The Lion King (1994) Revisited: Simba’s Journey from a Prince to the King – Editorial

I assume it won’t be an exaggeration if The Lion King was one of the most celebrated animated films ever. The Lion King was loosely based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet and what better way to portray the political complexity in nature than a Lion’s Pride?  The life of a Lion as we humans see it is… Majestic. The mighty big cat has been declared King of the Wild by quite a few artists in every possible way. Even the Greek demi-god Hercules had to kill a Lion in one of his labors. Hindu mythology has Narasimha as one of the avatars of Vishnu who stands tall for Roudram, a state of absolute rage for justice and balance, no matter the amount of bloodshed. And the most importantly Lion’s got a personality.

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Simba means Lion in an East African language. The way the story preps Simba to be a King is the strong points of the movie. Being born into an insane world full of clueless self-justified sheep, wolves, jackals, hippos and even insects we sometimes call pests can be a tough one. But imagine being born into royalty where everybody expects greatness from you and you have to outgrow your own father’s shadow with an uncle who tries to kill you every chance he gets. That’s basically Simba’s life.

He’s curious about why things are the way they are like why a Lion eats an Antelope and also has to protect them as a King. For which, The King, Mufasa answers with a popular term ‘circle of life’. The critical balance of nature depends on understanding it. An antelope eats grass keeping it from overgrowing, a lion kills an antelope keeping the antelopes numbers down and when Lions die, the dead body feeds the worms, grass which is the antelope’s food.

When Mufasa was murdered for power by his own blood-brother Scar, for a second, Simba couldn’t believe that his powerful father, the King can die. With the help of his treacherous uncle, Simba believes that Mufasa’s death was his own fault and in the process of running away from the Hyenas, he wanders into the unknown.

He meets Timon and Pumba, two single friends who don’t have a care in the world. Hakuna Matata. Simba makes the gang complete. In an attempt of fitting himself in the new world, he goes along with them. Past catches up with him as it always does and he chooses to face it. Simba’s journey from there to his rightful place in the circle of life is the rest of the movie.

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Hamlet may be a gut-wrenching story that it’s violence and politics might be a turn off even for adults but The Lion King is a piece of art that entertained at least two generations hopefully more to come. Simba character has such relevance to every Prince’s story. Aryan Khan dubbed Simba in the upcoming Hindi remake of the movie and judging by his voice in the promos, he nailed it…

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Suhel Abdulla

Another Engineer this world wanted but never needed. I was surrounded my whole life by the three most successful religions in the whole world. I was born a Muslim, grew up around Hindus and my School Teachers were Christians. I won’t assume, I won’t blame and I won’t shame. I listen, I understand and I write. I don’t have any complaints, just concerns. I'm curious enough to learn from the past, care for the present and hope for the future. I love Freedom of speech and writing keeps me free.

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