Initiation packed in an animated movie

Rating: 8/10 (16 February 1999)

Growing up, initiation, adapting to the consequences of being an adult - that's what "The Lion King" is all about. It's a story of a young lion who lives his life without any sorrow, "problem-free" as Timon and Pumbaa would call it.
But when his father dies Simba is forced to leave his home and out there in the wide and strange African steppe, the young has to follow the "path unwinding" which shall make a "man" of him. Only a "man" is capable of taking back the crown and leading the country.
I admit, the story itself seems to be meagre. It's the typical revenge-and-vendetta-plot: A son makes the killer of his father pay for the dead. But a closer look shows that there is more. Simba doesn't want to avenge his father at first. He ran away since he was sure his dad's death was his fault. But out in the jungle he learns his lesson: He - as the prince - has responsibility for his people, and that's what I think is the hidden message in this movie: You can't run away from your responsibility, you must face it with all the consequences and you must do what this responsibility demands from you. For me, that's what the opening song wants to express with the words "the circle of life." The whole life is predetermined, and you cannot evade your fate. Simba follows the "circle" and comes back to where it all began.
Since I mentioned the opening song, I would like to add some words about the music. "Lion King" has the best songs and themes I have ever heard in a Walt Disney movie, and justly Hans Zimmer and his crew received two Oscars for it. Many people I talked to are unhappy with the "kind of musical" but for me, since "Snow White"'s dwarfs singing their "Hey ho!", songs are an important part of Walt Disney movies.
"Hakuna Matata!" That's what I learnt from this movie and it has become some kind of motto for me.