The Lion King- The King of White Pride Rock

The Lion King is the greatest animated film of all time. The music, the characters, the Hamlet inspired story, and the incredible artwork combine to create something truly wonderful beyond any of the individual pieces. This magnificent piece of art represents thousands of hours of work by numerous extremely talented artists, musicians, and actors. I've seen this movie more times than I can count, but the opening sequence still gives me chills.

When I talk about traditional animation being innately better than computer animation, this is what I mean. Look at the detail in the illustrations and the expressionism in Rafiki's eyes. They can't do that with computers. These drawings have soul. That comes from a lot of hard work and love from the illustrators. Hand drawings can't fall into the uncanny valley like computer animation can. Brave may have been the prettiest computer animated film to date, but there's nothing in that film that comes close to the opening of The Lion King.

With all that said, this blog has delightfully perverted the way I watch movies and it is now apparent to me that The Lion King is so racist it could have been written by Walt Disney himself.

In the opening minutes of the film, we are told that all creatures have their place in the great circle of life, but seconds later we are informed that hyenas are not permitted on the lush prairies of the Prideland. (Prideland **Nudge** **Nudge** **Wink** **Wink** Know what I mean? Know what I mean?) They must be forcefully kept in their place. The hyenas are constantly battling starvation on barren lands while the lions live in opulence.

When Scar, takes power he's portrayed as evil. Why? Because, he supports desegregation. (Ok, so he did kill Mufasa, but that bigot had it coming.) When Simba returns, the Pridelands are dying, but it's not because the hyenas have over-hunted the land as the lions would like you to believe. It's because the savannah has been struck by a terrible drought. There is nothing Scar did or could have done to cause that. In fact, in a time of drought, a little extra hunting would relieve some of the demand for water and thus make the environment healthier, at least in the short-term. Scar and the hyenas are being scapegoated for a natural phenomenon so that the lions can justify their racism. Scar, by the way, is the only brown lion. All the other lions are blond (Aryans).

So while Apartheid was ending in South Africa, Disney was making a movie about how desegregation would destroy Africa. It's good to see Walt's legacy lives on.

Oh, and some of it might have been stolen from Kimba the White Lion.

I'm furry for Nala. That is all.