire in Bambi (1942), and who hunt again in The Fox and the Hound, are absent here. The songs are a lot more catchy though.
References here: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008).
moving picture Disney animation fiction
‣ “Stand by Me” (1995)
moving picture spin-off Disney animation fiction
‣ The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride (1998)
Seen in 2024.
With the transformations (time skip), the love story and the teen angst, this feels like it was made for the furry market.