‘The Lion King’ (1994): The Circle of Life

Simba remembers his father, in "The Lion King." Walt Disney Feature Animation

This coming-of-age classic is about a pride of lions in the African wild. Cub Simba matures to thwart the evil designs of his uncle Scar and succeeds his slain father, Mufasa, as the Lion King. Like all great stories about animals, this is also about humans. It celebrates their finest values and critiques their worst. Plot summary, cast, reviews, and ratings are available at IMDb.com.

Mufasa guides his cub Simba, in "The Lion King." Walt Disney Feature Animation

The film’s portrait of predators alongside prey makes a wider, often misunderstood point about man’s relationship with nature: Man is not apart from but a part of nature. The title song explains that “The Circle of Life” touches not just the animal kingdom but also the world.

That includes humans. It connects every being, every species. That one hunts or consumes another doesn’t frustrate the natural order but fulfills it. Wildebeests aren’t inferior to lions because they’re prey, any more than alligators are superior to warthogs because they’re predators. If prey weren’t meant to be preyed upon, they’d hardly live within miles of predators, drinking from and feeding on a shared plain.

Man must consume natural resources and animal or plant nutrients for his survival, growth, and health. Yes, he must be restrained just as predatory animals allow some prey to live to see another day. How else would the prey remain a perpetual source of nourishment? But to insist that man should aspire to false ideas of virtue by abstaining from consumption, as if he’s a lesser species, desecrates that natural code of interdependence.

How do we know that humans are meant to be the crown of creation? Unlike animals, humans hunger not only for more but also for better. And they’ll work more creatively, consistently, and collaboratively than animals do, for better food, drink, and shelter. Unlike animals, humans thirst for enriched minds, hearts, and souls—not just nourished bodies. Humans need nourishment on a higher level, through their art, music, literature, humor, games, and sport.

The cub Simba doesn't realize the evil intentions of his uncle Scar, in "The Lion King." Walt Disney Feature Animation

The Big Lie

The film’s vision of maturity revolves not just around merely telling the truth but also courageously living by it. Scar’s sly falsehood clashes against, then crumbles under, Mufasa’s ethic of being true to himself that Simba inherits.

Scar’s first lie is pride, self-deception, believing that he ought to be king. Envious, he orchestrates a wildebeest stampede that’s fatal for Mufasa and nearly fatal for Simba. He deceives Simba into taking the blame for Mufasa’s death.

But truth trips up all liars. Scar assumes that the stampede kills Simba, not just Mufasa. When Simba finally learns to be true to himself, returning triumphant to Pride Rock, the liar’s forced to confess the truth. But even when his life is at stake, Scar clutches at lies: The hyenas are to blame.

Simba’s rebuke—“Everything you ever told me was a lie”—clarifies that Scar’s lying habit, perhaps cultivated when he was a cub, has become a reflex, second nature. Simba cultivates the opposite habit: truth.

Listening to Adults

Simba’s tale makes it clear that children must obey upright, caring adults even when they don’t understand why. Scar is neither upright nor caring; Mufasa is both. Families can sometimes pay a terrible price for a child’s disobedience to the right adults, or obedience to the wrong ones.

It may be the smallest tribe in the world, but the family is also the most important. Without it, no other tribe worth the name would survive. And none of it survives if children don’t learn and show respect, in word and action.

The animal rabbi or priest, Rafiki, drives this truth home with a philosophical-spiritual twist. After years of waiting for a savior to deliver them from Scar’s slavery, those in the Pride Lands nearly give up. But when Rafiki finds Simba alive, he reminds him through his reflection in a pool of water that he’s created in the image and likeness of his father. Simba still frolics like a cub, delighting in the self-indulgence of a mantra he’s appropriated far from the Pride Lands: “hakuna matata” (“no worries” in Swahili). When he stares into the water, he’s startled at his reflection. He’s no longer a cub.

Simba sees his grown-up self as he looks in a pond, in "The Lion King." Walt Disney Feature Animation

Then Mufasa appears, as if in a dream, reminding Simba that his father lives inside his son. By forgetting his father, Simba’s forgetting himself: “Look inside. … You are more than what you have become.”

As if on cue, Rafiki chides Simba’s childish erasure of history. Without honoring the past he can’t claim his present, let alone shape his future: “The past can hurt. … You can … run from it, or ...  learn from it.”

You can watch “The Lion King” on Disney+/Hulu, Apple TV, and Prime Video.

This series, “Commentaries on Animated Films for Children and Young Teens,” may interest parents, caregivers, or educators of children and young teens, who are looking for inspiring animated films to recommend.

What arts and culture topics would you like us to cover? Please email ideas or feedback to [email protected]