The Lion King is an animated Disney movie that came out in 1994. It is a story of a young lion prince, Simba, whose father, Mufasa, is murdered by his brother, Scar. Scar kills Mufasa because he wanted to become the king over all of the animals and felt that he deserved this title. Simba is forced into exile after Scar takes over and must grow up in the wild away from his friends and family. This classic movie can be compared to a couple different Old Testament Biblical Texts. The creators of The Lion King, “Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and Linda Woolverton, took inspiration… from classic sources, including the biblical tales of Joseph and Moses” (Perrotta 2015). In this essay I will compare how the classic Disney movie relates to these biblical stories.
Genesis 37-50 tells the story of Jacob’s son Joseph. In this story, Joseph is his father’s pride and joy. Genesis 37:3 says “Now Israel (Jacob) loved Joseph more than any other of his children” (Genesis 37:3) and this angered Joseph’s brothers to the point that they are willing to sell him into slavery. The brothers sell Joseph to some traders and tell Jacob that his favorite son was mauled by a wild animal. They even go to the extent of smearing goats’ blood on Joseph’s coat to convince their father of his death (Genesis 37:25-34). Like Joseph, Simba is also the thing that his father loves most in the world. While Simba has no siblings, it is his uncle who becomes jealous that Simba will soon be on the throne. Because of his jealousy and lust of the throne, Scar decides to kill Mufasa and then sent three hyenas to kill Simba. This causes Simba, like Joseph, to leave his home and go into exile while most people believe he is dead. After becoming enslaved in Egypt, Joseph is thrown in prison and eventually called to Pharaoh to decipher one of his dreams. Pharaoh’s dream tells of a famine in all of the land is coming in the next few years and this gives them time to prepare (Genesis 41: 36). Pharaoh’s dream is like in The Lion King when, after Scar takes the throne, the entire land becomes desolated and all the plants die. After Joseph interoperates Pharaoh’s dream, he is then named Pharaoh’s right-hand man and quickly gains a lot of power. It is then that his family comes to Egypt to try and escape the famine and Joseph is able to forgive his brothers and give them all land and food so they can survive (Genesis 46:28-34). Like Joseph, once Simba is old enough, he is able to take back his throne and restore the land to peace and prosperity while also being able to forgive Scar just as Joseph forgave his brothers.
The Lion King also relates to one other Old Testament story, the story of Moses. Exodus 2-20 tells the story of Moses. In his story, the Pharaoh declares “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live” (Exodus 1:22). When Moses is born his mother puts him in a basket and put him in a river. His basket floated down the river to where the daughter of Pharaoh was bathing. She saw this basket and decided that she was going to raise the child as her own. Once Moses grows up, he is given a respectable position of royalty among the Egyptians (Exodus 2:3-10) In the beginning of his life, like Moses, Simba is being sought after to be killed by Scar’s hyenas. Once he escapes the hyenas, Simba finds Timon and Pumbaa, a meerkat and a warthog respectively, who basically raise him and invoke their way of life on him, as the Pharaoh’s daughter does to Moses. Simba then finds a peaceful place to settle down and live with his new adopted family before Mufasa speaks to him through the stars and tells him he needs to go back and take his people back. This is almost the exact same as the story of Moses. Once exiled from Egypt, Moses finds a wife and settles down with his new family until God appears to Moses through the burning bush and tells him that he needs to go back to Egypt and free the Israelites (Exodus 3:1-10.)
Before doing research on this topic I was unaware that there were so many movies where biblical themes could be seen throughout them. My appreciation for The Lion King has definitely increased after doing research for this project and learning that they intentionally created the film with the same themes as the stories of Joseph and Moses in the Old Testament. While The Lion King has different things in common with both of these biblical stories I think that there is one common theme between both of them, “When destiny calls, all three characters answer” (Zaltzman 2019). Simba fights to reclaim his throne, take back his father’s kingdom from his evil uncle Scar, and bring the land back to peace and prosperity. Joseph rises to power in Egypt, saves all of the land from a deadly famine, and not only has mercy on his brothers, but gives them many gifts of land, food, and livestock. Lastly, Moses after being exiled from his home, listens to God’s call for his life and goes back to Egypt to save his people. Moses then helps them escape the slavery that they were in, parts the Red Sea, and leads them through the dessert and to the promised land. I think that the film did a good job interpreting these two stories in the bible for being an animated Disney movie. The only differences that I saw between the stories was that the Lion King was about cartoon talking animals whereas the stories in the Old Testament happened thousands of years ago.
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