2024-12-17 14:06:00
30 years after the release of the animated film The Lion King, it is now explained how the hatred between Scar and his brother Mufasa was born. It looks good, but has an intrusive message of identity politics. And what really happened to the hyenas?
Hollywood is currently working on the abolition of evil. Or the bad guys. After the Wicked Witch of the West – known as the archenemy of the classic “The Wizard of Oz” – was rehabilitated in “Wicked”, even Scar, the fratricidal and usurper from “The Lion King”, now has a backstory that his transformation from cute little lion, once called Taka, to tyrant and would-be nephew-killer is at least explained and psychologized. And so it reduced him from a fearsome schemer to a case of mental health problems.
“Mufasa” is both a prequel and sequel to “The Lion King.” The characters that every person who doesn’t live behind the moon knows from the 1994 cartoon, the 2019 computer animation or the Hamburg musical that has been running successfully for years, all reappear (with one unfortunately rather disastrous exception) .
In the present, Simba has a son. As his queen Nala retreats to give birth, the wise old mandrill Rafiki tells Simba’s daughter Kiara the story of how he once met her grandfather Mufasa, how he became his spiritual advisor, and how the conflict with Taka arose/ Scar. Mother Nala and daughter Kiara are originally voiced by Beyoncé and her daughter Blue Ivy Carter. Even the warthog Pumba and the meerkat Timon, an inseparable and indispensable source of humor in the “Lion King” universe, listen to Rafiki and comment.
In the distant past told by Rafiki, the still very small Mufasa is separated from his royal parents by a swollen river and dragged to a very distant territory. There, a lion cub of the same age named Taka saves him from being eaten by crocodiles. Under pressure from Taka and his mother, Mufasa is accepted into the local lion pride, even though its leader, Taka’s father, has ridiculous aristocratic prejudices against the supposed “wanderer”.
But it soon turns out that Mufasa possesses abilities that make him much more destined to become the Lion King than his somewhat shy and weak adoptive brother Taka. The first person to notice this is Taka’s mother and this sets the stage for the film’s major conflict.
Every now and then we talk about the “circle of life”, the ideology behind the domination of lions, which justifies the consumption of other animals. This doctrine of power, cloaked in a hint of esotericism, was the most irritating thing about the first “The Lion King” movie 30 years ago. The world has now aged a little and even if in the entire film not once does a lion eat anything (it is only talked about), it is even more evident that the lions in Disney’s Africa are in reality exactly what the pigs in George Orwell’s film “Animal Farm” are: usurpers and rulers of terror who enslave others according to the motto “All animals are equal. But some are more equal.”
But some are even whiter. The great drama begins when a group of powerful foreign lions want to seize power in the savannah and eliminate anyone who gets in their way. In the American original they are called “White Ghosts” and “Outsiders”, which makes it clear that they do not really belong to the colorful African idyll.
And they’re actually white, as if they’ve been dipped in bleach or showered with ash. Anyone who has the slightest doubt that this constellation of characters wants to tell an uplifting anti-colonialist and anti-racist story need only look at who voices the naysayers in the original.
All good lions are voiced by black or brown people. Mads Mikkelsen speaks only the King of White Lions, who bears the majestic name of the ancient Persian ruler Kiros. A blonde Scandinavian. So a prototypical member of those northwestern European ethnic groups who are actually still defined in current identity discourse as white and therefore evil by birth. All other peoples who were naturally considered “white” according to 19th century racial theory now define themselves as people of color or at least in a complex way as not quite white: from North Africans and Turks, to Southern Europeans, Balkan ethnic groups and even the northern Slavs.
This makes Mufasa an even wiser African leader than before, uniting the people of the continent represented by other animal species. With one of those “circle of life” speeches he even manages to convince the buffalo, giraffes, gazelles and elephants to fight with him against the white invaders, as if they don’t care who eats them.
This political message probably won’t bother children. Because the story is told quite quickly. Poor Taka, who loses ground towards Mufasa towards his own mother and finally also towards his beloved lioness, almost arouses pity and his transformation into the evil Scar becomes understandable.
However, the film often ostentatiously showcases the possibilities of digital technology. It’s as if director Barry Jenkins kept thinking: why show just one elephant when we can show a hundred! This overwhelm by mass, which manifests itself from the beginning, unfortunately means that the viewer no longer perceives the elephant stampede, one of the dramatic climaxes of “Mufasa”, as so special.
For this reason, important characters from the old films were saved: the hyenas, bitter enemies of the lions, with whom Scar allies himself to overthrow his brother and establish his reign of terror. In the original 1994 film, the hyenas still had a decidedly humorous goofy element. One of the strengths of the 2019 remake was that Shenzi, the leader of the hyenas, had now become a truly fearsome and fascinating creature. Now she and her clan have been erased. Presumably their presence would not be in line with Mother Africa’s message of unity against the evil whites.
It’s not good for the movie. But there’s an opportunity for an interesting spin-off of The Lion King merchandise. Some older fans of the first two films would definitely watch a horror film about the charismatic Shenzi, who spills blood and guts with her nightmarish hyenas. As a sort of counter beer to the all-too-good African “Mufasa”, it would have an almost purifying effect.
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