03-11-2007, 10:38 AM
Huskyji, Its been a while since I watched it too. I was just trying to think of a family animation movie made by a respectable movie house and lion king came to mind.
So this is just what I remember vaguely. Its very subtle. Mufassa (Simbas father), Simba, his mom etc are all blonde, their style, the voices etc are all quintessentially white. The voice for Mufasa I think was done by an african-american actor but the style of talking etc was all white. You would think ofcourse this story is all about lions and lions are supposed to blondish so whats the big deal ? But Mufasa's brother Scar who is the evil scheming character is dark with black patches. He has slight fox-ish features. He builds an army of other evil hyenas. These hyenas are all quintessentially african-american. Mufassa's sidekick is this monkey character. He is otherwise wise, chankian and all. You get a sense he has been created keeping an indian 'witch-doctor' type. This monkey sometimes looks like a red one and sometimes a brown one. The subtext is stereotypical - white (blonde) king, red/brown indian as a good sidekick giving sound advice and dark fellows as evil types.
I might be reading too much into this but thats the impression i got the first time i saw it and the impression has stuck. However i loved the movie because the father-son relationship was developed wonderfully but there is this inescapable subtext. Its a spoiler however and i try not to give too much importance to these things in works of fiction - passing interest perhaps in how people exhibit such behaviors but otherwise just enjoy the movie since you have spent money to do just that.
So this is just what I remember vaguely. Its very subtle. Mufassa (Simbas father), Simba, his mom etc are all blonde, their style, the voices etc are all quintessentially white. The voice for Mufasa I think was done by an african-american actor but the style of talking etc was all white. You would think ofcourse this story is all about lions and lions are supposed to blondish so whats the big deal ? But Mufasa's brother Scar who is the evil scheming character is dark with black patches. He has slight fox-ish features. He builds an army of other evil hyenas. These hyenas are all quintessentially african-american. Mufassa's sidekick is this monkey character. He is otherwise wise, chankian and all. You get a sense he has been created keeping an indian 'witch-doctor' type. This monkey sometimes looks like a red one and sometimes a brown one. The subtext is stereotypical - white (blonde) king, red/brown indian as a good sidekick giving sound advice and dark fellows as evil types.
I might be reading too much into this but thats the impression i got the first time i saw it and the impression has stuck. However i loved the movie because the father-son relationship was developed wonderfully but there is this inescapable subtext. Its a spoiler however and i try not to give too much importance to these things in works of fiction - passing interest perhaps in how people exhibit such behaviors but otherwise just enjoy the movie since you have spent money to do just that.