Strong and engaging animation film that has its issues and its messages but delivers on an entertaining level above all else.

Rating: 7/10 (16 January 2008)

I suppose it's fun to re-visit a Disney film every now and again; The Lion King holding a rather special place in my psyche as well as my heart for it was the first film I ever saw at a cinema. Needless to say; watching it now for perhaps the first time proper since that cinema viewing hasn't made me like it or love it any more than I perhaps did then but it hasn't made me dislike it any more, either.
The Lion King was made at a time when Disney was booming. The 1980s wasn't exactly a great decade for Disney but what with The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and the best picture Oscar nominated Beauty and the Beast; Disney were thriving. So there was an expectancy behind The Lion King and watching it now, it does deliver on an entertaining and well told and well animated level. I laughed at some of the jokes, couldn't remember certain scenes and generally enjoyed it. But the film does feel like it is orientated at children more than adults. The general synopsis for the film does not rely on a love story like The Little Mermaid, Aladdin or Beauty and the Beast did but rather uses a theme of self discovery with a rather meek love plot entwined between Simba and Nala; the two lead lions of the narrative. This would suggest more of an infant target audience as the film would like to think it is educating young ones on how to face your fears and beat your demons etc.
But this isn't a criticism, merely an observation. Aladdin was as routine love story as you could ever get but it included the genie as a post-modern stroke of genius that made the adults laugh. Similarly; the complicated love story in Beauty and the Beast, full of emotions and situations kids won't have experienced yet had the items of furniture that amused and entertained on another level. In The Lion King, there is no get out clause; there is no escape hatch that the film can rely on to get across to two demographics. I suppose if Simba's journey of enlightenment is supposed to be aimed at adults then the buddy combination of Timon and Pumbaa are supposed to be kid orientated but I didn't see it entirely this way  yes Timon and Pumbaa seem adult enough but they remain too lacking in everything else what with the emphasis of toilet humour cropping up every now and again.
Like most Disney films, The Lion King suffers from its issues with race, religion, class and/or gender. People will deny it but that's only because they cannot see it. The lions in The Lion King are golden brown, beautiful and voiced by Americans; all apart from Scar who is brown with a black mane. It's no surprise that he is the 'evil' one and is consequently English, voiced by Jeremy Irons. There is also the shameful representation through the hyenas: one is Mexican, one is a mute retard and the other may well be voiced by an American (Goldberg) but in truth; the character is a big, black, loud, 'man-eater' of an animal. Watch Aladdin when the title character steals a loaf of bread and the representation of the fat black woman who hugs him whilst saying the line: "Still I think he's ravishing!" There is also the character of Timon who is the victim of Disney's most cruel representation. Timon's gender is confused; it is neither male nor female and his name is too ambiguous to be classed as one or the other. Timon is extremely effeminate and embodies very 'touchy-feely' traits around Pumbaa; frequently stroking his rear-end and stroking his nose and general facial area. Timon's voice actor Nathan Lane is also homosexual and I read that the line towards the end where the distraction tactic of 'dressing in drag and doing the hula' was improvised, further embodying homosexual traits on this character. Now; whilst my specific class/race/sexuality/etc. wasn't targeted to extremities (Scar was English, like I am but I'll look past that); I still feel these sorts of things are highly unnecessary in a film I've already established is child orientated.
The characters are also obsessed with food. There is frequent reference to food and hunger. The lionesses report no food which angers Scar, Pumbaa belches before announcing that he is 'starved' and the Hyenas live in a constant state of looking where the next meal will come from. There is also heavy emphasis on how Timon and Pumbaa get by on nourishment by eating bugs. Perhaps this is reference to Africa's state of affairs regarding health and food with the Ethiopian humanitarian crisis of the 1980s fresh in memory. The Lion King also suffers in its obvious plotting: the hero has a wrong belief but needs a mentor to come out of the blue to aid him in his correct quest which I found a little forced and unoriginal for a film made in 1994. But the message about the 'circle of life' and the ideas that you confront your demons when required is good with Mufasa himself saying "I'm only brave when I need to be; I don't go looking for trouble." The film clearly saying that picking fights is not a good idea.
The Lion King also has time to throw in a domestic relationship featuring Simba and Nala. They meet up; reminisce; Simba shows her around and to 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight', they make love before breaking up the morning afterwards. Incidentally, the sex is witnessed by Timon who displays disappointment and disgust. The Lion King is a somewhat strange film but has fun with its plot and its characters and is an enjoyable animation film on the whole with one or two tragic scenes particularly standing out in memory for me; both then in the cinema and now.