The Lion King

from Deconstructing Disney · host Erin Casey Westin, Rachel Casey

Episode SummaryAnother critical and commercial success of the Disney Renaissance, The Lion King (1994) was a beast at the box office and on home video. It was also the first animated Disney animated film set in Africa. Despite (relatively) diverse casting and the incorporation of authentic African music, there's still plenty of racism to discuss, with some homophobia and questionable political commentary thrown in! Episode BibliographyBBC NEWS | Entertainment | Disney settles Lion song dispute. (2006, February 16). BBC News. Retrieved May 14, 2022, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4721564.stmBradley, B. (2015, January 27). Was 'The Lion King' Copied From A Japanese Cartoon? Here's The Real Story. HuffPost. Retrieved May 15, 2022, from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lion-king-kimba_n_6272316Carter Jackson, K. (2019, July 17). The true story behind ‘The Lion King.’ The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/07/17/true-story-behind-lion-king/Červinka, P. (2015, April 24). The Making of The Lion King. YouTube. Retrieved May 21, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFL5xbxc0AYDaly, S. (1994, July 8). Mane Attraction. Entertainment Weekly, (230). https://web.archive.org/web/20140904092026/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,302837,00.htmlDeneroff, H., & Ladd, F. (2009). Footnote to History: Kimba versus Simba - The Uproar. In Astro Boy and Anime Come to the Americas: An Insider's View of the Birth of a Pop Culture Phenomenon (pp. 62-64). McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers.Denham, H. (2019, July 26). Lion King: There's a 25-year-old intellectual property dispute surrounding the Disney film. The Washington Post. Retrieved May 16, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/07/26/lion-king-has-been-clouded-by-intellectual-property-controversy-years-heres-story-behind-it/Ebert, R. (1994, June 24). The Lion King movie review & film summary (1994). Roger Ebert. Retrieved May 15, 2022, from https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-lion-king-1994Elahi, B. (2001). Pride Lands: The Lion King, Proposition 187, and White Resentment. Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory, 57(3), 121-152. doi: 0.1353/arq.2001.0001Fallon, K. (2014, June 24). 'The Lion King' Turns 20: Every Crazy, Weird Fact About the Disney Classic. The Daily Beast. Retrieved May 28, 2022, from https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-lion-king-turns-20-every-crazy-weird-fact-about-the-disney-classicGavin, R. (1996). "The Lion King" and "Hamlet": A homecoming for the exiled child. The Universe of Literature, 85(3), 55-57. Giddings, S. (1999). The circle of life: Nature and representation in Disney's The Lion King. Third Text, 49, 83-92. doi: 10.1080/09528829908576825Giles Coren, G. (1994, July 20). Disney's Heart of Darkness. The Times, 12.Gooding-Williams, R. (1995). Disney in Africa and the inner city: On race and space in The Lion King. Social Identities, 1(2).Hahn, D. (Director). (2011). The Lion King A Memoir Don Hahn [Film]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoaPT4ijS-UHinson, H. (1994, June 24). WashingtonPost.com: 'The Lion King'. The Washington Post. Retrieved May 14, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/review96/lionkinghin.htmJapanese animator protests 'Lion King'. (1994, August 18). UPI.com. Retrieved May 15, 2022, from https://www.upi.com/Archives/1994/08/18/Japanese-animator-protests-Lion-King/4250777182400/Klass, P. (1994, June 19). A ‘Bambi’ for the 90's, via Shakespeare. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/19/movies/film-view-a-bambi-for-the-90-s-via-shakespeare.htmlKelts, R. (2007). Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S. St. Martin's Publishing Group.King, S. (2011, September 15). A 'Lion's' Tale. Los Angeles Times. https://web.archive.org/web/20111024102445/http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/15/entertainment/la-et-lion-king-20110915Knolle, S. (2014, June 14). 'The Lion King': 20 Things You Didn't Know About the Disney Classic. Moviefone. Retrieved May 14, 2022, from https://web.archive.org/web/20140617142313/http://news.moviefone.com/2014/06/14/lion-king-facts/Kring, J. (2019, July 19). How the Original 'Lion King' Came to Life. The Ringer. Retrieved May 15, 2022, from https://www.theringer.com/movies/2019/7/19/20699678/the-lion-king-original-animation-1994The Lion King. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved May 14, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion_KingThe Lion King. (2000, December 8). Rolling Stone. https://web.archive.org/web/20080429201931/http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/5947315/review/5947316/the_lion_kingThe Lion King (1994). (n.d.). Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 14, 2022, from https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0110357/The Lion King (1994). (n.d.). Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 15, 2022, from https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0110357/?ref_=bo_se_r_1Maslin, J. (1994, June 15). Review/Film; The Hero Within The Child Within. The New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/15/movies/review-film-the-hero-within-the-child-within.htmlMasters, K. (2014, April 9). The Epic Disney Blow-Up of 1994: Eisner, Katzenberg and Ovitz 20 Years Later. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 17, 2022, from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/epic-disney-blow-up-1994-694476/Mikkelson, D. (1996, December 31). Is the Word 'Sex' Hidden in 'The Lion King'? Snopes.com. Retrieved May 16, 2022, from https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-lion-king/Minkoff, R., & Allers, R. (Directors). (1994). The Lion King [Film]. Walt Disney Pictures.Morton, J. (1996). Simba's revolution: Revisiting history and class in The Lion King. Social Identities, 2(2).Movieclips. (2016, August 16). In the Heat of the Night (4/10) Movie CLIP - They Call Me Mr. Tibbs (1967) HD. YouTube. Retrieved May 25, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6n8VyqaCQ4Orenstein, N. (2014, September 15). Berkeley's colony of spotted hyenas closes after 30 years. Berkeleyside. Retrieved May 16, 2022, from https://www.berkeleyside.org/2014/09/15/berkeleys-captive-colony-of-spotted-hyenas-closes-after-30-years?doing_wp_cron=1652051660.0969309806823730468750Rachele. (n.d.). "The Lion King," - an adult film? ENG 1131 Shakespeare Through Media. Retrieved May 25, 2022, from http://plaza.ufl.edu/r.harvey/finalpaper.htmlRicker, A. (1996). The Lion King animated storybook: A case study of aesthetic and economic power. Critical Arts, 10(1).Rob Minkoff. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved May 17, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_MinkoffRoth, M. (1996, March). The Lion King A short history of Disney-fascism. Jump Cut, (40), 15-20. http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC40folder/LionKing.htmlRoth, M. (2005). Man is in the Forest: Humans and Nature in Bambi and The Lion King. Invisible Culture: An Electronic Journal for Visual Culture, (9). Retrieved May 22, 2022, from https://www.rochester.edu/in_visible_culture/Issue_9/roth.htmlSiskel, G., & Ebert, R. (2019, February 22). Speed, The Lion King, The Endless Summer II, City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold, 1994 – Siskel and Ebert Movie Reviews. Siskel and Ebert Movie Reviews. Retrieved May 16, 2022, from https://siskelebert.org/?p=5412Stenberg, D. (1996). The circle of life and the chain of being: Shakespearean motifs in “The Lion King.” Shakespeare Bulletin, 14(2), 36-37.Strzelczyk, F. (2008). Fascism and family entertainment. Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 25(3), 196-211. doi: 10.1080/10509200601091433Takeuchi, H. (n.d.). Kimba the White Lion. Wikipedia. Retrieved May 16, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimba_the_White_LionTLKCoL. (2017, March 24). Pride of The Lion King | Behind the Scenes Documentary (Making of). YouTube. Retrieved May 21, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bLD2gZhmoUVisram, T. (2019, July 19). Disney replaced the first Lion King's racist hyenas. Fast Company. Retrieved May 22, 2022, from https://www.fastcompany.com/90379067/critics-said-the-first-lion-kings-hyenas-were-problematic-disney-revamped-themWard, A. R. (1996). The Lion King's mythic narrative. Journal of Popular Film & Television, 23(4).Willman, C. (1994, May 15). SUMMER SNEAKS '94 : You Can't Hide His Lion Eyes : It's no coincidence that Disney's latest jungle villain bears a wicked resemblance to Jeremy Irons; just ask the animator. Los Angeles Times. https://web.archive.org/web/20141109000340/http://articles.latimes.com/1994-05-15/entertainment/ca-57883_1_jeremy-ironsWong, V. (1999). Deconstructing Walt Disney's “The Lion King.” Kinema: A Journal for Film and Audiovisual Media, 1-7. doi: 10.15353/kinema.vi.895Thanks to Katie Seelen for her research assistance.

What this episode covers

Another critical and commercial success of the Disney Renaissance, The Lion King (1994) was a beast at the box office and on home video. It was also the first animated Disney animated film set in Africa. Despite (relatively) diverse casting and the incorporation of authentic African music, there's still plenty of racism to discuss, with some homophobia and questionable political commentary thrown in!

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This episode was published on June 7, 2022.

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