Just some thoughts on Scar (possible spoilers)

Rating: 7/10 (1 January 2004)

This is probably why J.R.R. Tolkien was so against the use of allusions: has anybody noticed paradox of making Scar--through a song and dance routine, no less!--a Hitler-figure? If he were really akin to Hitler, wouldn't he be creating a scapegoat race--or in this case, a scapegoat species--and run around killing all of them (or more likely having them killed) for the sake of the purity of the species? Instead, he makes an agreement with the hyenas--who are hated by everybody in the pure Prideland--and actually honors his promise to them until the tide finally turns so far against him that he has no other way to survive than to finally make them the scapegoat. Also, Hitler was a great propagandist (I mean that in the most derogatory way possible), and I'm sure he built up the hatred against the Jews/gays/blacks/gypsies/etc. for a number of years before the genocides actually started. As a propogandist, Scar makes a lousy Hitler (again, spoken sarcastically): he brings in the SS hyenas immediately, as if he expected them to suspect his murder of Mufasa and retaliate against him; instead (though in the script they don't) everyone should have suspected him, as his little speech and the sudden appearance of the hyenas could only have been planned well ahead of Mufasa's death (*smack*smack*smack* quick round of knocking the lions' heads together for their stupidity). Someone as slick as Scar is supposed to have been should have known better than that; it is only the sheer dumbness of the lions and their supposed fear of the pitiful little hyenas that allows his assassination/coup to come off without a hitch.
Going along with that, Scar is portrayed as being far too obviously evil, so much so that it's hard to believe nobody but Mufasa and Simba though that he was power-hungry and back-stabbing before he murdered Mufasa (though if Mufasa didn't realize it during the confrontation scene after Simba's ceremony, then somebody needs to have smacked him upside the head and yelled, "Duh!"). I suppose you could call that a gaping plot hole (or at least a major lack of good judgment of character) that Mufasa would expect for his brother to help him. Obviously, Scar is meant to be a Shakespearean-type villain, like Ursula and Jafaar before him, but he is really too lacking. NEWS FLASH TO DISNEY: Yes, Shakespeare's villains are obvious to the audience, but that's because there were scenes where their deceptions are revealed only to the audience, not to the characters being deceived!
At least Ursula made her snide comments under her breath in asides.
Besides Scar, a great movie. Look for his amusing cameo in Hercules--a fate worthy of Hitler.