Matthew Landstrom

THE LION KING

Double Entry Journal

Margaret Lazarus - "All is not well in the Land of The Lion King"  
Say Back Response
Margaret Lazarus argues that The Lion King is very different from the previous movies that Disney used to make. Unlike Beauty and the Beast where a female protagonist changes a large manly beast into a soft and caring person, she argues that The Lion King instead makes very bold statements about today’s society from the character traits Disney chose to portray. Lazarus says that the antagonist, Scar, is a homosexual in the way that he limps his hand and has a very refined English accent. Lazarus also argues that the dark colored hyenas in the movie, one played by Whoopi Goldberg, talk in an almost Ebonics to emphasize living in a ghetto, which is portrayed by an elephant graveyard of bones. Another point is made to say that when the downfall of the movie occurs when the hyenas overpopulate and take over the beautiful kingdom, The Pride Lands, making it an extremely undesirable place to live. She argues that this is what happens when blacks come into white neighborhoods and live there. She says that this is a bad movie for children to see, especially because it instills ideas about society in their minds that just aren’t true.

I believe that this assertion is extremely absurd and uncalled for. In my opinion, this response calls Disney racist and a bad medium from which kids can be entertained. Though different from previous movies that Disney has made, I believe that it has the same underlying morals that most Disney movies have. I believe this movie teaches loyalty to family and responsibility; not racism and homophobia. The idea that an antagonist was intentionally portrayed as a gay person is ridiculous and that this character was made to show a sophisticated antagonist. The idea that the hyenas taking over The Pride Lands correlates with the idea that Blacks infest white neighborhoods is also ludicrous. I think that Lazarus needs to sort out some internal issues on how she views the world, before taking on the assertion that a wonderful Disney movie that I love is in any way detrimental to societies moviegoers.