School Dropout Essay

Submitted By kendallhuff11
Words: 1453
Pages: 6

Kendall Huff
Mr. Keith Boran
English 101, Section 26
11 October 2010
“The Lion King Evaluation”
Growing up as a child and for many years afterwards, Walt Disney’s The Lion King has always been one of my top favorite movies of all time. As I recall, my mother bought me the movie when I was five, and I watched it numerous times throughout my childhood. I would watch it over and over again everyday after school until my parents became so aggravated that they regretted buying the movie. I also owned many other Disney classics, but none of them even compared to The Lion King. Watching it as a child, I only saw it as an entertaining, animated musical. However, as I reflect back now that I am older, I can recognize the many themes and morals the film presents. This film portrays the ideas of leadership, the circle of life, and courage.
The Lion King presents the story of a young lion cub’s journey to adulthood and acceptance to his righteous destiny. Simba begins life as an honored prince, son of King Mufasa. Nevertheless, his childhood turns tragic when his evil uncle Scar murders Mufasa and drives Simba away from the kingdom. Later Simba becomes best friends with Simon and Pumbaa, a meer cat and warthog, both living a jungle free life. As he reaches adulthood, Simba is visited by the spirit of his father who tells him to return and defeat Scar and take his rightful place at the throne. As Simba finally realizes his place in the circle of life, he returns to Pride Rock for a battle against his uncle that will give insight as to who will become king of the pride lands in the end.
Released in 1994, “The Lion King” immediately became the highest grossing 2D animated film in the United States. While some may see this film as just another children’s movie, The Lion King contains much deeper themes than just a fairy-tale storyline. Leadership, courage, responsibility, and the circle of life are the main subjects in which we can learn from. The Lion King also includes a great deal of spectacular animation and fun musical songs throughout the entire film. The animation is beautiful and the story is powerful and moving.
The magnificent work of this animation is beautifully designed. The animation creates a real world scene that truly has breathtaking visuals. The colors of the masterpiece produce vivid details that capture most viewers as if they were right in the action themselves. For instance, the sunrise and sunset characteristics of Africa shown in the film are stunning. For the art director to captivate this image, members of the creative team visited Eastern Africa during the process of the production. The many close encounters of lions and other jungle animals helped to shape and define the characters of the movie. The many images and videos the team brought back from Africa enabled the art director to add realistic flavor to idea they were creating for the film. The trip helped them create the exciting design that makes this film so detailed and unique. The producers’ presentation of Africa’s landscape and nature that include Pride Rock or the pride lands, the water hole, and the elephant graveyard are all perfectly created and originally inspired by the trip to Africa and the natural beauty that thrives there. The combination of the best qualities of paintings and cartooning brought together this magnificent work of art.
The musical performances and songs contained in this film are fun and exciting. The musical songs performed within the movie are significant due to the fact that they provide an entertaining and amusing way to catch the audiences’ attention. The songs get the viewers involved by putting a smile on their face to take their attention away from some of the dreary situations happening within the film such as the death of Mufasa and the exile of Simba. As a previous viewer of The Lion King the songs definitely made me want to sing along and occasionally tap my feet to the beat. A few