Superman Returns (2006)

I went to see the Lion King remake with a five-year-old and two eight-year-olds. The five-year-old is very sensitive and did not remember much of the first Lion King. I was worried about the (spoiler) Mufasa death scene and the crying that would follow from my group. However, the only instances when these kids had any reaction were when the hyenas were introduced. Why weren’t they completely destroyed seeing Simba’s dad killed so graphically, like I was watching the 1994 movie? Somehow the gravity of the situation was not “acted” well on the real-life lions’ faces, and therefore didn’t evoke any emotional response from the viewers. But the remake still made it clear that outsiders are to be feared, male lions know best, and Africa is just a country. Did Disney learn any lessons from the 1994 version to the 2019 version?

Disney did fix one glaring problem from the original Lion King cast of voice actors. The Lion King in 1994 had 33% voice actors of color. The Lion King in 2019 is 87% voice actors of color. Definite progress.

The portrayal of Africa in this film is breathtaking. From the Pride Lands to wherever Simba goes to hide with Timon and Pumbaa are gorgeous, showing a wide range of landscapes, ostensibly in the Serengeti (Northern Tanzania). The characters’ names (with the exception of Scar, which is understood to be a nickname) are in Swahili (Eastern Africa). However, the language used in the introduction to the opening song, “The Circle of Life” is in Zulu, which is a major language within South Africa. This is an important oversight because it reinforces the general idea of “Africa” being one big interchangeable place. “I went on a safari in Africa” is not usually followed by a region or even a country. Just Africa. Ellen Degeneres recently came under fire for posting “poverty porn” photos simply labeled as “Africa” as if it were a country. This song implies the same — although the languages are not spoken in the same region, or more importantly, in the location of the film, it doesn’t matter because Africa is a general place. Also, it is important to mention that the lyrics to this problematic song were written by Tim Rice, a white man.