The Lion King: What Happens When Wokeism Creeps Into A Timeless Classic

Hollywood films are a prime cultural export of America, reflecting the ability of Western civilization, and America in particular, to study, embrace, use, and eventually own cultural paradigms from across the globe. That they have managed to do so without removing the essential Judeo-Christian ethical and Graeco-Roman philosophical worldview is a tribute to their mutability. They also possess the chameleon-like ability to allow viewers from different cultures to see what they wish to see and hear what they want to hear.

Disney and the animation industry have been at the forefront of this cultural phenomenon. In the nearly 100 years of their existence, they have gone a long way towards standardising the cultural reference points, hopes and aspirations of children across the globe, steering them towards an American way of viewing the world.

They are in the middle of an identity crisis today, with many of their new franchises doing much worse than expected. It is in this background, that they have decided to reboot one of the most successful of their movie franchises — The Lion King.

In The Beginning Of The Circle of Life

In 1994, Disney released the first part, said to have been adapted from a Japanese anime film from the 1960s — Kimba The White Lion.

The story was Shakespearean in its adaptation of Hamlet for a new generation of moviegoers. It also served as a signal lesson on the utility of classic storytelling tropes

The film mirrors Hamlet in the protagonist’s story arc — the young prince whose evil uncle has committed regicide must confront and vanquish the usurper to reclaim his patrimony. The prince dithers and copes with his situation through escapism and avoids confrontation with his playmates, Timon and Pumba. The disreputable Timon and Pumba echo Falstaff from Shakespeare’s own Henry IV.

Like Hamlet, Simba the protagonist is visited by the ghost of his father and he eventually picks up the gauntlet.

The story appeals to the inner orphan in all of us, and in his own redemption, Simba demonstrates a biologically immutable fact — an alpha male lion has to take his place as the leader of the pack and not spend his time grubbing for insects. In classic Hollywood hero style, Simba takes his father’s position, gets the girl and produces an heir to the throne.

Timon and Pumbaa's behaviour is modelled after Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Hamlet, appearing in The Lion King after taking a detour as Matashichi and Tahei from Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress.

In line with the young audience, the makers choose to leave out the oedipal rage of Hamlet, sexual complexity and the eventual suicide of Ophelia.

That was then, and this is now — the age of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in Hollywood.

In the 30 years since the release of the original movie, Hollywood in general and Disney in particular have kept their place as ideological loudspeakers of the American State. However, priests of high culture in America have since discovered a new religion of wokeness. Like all religions, they have targeted children to cement their future.

Disney has been at the forefront of biology-defying propaganda — whether it is the anatomically impossible union of a Jewish giraffe and an African-American hippo in Madagascar, or denying the true nature of predators in Zootopia. So, the new Lion King has trotted out some key messages on behalf of the Church of Woke:

• White people — represented by the albino lions — are evil, unnatural freaks. Incidentally, this is the philosophy preached by the fringe American cult, the nation of Islam.

However, they are unable to leave behind some Hollywood motifs such as Rafiki’s Magic Negro and the eternal orphan.

What Then, O Hindu?

In recent years, Hindus have attempted to see Vedanta and polytheism in popular franchises like the Star Wars series or The Lord of the Rings. However, The Lord of the Rings was written by the devout Catholic Tolkien, and Star Wars is a Christian interpretation of several Upanishadic teachings.

It is truly a stretch of imagination to look for Hindu icons and imagery in a pure American cultural export like The Lion King. As a people still insecure in their economic rise and always seeking validation from the materially advanced West, we tend to console ourselves with Vishwaguru self-certification. This is reflected in our choice of movie-making — essentially cheap knock-offs of Western movies with an Indian cast and Ravi Varma costumes.

A Vishwaguru would make good quality movies with Hindu philosophical paradigms at the centre, not stick Vedanta labels on American films.