Half the fun of movies is talking about them afterwards, whether with family and friends or through online communities. I know I’m a little late to the conversation about Disney’s new remake of The Lion King, but I just had to respond to this surprising angle: criticizing the movie’s portrayal of lions. It wasn’t just one, but several articles picking on the accuracy of Disney’s lions. “How Realistic is The Lion King?” asks Radio Times, and a New York Times article describes “How ‘The Lion King’ Gets Real-Life Lion Family Dynamics Wrong.” The second article, written by Knvul Sheikh, leans pretty hard on the idea that “Disney took a lot of creative license when it comes to lion behavior.”1 I have mixed feelings about this argument. As a nature-lover, I was fascinated to learn that lions are actually more matriarchal than patriarchal and that male lions are often found “licking, head rubbing and purring” with the pride’s cubs. I sincerely applaud Sheikh for offering such an in-depth dive into what lion life is really like. At the same time, the mythologist in me is unsettled. I’m sure the title is mostly tongue-in-cheek, but with so many phrases like “no nature documentary” and “despite its slightly off-kilter depiction of lion society,” I wonder. Maybe this is just staying in character, but it also seriously misses the point.
The Lion King isn’t about lions at all.
There are several official and unofficial inspirations for Disney’s original 1994 movie The Lion King. Lions appear in only one, and those are clearly even less like real lions than Disney’s. The rest are all about humans and our power plays, especially among royalty. Small wonder, then, that Pride Rock’s inhabitants act less like matriarchal lions and more like patriarchal humans. All the discussions about The Lion King’s sources could probably fill a cloud server or two, but let’s line up three of the biggest coconuts for now.
Hamlet
Plot Summary: Hamlet, prince of Denmark, is deeply saddened by his father’s death and his mother’s remarriage to his uncle Claudius. His sorrow turns to anger when his father’s ghost tells him Claudius actually murdered the king. Hamlet then fakes madness while working toward vengeance. Spoilers, it does not end happily.
Shakespeare’s play is probably the most talked-about of the official sources credited in a special feature of the Platinum edition of The Lion King.2 It’s hard to reconcile the cheerful, triumphant musical with the dark, despairing tragedy. Actually, the ending of Lion King has more in common with the Danish legend of Amleth, which Hamlet was probably based on, with its fire and slaughter ending in the crowning of the hero.3 I guess you could say the story has come full circle, then, though Amleth is still a tragedy in the very end.
To be clear, The Lion King is not Hamlet with lions. Reporting off a Blu-Ray special feature, Samantha Vincenty shares that Rob Minkoff remembers someone noticing some Hamlet similarities when the idea was pitched. The filmmakers then decided to work in more Shakespeare references.4 This might explain why the characters don’t match up to Hamlet counterparts consistently. Timon and Pumbaa are more loyal than Hamlet’s college friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but their frat buddy humor makes a clear connection. Nala, however, is no Ophelia, who goes from demure and obedient daughter to madness and suicide after Hamlet rejects her and kills her father. Zazu could be Polonious because he’s a councilor to the king, but he could also be Osric, who delivers a message to Hamlet only to get called a “chuff.” A footnote on “chuff” in The Necessary Shakespeare‘s Hamlet says its meanings include “chattering jackdaw,”5 which is another brightly colored bird with an often scolding voice. There’s no real match for Rafiki, unless you count Horatio. But when you consider that Rafiki is an old shaman who Simba doesn’t know by name, while Horatio is a young courtier so close to Hamlet they rarely appear apart, it doesn’t add up. For Scar’s hyenas, there is definitely no match.
One detail does closely link Hamlet and The Lion King: rigid hierarchy. Notice how all the characters who are or could be royalty are lions and all the servants and subjects are animals whose type more or less match their jobs? In Shakespeare’s time and in many other points of history, humans of different social classes have treated each other as if they were different species. The Lion King makes this metaphor literal. Simba can run into the jungle but he will always be a lion. Zazu can stand in the company of lions, but he will only ever be a bird.
This is why I bring up Osric. Hamlet says of Osric, “Let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the King’s,” which The Necessary Shakespeare translates as meaning even the lowest man can come to court if he has enough livestock and money.6 So maybe Osric is not born nobility but an upwardly mobile commoner. This makes him a rare exception to the rules of Shakespeare-Denmark’s hierarchy, and it might be why Hamlet treats him as a punching bag (To be fair, he also hates the guy who sent Osric). Because of the literal-metaphor thing, Zazu does not have the same advancement options as Osric. Still, as the only bird in the cast, he may still be the most upwardly mobile of them. At any rate, this is why I was surprised Sheikh straight up says, “Lions don’t rule over other animals.” 7 That should be as obvious as, “Real lions don’t do song-and-dance routines with meerkats.” Of course animals don’t rule over other animals! But humans rule over other humans.
Sundiata the Lion King
Plot Summary: Sundiata is the legendary name of a Mande or Manding prince, a people who lived in what is now Mali. In the tales of traditional storytellers called “griots,” he is said to be the son of King Naré Maghann Konaté and the buffalo woman Songolon Kedju. He is initially a sickly child, teased until he invents the crutch (no, I’m not kidding. Read the verse rendition by Robert D. Shepherd). After his father’s death, Sundiata’s half-brother rises to power and Sundiata’s mother takes him into a distant land to wait. Later, the half-brother is ousted by Soumaoro, sorcerer and son of a djinn, and Sundiata finally returns to reclaim the throne.8
This one is fairly obvious. So much so that many talk about the Mali legend as if it were an official source for the Disney movie. However, I have yet to find any evidence that anyone from Disney has publicly admitted using (or not using) Sundiata’s story as an inspiration, so I consider it tentatively unofficial. Also bear in mind that the legend of Sundiata the Lion King comes from Mali in West Africa, while most of the African names Disney used are from Swahili-speaking East African cultures. A short TV special about “The Making of The Lion King” specifically states the Disney crew flew to East Africa for their on-site research.9 That doesn’t mean Disney is off the hook for possibly borrowing from Mali’s legend. It just means Africa is a big place with many cultures Disney may have drawn from.
In overall plot, Sundiata is even further from The Lion King than Hamlet. His father’s death seems to be from natural causes instead of murder, and I can’t see much of Sarabi or Simba in the buffalo woman and her sickly child. There are, however, places where Sundiata’s story is closer to The Lion King than Hamlet. For example, the self-imposed exile. Simba chooses to run, even if he’s tricked. He’s also still a child/cub, not a grown man like Hamlet is during his brief banishment. The final battle for Pride Rock also has echoes of Sundiata, who triumphs with a small band of loyal followers against a much bigger army. Sadly, there’s nothing like the hilarious insult battle between Sundiata and Soumaoro, an ancient Twitter war of one-liners delivered by owls. I would have loved to see something like that in the new film!
However, this is where we find much better models for Nala and Rafiki. I can’t see her as Ophelia, but I can definitely see Nala in Nyakhaleng, Sundiata’s clever half-sister. Yes, I said half-sister, though please note that Sundiata does not marry her. Rafiki also resembles Balla Fasséké, the old spiritual advisor and griot who, the legend hints, is its first narrator. He and Nyakhaleng both escape Soumaoro’s clutches to bring Sundiata inside information. Nyakhaleng then comes up with a plan to discover Soumaoro’s weaknesses using herself as bait. Not that far from how Nala escapes Scar and then she and Rafiki both visit Simba urging him to return, right?
Still no clear match for the hyenas, though.
The greater involvement of female characters is a key element Sundiata’s story shares with Lion King but not Hamlet. The court structure in Hamlet keeps its two female characters closely dependent on the men in their lives for power and safety. Women in Sundiata still rely on connections to men for power. Sundiata’s mother leaves not because she fears his half-brother’s ascent to the throne but because she knows the king’s first wife wants to eliminate threats to her son’s power. However, they are able to stand beside these men in strategy and war rather than waiting for someone else to decide their fate. The same is true in The Lion King. Nala, even as a cub, feels no fear in besting Simba in wrestling.10 Nala in the 1994 version even snaps, “Hey, genius, it was my idea” about the plan to distract Zazu,11 and it’s clear he who has the lionesses wins Pride Rock. It’s true that these lionesses do not dominate as Sheikh observes their real counterparts might, but this is not a flaw in Disney’s research. In many human cultures through recorded history, the ultimate power has tended to belong to males. Simba’s pride is simply reflecting that truth about humans in lion form.
Kimba the White Lion
Plot Summary: Jungle Emperor, known as Kimba the White Lion in the U.S., follows the adventures of a young lion, Leo in the Japanese original and Kimba in the American dub. Leo/Kimba must reclaim his rightful throne from his evil, scar-eyed uncle Claw after his father is killed. Further adventures continue as Leo/Kimba becomes king of the jungle and tries to help his subjects live in peace with their human neighbors.12
No discussion of possible Lion King sources is complete without touching on the Kimba controversy. An anime based on Osamu Tezuka’s manga, Jungle Emperor first aired as a TV series in 1965, giving it a substantial lead on The Lion King. Unlike with the legend of Sundiata, which so far remains neither credited nor denied as a source, Disney’s official word remains director Rob Minkoff saying he was “not familiar” with the show before the accusations of copying.13 Tezuka himself died before the 1994 film, but his descendants have not sued Disney, which may be partly to keep relations good and partly because the controversy brought new attention to Kimba.14 The controversy remains unresolved today.
Full Disclosure: I have not watched Kimba the White Lion, so I can’t provide a blow-by-blow or pick out quirky details like Osric. I’ll leave that to Pete Keeley from the Hollywood Reporter, arguing for Disney copying Kimba, and Jeremy on Animation for Adults, arguing for coincidental resemblance. For a thorough visual comparison, I suggest Alli Kat’s YouTube video.
Personally, I’m still on the fence about Kimba. There are definitely similarities. Claw’s appearance seems too close for coincidence since he even has the same eye scarred. Bear in mind, however, that it’s unfortunately common for “evil” characters to be dark-colored and scarred or in some way physically imperfect. I’m not too impressed by Kimba and Simba both having scolding messenger/advisor birds. Scolding bird sidekicks are in lots of animated movies and TV shows, and a hornbill is a much more unusual choice of bird than a parrot. The wise mandrills in both are more suspicious. Mandrills aren’t exactly the most commonly type of monkey in movies, and they both clearly have the facial colors that distinguish them from regular baboons. Claw and Scar also both have hyena henchmen, which could be a smoking gun since there’s no source for the hyenas in Hamlet or Sundiata. Still, hyenas are so commonly vilified they seem like an obvious choice. I mean, have you ever seen a movie or TV show with hyenas as the heroes or even as “good” sidekicks? If you have, let me know. I actually kind of like hyenas.
One thing I can be sure of: Kimba does not look much like Simba. In most of the pictures I’ve seen, he looks like someone turned Tezuka’s Astro Boy into a lion. Yes, there are early sketches of Simba where he looks white,15 but these look rough enough I’m not convinced they just haven’t been colored in yet. Also, Kimba appears to defeat Claw and become king when he’s still a cub, while Simba must grow up to even return to Pride Rock.
The most significant difference between Kimba and Lion King is the presence of humans. Claw may be the “evil uncle,” but he didn’t kill his brother. Human hunters kill Kimba’s father in response to the all-too-real issue of a lion stealing their cattle.16 Later, Kimba attempts to keep the peace between humans and animals, going into a more fanciful vein as he apparently orders the animals to learn human speech.17 These interactions mark Kimba as having more of an environmental–or, with the speech lessons, possibly colonial–message. By contrast, The Lion King seems set in an alternate world where humans do not exist. Without any obvious humans to reflect us on screen, we are left to identify with the subtler representations of anthropomorphized animals. There’s a slight environmental note in the new film with its message about over-hunting, but even that casts the lions in the role of humans, making judgements about how to manage the natural resources around them.
Though I’ve never seen it, I’m fascinated by the Broadway production of The Lion King. Why? Because it may be the most visually honest version out there. Most of the actors wear symbolic make-up and minimal costuming that identifies the animals they play without hiding the humans who are behind them. It’s the opposite of the new film and yet, at heart, they’re still the same. The lions on screen in this Lion King may be rendered in astonishing anatomical detail and display realistic feline body language, but when it comes down to it, they are computer-generated masks with the voices of humans and the crafting of other humans bringing them to life. And behind them all is a story grown from many generations of collective human dreams.
Articles like Sheikh’s have their place in the discussion of The Lion King. We live in a time when stories like the woman mauled by a jaguar after an ill-planned selfie attempt are all too common,18 and wild lions face an uncertain future. It’s important that people spread information about the real animals we base our film dreams on so that we disregard neither their power nor their vulnerability. However, the other side of that coin is remembering that we are not seeing real lions and hyenas on screen. The question we should ask after leaving the theater isn’t so much, “How Realistic is The Lion King?” Rather, we should ask, “What kind of story are we humans telling about ourselves and our place in the world from behind the mask of the lion?”
Sources
1. Sheikh, Knvul, “How ‘The Lion King’ Gets Real-Life Lion Family Dynamics Wrong,” New York Times, July 21, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/21/movies/lion-king-nature.html.
2. “The Lion King,” Wikipedia, accessed August 22, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion_King#Production.
3. Ashliman, D. L. ed., “Amleth, Prince of Denmark,” University of Pittsburgh, last modified February 19, 2011. http://pitt.edu/~dash/amleth.html.
4. Vincenty, Samantha, “The Lion King’s Surprising Connections to Hamlet,” The Oprah Magazine, Jul 12, 2019, https://www.oprahmag.com/entertainment/tv-movies/a28376309/the-lion-king-hamlet-comparison/.
5. Bevington, David, ed., The Necessary Shakespeare, 3rd ed. (Chicago: Pearson, 2009), 599.
6. Bevginton, David, ed., The Necessary Shakespeare, 599.
7. Sheikh, “Real-Life Lion Family Dynamics.”
8. Shepherd, Robert D., adapted trans., “Sundiata Keita: The Lion King,” in Voices of the People: Our African American Heritage, by Robert D. Shepherd, 6-18 (Tempa: Callisto School Publishing, 2013). Accessed August 17, 2019. https://staffweb.psdschools.org/bkatz/OM11/Hum/Res/Sundiata_Keita_the_Lion_King.pdf.
9. “The Making of The Lion King,” YouTube video, 27:30, posted by douglas moore, March 28, 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9YJCDulLMU. Originally aired as “The Making of ‘The Lion King,’” directed by Dan Boothe, aired 24 June 1994 [USA: The Wrightwood Group, 1994], TV short.
10. The Lion King, directed by Jon Favreau [Los Angeles, CA: Walt Disney Pictures, July 19, 2019]. Film.
11. The Lion King, directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff [Burbank, CA: Walt Disney Pictures, June 24, 1994], DVD.
12. “Kimba the White Lion,” Wikipedia, accessed August 22, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimba_the_White_Lion.
13. Keeley, Pete, “Big Little Lions: Disney’s New ‘Lion King’ Dodges the ‘Kimba’ Similarity Issue,” The Hollywood Reporter, July 22, 2019, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/lion-king-kimba-white-lion-does-disney-need-come-clean-1225822.
14. Young, Rob, “Revisiting a 20 Year Old Controversy: Was The Lion King a Stolen Idea?,” Cinelinx, June 30, 2014, http://www.cinelinx.com/movie-news/movie-stuff/was-the-lion-king-a-stolen-idea-revisiting-a-20-year-old-controversy/.
15. Alli Kat, “Kimba & The Lion King – How Similar Are They?,” YouTube video, 7:41, Posted by Alli Kat, March 25, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHps2iC8W3o.
16. “Kimba the White Lion,” Wikipedia.
17. Jeremy, “Kimba Vs Simba: The Great Lion King Controversy,” Animation for Adults, July 25, 2019, https://www.animationforadults.com/2019/07/kimba-vs-simba-great-lion-king.html.
18. Romo, Vanessa, “Selfie-Taking Woman Apologizes After Jaguar Attack At Arizona Zoo,” NPR, March 11, 2019, https://www.npr.org/2019/03/11/702386685/selfie-taking-woman-apologizes-after-jaguar-attack-at-arizona-zoo.
Illuminating the Fool's Mirror 
Whew, that list almost made me rethink having citations, but I’m glad I stuck with it! I got to learn how to make links within a document.
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Wow impressive!
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Thanks! I was a bit nervous about posting it since there’s so much out there on Lion King sources, but I haven’t seen many that compare different ones.
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It’s great!!!
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Thanks! I’m glad you liked it. 😊
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You’re welcome 😉
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[…] back on my first feature post, “Behind the Lion Mask,” I see not dramatic changes but subtle shifts. The basic approach is familiar, looking at a piece of […]
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