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How did The Lion King touch YOUR lives? WE WANT TO HEAR IT!
11 years ago
Do you have a story, big or small, about how The Lion King and/or it's franchise changed your life? We want to hear it. Feel free to share your experiences with us, here in this journal! And remember to keep Everything PG Please!
In all seriousness, it made me look at movies a lot more seriously. There were some heavy themes in that movie and I wanted to watch movies that dealt with those themes instead of movies that were just there to entertain. Of course, there was also the furry thing.
Story - I've always had a weak spot for "redemption" style scripts, and this was a sublime distillation of many powerful emotions I've lived through - guilt, despair, love, determination, rage, salvation, faith. I'm glad they decided to go more dramatic with this one, usually the comic relief is the weak link in even the Disney masterpieces, but with TLK, even the comic characters were critical and integral to the story. The love scene, yes we love to snicker and suggest it's sexual now, but I'd argue one of the most purely emotionally passionate sequences without indulging in physical sensuality that has ever grace the screen.
Music - Setting aside Elton's songs, which are fine, but not as moving for me as Hans Zimmer's score. It changed my life more than anything else. It complemented the story perfectly in that it showed the extremes of every human emotion that can be reached through the musical language - the swell of inspiration as the rain rolls over the plains, the gutwrenching poignancy of Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus in the death sequence, the spiritual turmoil and unease, and finally the most joyous triumph of the soul I've ever experienced through music upon the final ascension. (as a side note here, many of these underscore snippets were paired with new lyrics for the musical and became songs absolutely worthy of the original movie.)
Through three years of high school I'd sneak downstairs after the parents were asleep every night and watch the film, just quiet enough not to wake them. Somewhere in this period during puberty I was looking up lion mating pictures to relive the Simba/Nala fantasy and that's how I stumbled into the furry fandom. Also spent four summers at an animal sanctuary taking care of retired circus animals that had been rescued from a lifetime of abuse and given a peaceful rest of their lives, mostly working with elephants but got to work one summer with three magnificent lions and around 35 tigers.
The Hans Zimmer score is also what made me decide to pursue a career as a film composer - it showed me the power music can have to move a soul, and my main goal before I die is to move at least one soul through my own music as much as I was moved by his. Now living in LA and pursuing (though not hard enough) those ends.
I've never seen, and for the time being refuse to see, the sequels, as I fear they would greatly mar my idealization of the original, and I strongly suspect they succumbed to Disney corporatization and commercialization. I know this is the case with my former hero Hans, who is now the musical equivalent of the Walter White Empire, owning three quarters of the film music industry and making money more through the exploitation of other talent than through his own inspiration.
Also collect various small lion related trinkets; I own several dozen at this point, and by looking could tell you the story behind any one. Doesn't hurt that I'm a Leo :)
In my computer den here, I have five (still in their plastic packages) Lion King figures. In the kitchen beyond, a Mufasa and Scar sculptured figurines. In the living room beyond that, there up on the wall is a James Earl Jones autographed Lion King picture. Downstairs in the family room are Simba and Scar coffee cups, and a Simba as a cub, Mufasa as Mufasa small sculptures and two sided pillow with Simba as a cub on one side and grown up on the other side.
Was waiting with a crowd of people in the “waiting corridor” of a restaurant a few weeks after the film first came out. Lots of adults standing around. The wait staff would call your name on the loud speaker and you would go in.
One family’s name was called and everyone sort of moved to either side of the corridor to let them pass. Leading the family was their little girl, who as she walked, sang the song and did the walk for “Oh I Just Can’t Wait to be King” -- there were grins and smiles from all the “big people” on either side of her who fulfilled their “part“ in the scene and gave her the wide path that Lion King “royalty“ deserved.
And of course, I love lions :3
My favorite characters are Simba and Mufasa but my own personal favorite is Kopa (Simba's son) and I know what your gonna say he's not canon but there is a lot of evidence proving he is a canon character and I hope to do write a third Lion King film for Disney surrounding the character.
I am currently writing a Lion King fan fiction story about Kopa on Fanfiction.net, I have it on hold for now until I have all of the chapeters written out and proof read. It acts as a sequel to TLK2: Simba's Pride and The Lion Guard. Detailing what happened to Kopa during the gap of the two films and after all the way up to him coming back.