Narrative and Film Form of the Lion King

by Shadeque A. Khaleque

The narrative system and the form of a film are two different elements which applies in every films. Both have different functions to create a film in order to make the audience understand it and become engaged to it. The Lion King is a  family movie produced by Walt Disney, the story is set in Africa and uses  animals to portray real characters. I found it interesting that all though these animals followed the natural principles of their lives, they had strong human characteristics attributed in them which makes the audience understand these characters more and follow their laughs, joys, pain and sorrow throughout the entire film. Many of these characters had their own functions in this film, in this essay I will be explaining a few of these characters and how the film structure, colours works with these characters.

To support my ideas for this film, I read a book titled Film Art: An Introduction by Bordwell and Thompson. One of the chapters explains about the concept of film form. I understood that form is a system like a human body, one part can not function without another. The authors of the book explains 'by film form, in its broadest sense, we mean the overall system of relations that we perceive among the elements in the whole film', (chapter-2, p-55). In the Lion King, the narrative element is the story. A new king is born who accidentally kills his farther, runaway where he encounters two friends, then returns back to his kingdom. We identify all the characters in Simba's adult stage and link these characters in Simba's childhood stage. We recognise the stylistic elements along with the narrative elements. The stylistic elements depend on the movement of the camera, the colour and music. The music in the background are mostly African Zulu style music and the songs they sing to go with the narrative elements  use African music. Both of these stylistics create the unity of the film. Besides identifying the setting of the film, the pattern of the colour in the film stays the same from Simba's childhood to adulthood. But the tone of the colour changes depending on the area as well as the characters and their emotions. For instance, the scenes with the villains will be in a dark area and the scenes with the heroes will be in a light area.

The film begins with Simba’s birth, who is the lion king. We already know the film is set in the lands of Africa by the Zulu vocals, the vivid colour of the sun rising, the types of animals and the land. The audience are able to sense what is happening, that this new born cub is the main character of the film and that he is the lion king mentioned in the title because the camera keeps our eyes focused on Simba. This event was done visually with no dialogue except a powerful heavenly choir in the background, yet understandable to the audience. The scene where Rafiki holds up Simba on the edge of the cliff reveals that this cub is special, mainly because of the heavenly ray of light shining from the sky (see fig 1). Throughout this film, not only Simba but most of the characters who were in the side of good had a heavenly light shining upon them, while the characters on the side of evil had dark smokes and fires around them. That is a strong way of representing the characteristics of good and evil.

fig 1: Rakiki holding Simba

Scar is the main villain of this film as well as the main function that cause the casualties to occur. In most of the scenes, the camera views both the good leaders and bad leaders from a lower level to show that they are powerful rulers. Yet the colour, music affects and surroundings would be different to each other (see figs 2 and 3). Scar is not friends with his own tribe, he has hatred and jealousy on his brother Mufasa and his son Simba, because of Simba, Scar is unable to become the next king. His plan is to replace both kings but no one in the film is aware of his intention.

fig 2: a screenshot of Mufasa's evil brother Scar

fig 3: a screenshot of the heroes in The Lion King

Simba is motivated by his farther throughout the film, even after his death. Simba is aware of his farther being a king, ruler and fighter. In the beginning of the film, Simba was full of excitement because he had high hopes to become a brave king like his farther. Being a child, Simba wrongly thought that becoming a king was about showing courage and fighting back your enemies (see fig 4). This motivation was the key for Scar to replace Mufasa as the king. Not being aware that Scar had an evil plot, Simba was driven by scar on may occasions to create casualties, which then gets his farther, king Mufasa killed. All though it was Scar’s plan to get rid of Mufasa, Simba felt responsible, his characteristic has changed from happiness to sadness. He learned his lesson, that even when a parent tries to save their child from a troubled situation caused by the child, sometimes the parent ends up dying instead of the child. He knew by then that he was not ready to become the king and that his actions from his intentions were not correct.

fig 4: Simba walks into a trap

After that, Simba runs away from his village and makes new friends, Timon and Pumbaa. Suddenly the mood of the film changes from darkness to light, the colourful and the joyful side of the film comes back with more added humour. The three of them sing songs together, the importance of the song was not just to show these friends were bonding but also to pass the time in Simba’s life from childhood to adulthood (see figs 5 and 6). That singing scene kept the audience entertained, instead of having a scene cut into the lion already in his adult stage. It could have been confusing that way. If they decided to show Simba slowly reaching his adult stage throughout the film, there may not had been any good ideas to create events to occur, because the main casualty happens in his childhood and the main conflict happens during his adulthood.

fig 6: the same scene but Simba has become an adult

fig 5: young Simba, Pumbaa and Timon, respectively singing

Similarity and Repetition is a system for the audience to identify each characters each time they appear. In The Lion King, we must see the similarities in Simba's childhood and adulthood. For instance, there are a couple of scenes in which Simba are wrestling during their cub stages (figs 7 and 8). This event repeats itself when they become adults, they do not recognize each other as they start wrestling, but when Nala pins Simba down, he recognises her.  Later on the film, we see another scene which has a similar event in the past (see figs 9 and 10).  Repetition is also described as a motif, 'we shall call any significant repeated element in a film a motif', (Bordwell and Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction, chapter-2, p-66). We compare the events in Simba's adult stage to Simba's childhood stage and recognise each characters using these events. Such similarities are known as parallelism. 

fig 7: young Nala pins Young Simba down

fig 8: adult Nala pins adult Simba down

fig 9: Scar above, Mufasa

fig 10: Scar above, Simba below

The narration of the Lion King is seen through different perspectives. Each characters are aware of events not seen by other characters. For instance, Simba is the hero but he has no knowledge of Scar’s evil acts, but the rest of the characters do, so we witness what these characters witness. But we learn more about Simba than any of the characters, we go deep into Simba’s heart and mind. Followed by Scar, whom we know about his intention. 

The colour pattern  and weather in the film adds a strong drama into it. Particularly in the last scene. As the film plot moves away from Simba and his new friends and goes back to his kingdom, the color of the sky begins to look dark. It is to represent the depression of the environment caused by Scar. When Simba feels tormented by Scar, the clouds become darker and strikes thunders while the camera moves fast around Simba, showing his feeling of being tormented (see fig 11). Then the thunder strikes on woods to create fire. The color and sound of the fire has many reasons on the final fight scene between Simba and Scar. From their emotions of anger to a sense of fear of dying.  

fig 11: Simba in the front, Scar on the back

Bordwell and Thompson explains formal expectations in their book using this formula, 'assume that "A" is the first letter of a series. What follows?'(chapter-2, p-57). We would expect the letter "B" to follow, but if interrupted by another "A" after it instead of "C", we are taken by surprise. The Lion King follows this formula. We know in the beginning that Mufasa is the king and that Simba is the future king. We also know that Scar's intention to get rid of Simba and Mufasa, we form expectations. We wonder if Scar will kill both Simba and Mufasa. Later on in the film, we expect Simba to defeat Scar and return as the king. We see the development of the film through Simba's journey from child to adult. The film also shows Simba's search to find out who he really is.

It seems vey clear how all these functions have a strong relationship towards one another. Each of these functions have their proposes to convey a message in the film. Even though all the elements that form color, lighting, music and effects are different on each scene, it is still recognizable to the audience that it is part of the film system. The film itself did very well with its audience than most other films produced by Disney. From what I have discovered the story of The Lion King was inspired by different ancient stories unified together to form entertaining and emotional film that gives a strong message about responsibility.

Bibliography and Acknowledgements

Bordwell and Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction, 01/12/2007, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 8th edition

Buchan, S

Collins English Dictionary

Moar, M   

The Lion King - Film Analysis Protocol