Stories Old & New: The Lion King

In case anyone came over here from any of my Instagram videos, my YouTube channel is here. Once again, apologies for the side trip.

And so here we are again. Doing another review, the second on a row. I did one last month, which was more of a rambling love letter to all things Good Omens, that absolutely brilliant, brilliant show which you can read here. Today’s ramble is on the new Lion King live action movie, and it’s in response to casual request from my friend, Alexander Lehtinen. I mean, he said “detailed review” but I don’t know how much details I can offer seeing that I can offer no comparison with the original, but here goes.

In 1994 when The Lion King came out, my favourite Bengali children’s magazine ran a cover-story on it. I don’t remember what the article said, only that I was moved enough to tell my mother that I wanted to watch the movie. Compared to a lot of kids my age, I didn’t watch a lot of movies back then, and then usually those that my parents took me to watch on their own, so it must been quite an impressive review. My mom said yes, we would go watch the film, but for various reasons, 1994 was a very trying time for our family. The movie plan didn’t materialize and I didn’t ask again, without any strong feeling of regret or missing out anything special. I don’t recall any of my friends back then talking about watching it, and there was no social media to continuously entice one. But over the years images from the film I hadn’t watched lingered over my subconscious, through lunch boxes, school bags, exercise notebooks and those double pencil boxes with magnetic latches that were all the rage back then.

Then Facebook arrived and through a multitude of crossover memes that I didn’t fully understand, I picked up the names Simba, Mufasa and Scar. I even remember coming across a rather complicated family tree (with some vague parallel with the Noble and Ancient House of Black?) that probably wouldn’t make sense even now. At some point, I might have watched a film about Simba’s grown-up daughter and how heroes of old sometimes need to relearn their lessons and let go off the festering hurts of the past. (My biggest take-away from that film was of course the song ‘Upendi’ which I used in a little musical show that I was involved with a couple of years back. The performers wore lovely bright animal masks as they jigged, and the whole thing came off rather well. One glorious show on a fleeting winter evening!) Meanwhile, there were memes about Rafiki the mandrill throwing off a baby Simba from the top of a cliff (‘If George R.R. Martin directed Lion King’), a context I understood without having watched the original scene. That’s social media for you. I mean, I knew Iron Man was a billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, genius ages long before I had watched Avengers or Iron Man or any of it. Also, the fact that he had a Hulk as opposed to an army. Point is, I never got around to watching the original Lion King movie, and for many years I have had no particular will to catch up.

But then the trailer of the new live action adaptation dropped, and that sweeping shot of the savannah as Rafiki holds up a baby Simba hit me straight in the gut with the accumulated nostalgia of years that wasn’t even mine. And now, after all these years, I was suddenly determined to watch it.

So what did I think of the movie?

I went to watch The Lion King to rediscover the child. Did the adult intervene? Oh yes. For instance, that’s not how lion prides work, and can a lion cub really grow into a healthy fighting adult on a diet of worms? But when you reason like that, why would a tortoise race a rabbit, and whoever has heard of pigs building brick houses? And so with those irksome questions pushed away, I absolutely loved the movie. I don’t know how much of it was green screens, but I loved the panorama of the pride lands, with the light touching everywhere. Baby Simba was adorable. Every voice actor was perfect in their roles, although, I think my personal favourite was John Oliver as the rather hassled Zazu who gets bullied by Scar early on and then is given the run by the cubs and later bullied by the hyenas. Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar is menacing and manipulative, Florence Kasumba (Shenzi) has the delicious lilt of someone who enjoys playing with food, James Earl Jones is dignified, warm and terrible in anger. Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen as Timon and Pumba ae quite the double act. Donald Glover brings out the escapism, the repressed guilt, forced cheerfulness, royal authority and heartbreak and the child’s fears all with ease.And as expected, Beyonce isn’t here for anyone’s bullshit. Speaking of which, I was surprised by ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight’ turning out to be a duet because while it makes sense for both characters to be singing considering the context, I have only heard a solo version by Sir Elton John with slightly different lyrics and have no idea if the song in the original version is different.

Although a story like this always moves along expected lines, the film still manages to evoke warmth and fear and heartbreak in all the right places. Especially, the scene involving the cubs and the hyenas keeps on leaning at the edge of one’s seat, and the scene post-stampede is devastating. The ending, as expected satisfies, bringing the circle to a close.

To sum it up, good acting and music, backed up by good visuals and CGI, and on the whole a rather agreeable Sunday morning well spent.

I went to watch this film with an almost blank slate, no point of reference to previous actors and their interpretations of these characters. I’ve never watched a single clip from the old movie so didn’t know how the scenes played out. I did have a faint idea of the story that I had picked up in bits and pieces over the years- villainous uncle, exiled prince, return of the king… the usual tropes. But that was all. No details, no expectation, nothing. Here’s what I thought –on the whole quite correctly, s it turns out- I knew.  Scar kills Mufasa, Simba escapes, Nala finds him years later and he returns again to defeat the villain and rule his kingdom. A happy ending. Very fairy tale, very ‘expected’, one might say, but then I think the most enduring stories are. Things happen in an orderly fashion, and you know that for all the suffering now there will be an eventual, great triumph and a happily ever after, and your faith in the rightness of things is restored. Somewhere, there’s danger, somewhere there’s injustice. And somewhere, the tea is getting cold.

No- wait… that’s Doctor Who.

Sorry.

Did you understand this reference?

But maybe that’s the point of good old simple stories. Somewhere, there’s a hero who faces their own fears, and puts the world in order again. And the circle of life is restored, because the child believes in it.

And perhaps there’s a kid somewhere discovering an old tale retold, marveling at the beauty of our forests and learning something about filling bigger footprints and of balance and protecting the world we love.

No harm in hope, eh?After all, that’s why we repeat old stories.

And speaking of hope, I wrote a new song that you can listen to here.

I also post poetry and other stuff on Instagram and Facebook (There’s also a short food post up there in a while, also requested by Alex although I have never done food review before) and you can follow me on Twitter.

See ya.