Fridge / The Lion King (1994)

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Fridge Brilliance

• Why is Zazu trapped in a ribcage cage in the king's den? It's implied that Scar blamed him for having failed his duty to assist Mufasa in his moment of greatest need and, as a twisted form of punishment, made sure Zazu would have kept a costant eye on the new king at the cost of his freedom.
• The song called "The Circle of Life" isn't just about the natural cycle of life, but also the cycle of progress where the new king eventually becomes old and is succeeded by the next contender to the throne, making the song even more brilliant!
• Simba looks a lot like his dad but is noticeably smaller than him. It could be that Simba is still growing, or (more likely) that subsisting strictly on bugs for several years left him malnourished.
  • The latter explanation would explain how Nala was able to match him for so long and eventually overtake him when they fought in the oasis. He wasn't up to his full strength.
  • It would also explain how Nala was able to catch up to Simba at Pride Rock when he'd had an entire night's head start: His fastest running speed is still pretty slow due to malnutrition, while she at least has been eating meat and exercising regularly.
• Scar is often accused of going from a Manipulative Bastard to a whiny oaf after coming into power, therefore making him a lot less threatening. When you think about it, though, Scar's entire character arc is based on how whiny and petty he is. He murders his brother and blackmails his nephew to get into power, but doesn't actually do anything but brag that he has it. He whines about his responsibility because he never wanted to be a proper king, he just want to be able to say he was, which makes him even worse!!
  • Another potential way of looking at it comes from the always slightly awkward balance the story has to strike between animal and human characteristics. For all his faults, Scar is clearly intelligent - one of Mufasa's duties at the beginning of the story is to chase the hyenas away when they start scavenging too far within the borders of the pridelands. Scar seems to have figured out that if the pride leaves enough carrion at the border, the hyenas won't need to encroach on their territory (notably after the hyenas fail to kill Simba and Nala, Scar provides the hyenas with a zebra haunch, and it is strongly implied he's been doing it for a while). As a loyal *adviser* to Mufasa (and possibly Simba later on), he could have solved the hyena problem and been recognised and revered by the pride (which is what he desired in the first place) for doing so. Instead, he has already let himself be consumed by bitterness over not being King, and makes one bad decision after another.
• Why did Scar knock out Zazu when Zazu wanted to ask for help? Not for a comedic reason, but because (a) Scar didn't want Zazu to bring the lionesses to help Mufasa save Simba before he had the chance to kill him, and (b) he didn't want any witnesses to see him dispose of Mufasa. Scary when you realize he could've easily just finished Zazu off instead...
  • Zazu being the King's majordomo, it would've seemed strange to the lionesses that he too disappeared along with Mufasa and Simba. Someone would've asked about him. He wouldn´t be likely to die in a stampede due to being able to fly. So killing Zazu would've caused more trouble than good to Scar. Still its creepy to realize how easily he could have done it if not for these practical concerns.
• In the musical number "I Just Can't Wait to be King," Zazu has the line "This child is getting wildly out of wing" to rhyme with Simba's "Oh I just can't wait to be king." At first this feels like a forced rhyme, since the actual expression is "out of hand." Then you remember Zazu, as a bird, doesn't have hands.
• Why is Shenzi so mean and bossy? Because she's a spotted hyena! That's how they are in nature.
• It's a small one, but during the stampede scene (when Mufasa accidentally lets go of Simba) we see a Wildebeest fall down seconds before Mufasa snatches him up. Later, when Simba is searching for his father, a lone Wildebeest trots off into the distance... The only way he could have fallen so behind is if he had fallen down earlier.
• Most everyone I know, including myself, were confused at how ineffectual and whiny Scar became when he became king. However, look at how he treats his role as king to how Cub Simba treats it during his "I Just Can't Wait to be King" musical number; pretty similar, isn't it, with all that talk of "I'm king, I can do whatever I want"? Scar's showing as king is meant to be the logical extreme of that belief, focusing on the benefits of a role without thinking of or wanting any of the responsibilities, and how one would flounder under the pressure, as a result.
  • Both Simba and Scar have songs that feature them standing high above everyone else. Simba is not as envious as Scar, but at that time he's as immature and naïve about kingship.
    • Hell, when you play "I Just Can't Wait to be King" and "Be Prepared" side by side, you can see how they're both basically the same "I Want" Song, but being interpreted by two very contrasting mindsets. While Simba's "I Just Can't wait to be King" focuses on how an innocent child would interpret what it means to be king, focusing on the naïve, utopian, and idealistic perception of monarchy; Scar's "Be Prepared" focuses on how a potential dictator would interpret what it means to be king, focusing on the brutal, dystopian, and often more realistic perception of monarchy.
    • In the end, Simba's arc is about achieving a balance between ideals and cynicism. By the time Raffiki confinces him to return, it's with the understanding that restoring the Pride Lands to their former glory isn't going to be easy or simple like his childhood self thought, but it would be better than allowing it to wallow in the squalor Scar's selfishness has created.
• Scar's plan to ascend the throne is pretty standard: kill Mufasa and Simba, win over pride by default. Typical movie villain evil plot, right? But hold on! The whole theme of the movie is the "circle of life" and everyone's roles in it, and guess how real lions usurp the throne of a pride? That's right: they kill (or maim) the head lion and kill the cubs (which curiously has the added effect of snapping the lionesses back into heat...which also fits the "Scar tries to rape Nala" scene in the Broadway musical). So, even in villainy, Scar's satisfying the great "circle of life", and makes his plot seem both sympathetic (as he's just as much a slave to the circle as everyone else) and creepy-sinister (Disney using a natural phenomenon as an evil act? My god, they're more devious than we previously imagined!).

  • A natural phenomenon, yes... except that normally, it's unrelated males which were kicked out of another pride that would challenge and depose the resident male, thus bringing new blood and fresh genes into the group. Violent, yes, but for a purpose and with no betrayal of one's own family required. Scar's offense, both against human morality and against Nature's means of averting inbreeding, was in betraying his own brother and nephew to usurp control rather than remain as Mufasa's second-in-command or go find a different pride to fight his way into.

  • Here's the thing, in real life, lions that challenge the head lion for the throne do so openly, in a pitched fight, and both lions know its happening and the whole pride knows it... Scar killed Mufasa not in a legitimate fight for control, but by ambushing and throwing him to his death, then manipulated Simba into running off. He then proceeded to lie to the rest of the pride about it. So it wasn't 'nature', he didn't give Mufasa any chance at all, whereas in nature, they'd fight for that title one-on-one (or even two on one, since sometimes brother males will fight together against another). And as he lied, the other lions thought their beloved king had been killed in an accident and Scar was merely accepting a right, then find out Scar killed his brother in a cowardly attack and lied for years about it... So it wasn't so much that he did it, it was in how he did it!
    • In fact, in the very early parts of the movie, Mufasa directly asks Scar if he's challenging him, lending credit to the idea that Scar could have legitimately challenged and fought Mufasa for the kingship, but chose not to because he knew Mufasa was stronger and would likely win the fight — which was why he resolved to cheating and such underhanded tactics:
      Mufasa: Don't turn your back on me, Scar.
      Scar: Oh, no, Mufasa. Perhaps you shouldn't turn your back on me.
      Mufasa: Is that a challenge?
      Scar: Temper, temper. I wouldn't dream of challenging you.
      Zazu: Pity! Why not?
      Scar: Well, as far as brains go, I got the lion's share. But, when it comes to brute strength... I'm afraid I'm at the shallow end of the gene pool.
    • To add onto this, Scar, despite still trying to snivel out of conflict, ultimately managed to equal and nearly defeat Simba in combat. This is because Simba, who had been living on a diet of insects for most of his adult life, was likely inexperienced in fighting outside the odd times Timon and Pumbaa were pursued by a predator. Similarly, both the lionesses and hyenas were malnourished and beaten down from the pride's terrible condition, hence why even comic reliefs like Rafiki and Pumbaa could match them (notice also Nala could still pin Simba, but could no longer outright curbstomp him like before and even Pumbaa nearly outran her). The whole climax could essentially be considered a glorified Sissy Fight.
    • Further to the truth of how lion society operates, Simba's "I Just Can't Wait To Be King" is often maligned as him unthinkingly wishing for the time when his dad has died. But if Simba had grown up in the pride and Scar hadn't killed Mufasa, Mufasa would have driven Simba out to seek his own pride and become king of that, so Mufasa does not need to die for Simba to be king. This must have also happened to Mufasa and Scar, which explains why there are no other male lions around, particularly their ancestors, despite the fact that Mufasa is young enough to have an infant son. Once Scar's coup succeeded and Simba returned to challenge him, Simba became the king of the same pride in which he grew up.
• I had two regarding The Lion King (1994)'s Shakespearean inspiration (Kimba notwithstanding). Many years after the film's initial theatrical release, I just went OH! Hamlet!, but it wasn't until several years after the release of The Lion King 1 1/2 that I just suddenly went OH! Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead!
  • I had that epiphany a few years ago: Simba = Hamlet, Nala = Ophelia and possible Horatio, Mufasa = The Ghost (King Hamlet), Sarabi = Queen Gertrude, Scar = Claudius, Hyenas = Polonius (evil advisers/henchmen), Timon and Pumbaa = Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (with a dose of the gravediggers as well—see their discussion with Simba about the night sky/afterlife). To take this further, Simba has a Hamlet-like reverie about death and avenging his father when Nala finds him and Rafiki shows him his father's ghost.
  • You missed that Simba's Pride is Romeo and Juliet.
  • I always felt that Zazu was more Polonius than the hyenas were; the scene in "Can't Wait to Be King" where Simba and Nala are making fun of Zazu behind his back is a common interpretation of Polonius's speech to Ophelia and Laertes in Hamlet.
  • The central theme of The Lion King even has a connection to a throwaway line from Hamlet.
  Hamlet: A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
  Mufasa: And so we are all connected in the great Circle of Life.
  • The second half of The Lion King is quite like Macbeth, arguably.
    • Second half nothing, Scar's role in the movie is a lot like Macbeth's role in the play Macbeth, since Scar, like Macbeth, murders the established king to personally become king, and manages to cover it up, while the lawful heirs/heir to the throne flee/flees the kingdom. Eventually, one of the exiled heirs to the throne returns, with others, and takes back the throne.
  • Scar also is a lot like Richard III. He's very charismatic to an extent that the audience is encouraged to root for him in the beginning of the story, but once he gets power, he's a tyrant and an awful ruler. Incidentally, while the above associates the Hyenas with Polonius, Zazu also occupies that role, being the advisor/prime minister who is a comical blowhard.
  • Someone could also argue that Simba's Pride is, at least in the beginning, Macbeth. Kovu is Macbeth, Zira is Lady Macbeth. Zira convinces Kovu to kill Simba (Duncan) and take over. Except that he ends up falling in love with Kiara and killing his own brother (Banquo).
  • It's well-known that The Lion King is based on Hamlet, but I had no idea it got down to such specific detail as this: in the latter, there exists the line, "Doubt that the stars be made of fire," which is exactly what Simba and Timon do when Pumbaa proposes the idea!
• As some of you know, Jim Cummings had to do the last chorus of "Be Prepared" in the Lion King, since Jeremy Irons had strained his voice shouting "You won't get a sniff without me!" Cummings imitates Irons' voice almost perfectly, but his tone is just a little more rough, less suave sounding and more wildly excited about his evil plan. I didn't notice when I was a kid watching it, but playing it like 20-30 times on YouTube made me realize: Scar may have been beginning to lose his sanity during this musical number, and the sudden change in tone could have illustrated that. This serves to explain why the Pride Lands went to hell in a hand-basket during the time Timon and Pumbaa raised Simba; any clan with a psychopath for a ruler is doomed to failure. It also explains why Scar confesses that he did in fact kill Mufasa: he's lost it. He realized he wasn't fit to rule and couldn't do anything about it, so he figured he'd at least take the rightful ruler down (and likely the entire society of the Pride Lands) with him. Why? He doesn't need a reason, he's NUTS!
  • Even better, Be Prepared pretty clearly compares Scar to Hitler (what with the goosestepping hyenas) and that hint of crazy overconfidence is one of the most well-known parts of Hitler's personality. So was his willingness to see his empire burn to the ground when it was clear that he was losing the war.
• "Be Prepared" is musical propaganda for the benefit of Scar's army of hyenas (with a Shout-Out to Those Wacky Nazis). What if the main trio's seemingly inane questions like "And where do we feature?" were all part of the show, and they were already in on the plot to kill Mufasa?
  • "Be Prepared" has more than that. There's a line with an awesome double meaning. Scar declares becoming king is "at last being given my dues, and in justice deliciously squared", since to him it's a lapse of justice that he's not king and he will "square" it and set it right by killing Mufasa. However, due to the speed of the singing (it's in the more frenzied part of the song at the end), the listener hears it as "injustice, deliciously squared" as in will be a perfectly executed injustice. It's really a good looking to how Scar sees the world as about him.
    • Also worth noting; in that frenzied part, "at last I am given my dues" sounds sort of like "given my Jews", at least to my ears.
• From the Broadway play: When Simba sings "Endless Night", he says "Where has the starlight gone?" Remember what Mufasa tells Simba about the stars?
• The final battle of Simba and Scar is not just for control of the Pride Lands, it's a final trial by fire for Simba which becomes a triumph for the young lion not simply because he defeats the usurper, but he does it differently from his father's style. Whereas Mufusa fights with passion and fury, Simba relies more on his intelligence; namely when Scar leaps at him, Simba manages to stay calm and position his hind legs for a defensive judo-like move to throw him off.
  • This is also important because Scar always ran on the idea that he should rule because Mufasa was stronger but he was smarter. Simba using his head helps undermine that argument.
  • A related piece of fridge brilliance: Simba originally used his father's more aggressive style, particularly as a cub. Nala kept winning, as both a cub and an adult through smarts and the exact kinds of maneuvers that Simba used to finish Scar.
• At the beginning, when Zazu tells Scar that Mufasa is coming to see him, Scar says "Now, look, Zazu, you've made me lose my lunch.". He was obviously referring to the mouse he was holding, but it's also referring to Mufasa's coming. "Losing your lunch" means getting sick, so Scar was getting sick of Mufasa. This is obvious when Scar has apparently made a law against mentioning Mufasa by name.
• Scar's attacking Simba seems like a dirty method to kill Simba to keep kinghood after begging for his life. However, when listening to the dialogue, Simba tells him to "Run, Run away, Scar, and never, ever return," virtually the exact same line Scar told Simba after the stampede. Remembering what happened immediately after Scar told him to leave and never come back (i.e., siccing the Hyenas to kill him), the conclusion can be made that Scar feared that Simba would most likely do something very similar after telling him to flee, which would likewise possibly mean that he was not simply fighting to retain his position as king, but he's actually fighting for survival.
  • And then Simba does manage to evict him from Pride Rock and the hyenas do manage to kill him. Bonus Fridge Brilliance points for how this played out.
• This troper always laughed a bit at Simba and Scar's fight at the end of the film, feeling that it looked too much like a catfight. Then it hit me, they are having a catfight.
  • As someone who works with lions, this troper can tell you that they don't actually fight with that much distance between their sissy paw-swipes and shoves. A lion fight a loud, close combination of fast-and-dirty brawling and trying to dunk the other's head in the mud—not nearly as majestic as that scene makes it out to be.
• The Lionesses don't make a move to help Simba while Scar is blaming him for Mufasa's death and backing him off a cliff. This would seem to indicate that his apparent responsibility for Mufasa's death has turned them against him...except Simba has challenged Scar for position as King. Interfering would be breaking the rules of the challenge, until a winner is decided it's entirely between Simba and Scar. After Simba makes Scar confess to murder the hyenas jump Simba and the lionesses have their chance to get in on things, though they still don't attack Scar himself.
  • Adding to the above, the hyenas take advantage of the lionesses' motionless shock and horror to surround Scar and Simba from behind and form a barrier between them and the lionesses. So even if the lionesses wanted to stop Scar from killing Simba, they would have to fight through the mass of hyenas first. But when Simba forces Scar to confess that he killed Mufasa, the hyenas break form to attack Simba, freeing the lionesses to charge into the battle.
• After watching Doug Walker's Disneycember review of The Lion King, I thought his conclusion made a lot of sense: that the film delivers a Broken Aesop about facing the pain of your past because it turns out Simba simply never did the thing he was trying to put behind him — instead of him learning how to deal with a painful past or guilt, he learns it never applied to him. It made so much sense, in fact, that I wondered why I never thought that as a kid because, when you're a kid, nothing annoys you more than a story that chickens out at the last minute like that. At the last minute... That's when I realized why I never saw such a Broken Aesop myself: because we the audience know the entire time that Simba didn't really cause his father's death! If we'd been led, like Simba, the entire movie to think he really had to face the pain of being responsible for Mufasa's death, suddenly revealing, "Hah, gotcha! That doesn't even apply here!" at the end would have been cheap. We know from the start, however, that Simba is not responsible for what he feels guilty for and, thus, don't spend the movie sympathizing with him and hoping he'll overcome the guilt but spend it waiting for him to learn and escape from the burden he never needed to carry. The plot didn't chicken out, it just unfolded the inevitable way it should.
  • Another factor that makes it work: Mufasa's ghost could easily have told Simba that it was Scar who killed him, but he doesn't. Neither does Rafiki. Simba makes the decision to go back, challenge Scar and take his place as king despite the fact that he still blames himself for his father's death. The reveal that he's not to blame after all only comes after he learns the essential Aesop. This, combined with the fact that we know it was Scar all along, is what keeps it from feeling like a copout.
• Despite only being "evil" when following Scar, the hyenas get slack from the lions for no discernible reason. Considering that hyenas and lions are bitter rivals in nature, its not surprising they get slack.
  • There is a discernible reason: the hyenas are constantly invading the pridelands to hunts. Hunting territory is one of the most heavily fought-over things in the real world.
  • The lions and the other animals may resent the hyenas for being scavengers preying on the sick, young or the food of those who earned it (although in reality the reputation of scavengers should rest on striped hyenas, not the spotted ones used in the film). This also ties into the Aesop of accepting responsibility and taking ones place in the Circle of Life, which they shirk by becoming the henchmen of Scar, who is himself unable (or unwilling) to accept the responsibilities of a king.
• Timon and Pumbaa hanging out together always seemed a bit odd to me since they are so different from each other. Then watching a show on Nat Geo Wild gave me the reason. Warthogs get infested by bugs like ticks easily and in order to take care of that problem they rely on meerkats to to eat the pests. Timon gets a free meal and Pumbaa gets relief from pests.
• "Hakuna matata" contains the line "It's our problem-free/philosophy". You can't have a "problem-free philosophy": philosophy is about solving problems, not ignoring them. It makes sense for Timon and Pumbaa to not worry about problems they are powerless to solve (namely, their positions on the food chain), but for Simba to adopt it as a way of life puts him in an impossible position, philosophically speaking, since he's actively avoiding the problem which he knows on some level he must deal with (i.e. his responsibilities as Mufasa's son) and avoiding it by not worrying about it only makes it more likely that it will catch up with him in the end — which, indeed, it does, in the form of Nala.
• During his time with Timon and Pumbaa, Simba learns to eat insects, or "grubs". Lions eat other animals, of course, and despite not being as big and substantial as, say, an antelope or a giraffe, insects technically count as animals. Also, lions in real life will scavenge for insects if they're hungry enough.
  • At equal weight, insects actually have more protein than say, beef. Provided insects were available in VERY large quantities, it could be possible for a large carnivore to survive on them for a while.
• While listening to "Be Prepared" the lyrics "Thick as you are, pay attention! My words are a matter of pride." I took "pride" to mean "proud", but a group of lions is also called a pride.
• Recursive Fridge Logic: If the circle of life is such a big deal, why are the hyenas starving? Don't scavengers have a place in the circle?
  • No, they don't. Mufasa explains it to Simba by saying, "When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass." For the lions, the circle goes: antelope dies to become food for lions, lion dies to become food for antelopes. Hyenas are a threat to the circle because they can eat virtually anything, but they don't produce anything for anyone else to eat: as soon as they become the dominant species in the lion kingdom, the ecosystem breaks down, symbolized by the drought: no more water, no more grass, no more antelope, no more food for anybody.
    • Except hyenas, especially the spotted hyenas seen in the film aren't scavengers. They kill almost all their own food. They were thought to be scavengers because they hunt at night, but are often driven away by larger animals (including heavily scavenging lions) and wait until they are done. Hyenas' powerful jaws are able to crush bones, so they can also eat more of the prey than lions.
    • Also the hyenas would realistically have the role of removing carrion and excess slaughter from the lions that would otherwise rot and pollute the local ecosystem. Plus, their bodies would ALSO become the grass when they die. It's less that they're outside the circle of life and more that by leaving the scavenger life and joining the lions in the film's apex predator position (and they add dozens or even over a hundred members), they make the foodchain extremely top-heavy.
• First, Rafiki is the first of the Pridelands to realize that Simba is alive. It's possible that he told Nala to go out and scout for help (i.e., Look for Simba and bring him home). He neglected to mention his discovery of Simba purposely, in case word spread. Secondly, Nala seems unsurprised to see Rafiki that one morning, and his own presence in the same jungle is awfully convenient. It's entirely possible that they went looking together.
• Early in the movie, after Simba's shown the kingdom, he goes to his uncle to talk about it, all excited. He then asks, "When I'm king, what'll that make you?" Scar is clearly joking when he answers, "A monkey's uncle" and it's treated as a throw-away joke. But later in the movie, Rafiki starts chanting what sounds like gibberish at Simba, who's reflecting on his father and rebuffed Nala telling him he's the king. When Simba finally asks Rafiki what his gibberish even means, Rafiki answers, "It means you are a baboon, and I'm not!" Again, treated as a throw-away joke... But think back to a PREVIOUS throw-away joke... When Simba's king, Scar jokes that he'll be a monkey's uncle. Nala's just declared Simba the king not too long ago, and not long after THAT, Rafiki calls him a baboon - A MONKEY. Scar's joke proved true - By Rafiki's words, he is a monkey's uncle!
  • More on the "baboon" line: while Simba being a baboon is purely metaphorical, Rafiki not being a baboon is actually true. Rafiki looks more like a mandrill than a baboon.
• When Scar smacks Sarabi, he finds the adult Simba watching and extremely angry glare, and Scar practically shits himself, muttering "Mufasa!?! No, it can't be! You're dead!" Maybe deep down, Scar still feared retribution from Mufasa if it turned out he didn't actually die that day. Or worse, that his crime was so heinous that Mufasa might come Back from the Dead to haunt him.
• When Zazu gives the morning report to Mufasa, he says "Cheetahs never prosper". Of course it's a pun on Cheaters Never Prosper, but maybe it has another meaning: cheetahs, as rival predators, are ostracized in the kingdom ruled by lions (although a lesser extent then hyenas), and thus do not prosper.
  • Even if they aren´t ostracized (and they probably aren´t, considering they go to Simba's presentation at the beginning of the first film, and are seen to be the animals standing closest to Pride Rock during the gathering in Simba's Pride), this counts as Truth in Television, as in real life, cheetahs do not prosper in places were lions are abundant, due to the lion's actively chasing them away from prey and even killing them if they can catch them.
• When Scar tells Simba that the hyenas were the ones who had the idea of killing Mufasa, he's technically not lying. Right before "Be Prepared" began, Scar got the idea of killing Mufasa when Banzai sarcastically asked if they had been meant to do so in the Elephant Graveyard.
• All of the people Simba meets from his exile onwards to his return to become king is representative of the qualities that make him a good king and makes Scar a bad king from lacking.
  • Timon and Pumbaa rescue him from the vultures, but he is still an empty shell, likely not caring if he lived or died. While not the best at teaching responsibility, their upbringing gives him a love for life and an appreciation of paradise, the vision that a king must have to be willing to care for their kingdom. However, this alone leaves him ignoring his past and squandering his potential.
  • Later, Nala returns and begins to remind him of his heritage. Her telling him of the plight of the Pridelands under Scar teaches him the consequences of shirking responsibility, and their fight at the start demonstrates the need for him to use intelligence to apply his strength. But, his concern for his subjects is still useless if he doesn't see his ability to help them.
  • Thus, Rafiki comes to teach how the pain that almost destroyed him cannot be undone, but can still be learned from. He stresses the importance of accepting mistakes and changing to make sure they are not repeated.
  • It's then he rediscovers his father, Mufasa, the strength and passion of a king he once aspired to, but most now fulfill.
  • His final lesson is in reuniting with his mother Sarabi. In coming to her aid when Scar strikes her, he finds the importance of family and how the family most look out for each other. It is this last lesson that completely contrasts him with Scar, who he spares despite him murdering his father "Because I am not you." And he is right, Scar does not possess vision of a better world, or concern for the kingdom, or much intelligence aside from a silver tongue, or a willingness to learn from past actions, not strength or bravery or loyalty to family.
    • If Scar had personally ensured Simba's death when he was still a cub, Simba wouldn't have had the chance to develop physically or emotionally in ways which would enable him to defend himself against Scar later. Simba would not have stood a chance against Scar, and the Pride Lands would have been left without any hope at all.
• To drive the Scar/Hyenas and Hitler/Nazis parallel even further would probably be how he came to power. It would be unusual for a whole lot of hyenas to listen to a lion due to their bitter rivalry. But if we were to assume that like Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed where the rest of the hyenas are starving would be much like an economically-ruined Germany in the Interwar Period. Who would be willing to listen to anyone who is charismatic enough to round them up. With a dash of Russian Revolution too if Scar was to assassinate the alpha hyena much like Lenin and the Bolsheviks overthrowing the Russian provisional government to become the Soviet Union.
  • There was no "Night of the Long Knives" in Scar's revolution. Hyenas live in a strict matriarchy which means Shenzi is the alpha by default. Sure enough, Shenzi is bossy, tends to speak on behalf of all Hyenas when Scar isn't around and is usually the ring leader. On the surface it may look like Scar is leading the hyanas, but they're actually a third faction lead by Shenzi who just so happens to be allied with Scar. By the time of Simba's return the hyanas were hungry, impatient and generally unsatisfied with Scar's rule, only sticking around to avoid a purge. When Scar tried to blame the hyenas it was a blessing in disguise: Scar had lost all political power to Simba and Shenzi now had legal pretext to turn her clan of hyenas against Scar.
• The "I Just Can't Wait to be King" sequence. In-Universe, it's Simba's and Nala's way to distract Zazu so they can sneak off to the Elephants' Graveyard. However, a deeper meaning is evident when you look at the movie as a Coming of Age story, in which being king is a metaphor for growing up (or perhaps even becoming a parent). The lyrics of the song reflect exactly how little kids think being an adult works: able to do whatever you want, eat all the candy you want, stay up as late as you want, watch all the television and play all the games you want, with no one telling you what to do because you're the boss. As indicated above and elsewhere on this site, Scar takes this idea to its logical extreme, and becomes an adult that has never outgrown these childish notions — in effect, a Manchild.
• It would seem as though Scar and the hyenas both have a bad habit of playing with their food: in both instances where they have their prey trapped (the mouse for the former, Simba and friends for the latter group), they allow said prey to escape by gloating about how they'll enjoy devouring them.
• A small detail but, the hyenas checking with Ed before killing Scar can be seen as a Take That! on multiple levels. The reason they decide to kill Scar is because he threw them under the bus and tried to scapegoat them for Mufasa's death (not that that helped, anyway). Now, Scar has always been portrayed as the ruler over the hyenas, often belittling them and abusing them while they carry out his will. Prior to this scene, Shenzi and Banzai's interactions with Ed seemed to imply that their relationship with him was similar to their species relationship with Scar, Ed representing the hyenas and Shenzi and Banzai representing Scar. But them asking for Ed's approval showed that the trio, and the hyena population in general, were equals at the end of the day despite their bickering, and were sick of working for a tyrannical jerkass.
  • It's also a Call-Back to the moment in the Elephant Graveyard when Shenzi and Banzai pretend not to have known that Simba was Mufasa's son, then turn to Ed for for confirmation, only for Ed to nod "yes." Ed doesn't lie. He's too simple-minded to be anything but honest. So if he remembers that Scar betrayed them despite Scar's attempt to still treat them as friends, there's no denying it and nothing Scar can say to defend himself.
• If you watch the night sky closely after Simba declares his intent to return to the Pridelands, you can see a shooting star follow Simba as he runs. A silly little detail, until you remember Mufasa's speech to Simba under the stars. The stars are kings of the past, there to provide guidance and Mufasa promised Simba he would always be there to guide him. So when Simba leaves the jungle to return to the Pridelands it's MUFASA'S star that follows after him, keeping the promise that he made to his son in life. This is emphasized again during Simba's coronation when the clouds break and we see a single star shining brighter than the others with Mufasa's voice speaking out to his son. Not to mention that, whether it was done on purpose by the artists or not, the sand dunes that Simba runs past on his way home seem to resemble Mufasa's eye watching him.
  • In addition, if you look carefully at the arrangement of the clouds around the open patch in the sky, the latter resembles a roaring lion, with the star as its eye.
• This troper always found it a bit odd that Simba would instantly accept Scar's attempt to pin the blame of Mufasa's death on him, especially since he was taken to the gorge by Scar and told to wait there in the first place. Granted, the poor cub is likely traumatized by the whole thing, but afterwards even a little bit of thought should have told him that something was off about Scar's explanation of events. Then it hit me: just before he leaves to signal the hyenas to start the stampede, Scar tells Simba to "work on that little roar", which Simba then proceeds to do (with the implication being that he wants to prove Scar wrong about his roar being little - which calls back to Scar's earlier mind trick on Simba to get him to go to the elephant graveyard). He tries a few roars, the loudest of which directly leads into the start of the stampede. Simba never saw the hyenas scaring the wildebeest; he likely assumed it was his attempt at roaring that caused the stampede and thus killed his father.
• Right before "I Just Can't Wait to Be King," Simba and Nala are weirded out by the fact that they're betrothed, and Simba states that the tradition will be the first thing to go once he's king. While their situation turns out to be a Perfectly Arranged Marriage, their daughter does indeed wind up choosing her own mate, and while Simba has his misgivings about Kovu, none of them are related to a previous betrothal or him wanting to pick her mate, so apparently he did indeed abandon that tradition (though strictly speaking there was lack of eligible males at Pride Rock to betroth Kiara to anyway, even though that doesn't necessarily preclude him from marrying her off to a foreign pride).
• A commonly cited "gotcha" regarding the state of the Pride Lands is that it's hardly Scar's fault that there was a drought. This is true. However, it's absolutely Scar's fault that he refuses to let the pride relocate in response to the crisis. There's a reason we are shown a scene in which Sarabi summarizes the situation and informs the king that they must leave Pride Rock if they are to survive. Scar proposes no solutions, only snaps "We're not going anywhere!" and blames the lionesses for not trying hard enough.
  • And the starvation is Scar's fault. Any patch of savannah can only support a certain number of apex predators, and Scar brought a small army of hyenas in and has been letting them kill indiscriminately, either destroying the herds outright or driving them far from the pridelands to settle in safer regions. Scar destroyed his pride's only source of food out of an arrogant assurance that the food would always be there—because, under the stewardship of good kings, it always has been before.
  • Adding to this: In the 4-6 years while Simba's been gone the hyenas will have had babies. And those hyenas will have become old enough to have babies. When males hit 2 years old they have to leave their clan, but Scar wasn't letting hyenas leave either. In likelihood the lionesses weren't being allowed to kill any hyenas like they normally would. More food equals population boom – but then population boom equals less food.
  • As for the drought, well, Africa gets droughts quite a lot. The savannah goes through harsh dry periods on a regular basis While it's not Scar's fault, it's something that a responsible king would have known was a possibility during his reign and had an adequate response for. At the very least, a competent king would listen to the experienced queen when she gave him advice. But Scar's sole ambition was to be king of Pride Rock, after all. He's so unwilling to take any blow to his ego that he explicitly makes the decision to let them all starve to death rather than give up his prize. Of course he needs to be held responsible for that.
  • In "A Tale Of Two Brothers" we see that there was a drought in the Pride Lands during the rule of Mufasa and Scar's father Ahadi. He dealt with it by banishing all hyenas. Not exactly fair, if you're a hyena, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Can't blame the hyenas for feeling hard done by when the drought lifted and they were still forcibly kept out of the Pride Lands under the pretense that they weren't part of the Circle of Life. In certain respects Ahadi was portrayed as slightly stubborn and unnecessarily strict, and Mufasa was supposed to be an improvement.
• Mufasa gives Simba a brief lecture about going beyond the border and disobeying him, but softens his tone when a tearful Simba explains he was trying to be brave like his dad. He then tells Simba firmly that being brave doesn't mean looking for trouble, and that a king should only be brave when he has to be. Mufasa knows that Simba was really sorry about nearly getting killed and is probably not going to repeat that mistake after facing hyenas and his father's disappointment head on. He's right; Scar is able to guilt Simba into staying in the gorge by reminding him about the "mess with the hyenas".
• Unlike when Simba took Nala to the elephant's graveyard, Mufasa is clearly not angry about Simba getting caught in the crossfire of a stampede, and focuses on rescuing his son. While a stampede is weird and random, Simba this time is still in the Pridelands and not disobeying orders. Of course, that makes Mufasa's fear worse; his son is in danger in the one place he should be safe.
• A subtle example of foreshadowing: when Mufasa is teaching Simba about the circle of life, the example he gives is the fact that, even though lions eat antelopes, they become part of the earth when they die and then grass grows in the earth for antelopes to eat. Later in the movie, he is actually killed by wildebeests, which are antelopes.
• Matthew Broderick, Simba's voice actor, may seem like a bit of an odd choice to voice a fully-grown male lion, especially compared to James Earl Jones and Jeremy Irons giving perfectly fitting voices for their respective characters. Then you remember that Simba wasn't even raised by lions for very long; he was mostly raised by two non-predators living the easy life. Losing some of that trademark lion ferocity is obviously a side effect. It even shows in his design: though he gains Mufasa's mane color, he doesn't have the imposing build or hard facial features that his father did. Not to mention that the sort of slacker lifestyle Timon and Pumbaa raised Simba to adopt fits in rather well with Broderick's most well-known role.
• Towards the end of "Be Prepared", Scar sings, "My teeth and ambitions are bared", but the hyenas respond with "our teeth". This sums up their relationship perfectly. Despite their flaws, the hyenas have a Villainous Friendship going on and think of Scar as a friend too, which is why they feel personally betrayed in the climax when Scar throws them under the bus. Scar, on the other hand, cares only about himself and sees the hyenas as tools.
• Scar might be using Exact Words when he tells Simba, "If it weren't for you, Mufasa would still be alive." Scar was already jealous of Mufasa, but when Simba was born, it made Scar even more jealous. Jealous enough that he was willing to kill his own brother to get what he wanted. Not to mention his first scene involved him griping about being knocked down the line of succession...
• When Timon is seen filing down one of Simba's claws in "Hakuna Matata", it could just be a reference to how life in the jungle is easy and relaxing (as Pumbaa is also fanning Simba with a leaf), but think about it: he was initially terrified to see a lion in his and Pumbaa's domain, so he could've also been discreetly making sure Simba's claws weren't sharp enough to hurt someone.
• Why does Mufasa appear in the clouds? Earlier, he said that kings go to the stars after they die; the fact that he's not that high up in the sky may signify that he can't fully move on until things in the Pridelands are put right.
• In the scene where Rafiki teaches Simba that he can either run from his problems or learn from them by hitting him with his stick, Simba resorting to taking it (instead of just ducking) is more than just him being mischevious—it's an Accidental Aesop. Sure, you can learn from a one-time problem and call it a day, but if a problem keeps happening (like Simba repeatedly being hit in the head), you can (and should) also do what you can to solve that problem. This still works with what Rafiki was trying to teach him, since Simba had to actively go home and fix what happened under Scar's rule, instead of avoiding it in the process of avoiding his past.
• At the beginning, when Zazu catches Scar playing with the mouse, he asks him "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with your food?" something you'd expect an adult to tell to a child not a fellow adult. Given Scar goes from a Manipulative Bastard to a Psychopathic Manchild once he obtains power this might actually be an indication he was always immature and Zazu knew this so he was making fun of him by comparing him to a child and the movie here was foreshadowing how much of a manchild he truly is.
• Some of Scar's actions (Like trying to attack Simba even when it's clear there's no way he could be king) come off as impulsive for someone who claims to be as smart as he is. He is also shown lacking the skill to think forwardly as he didn't know what to do once he got power. One could infer that maybe he isn't as smart as he thinks he is. But while that may be true to an extent it's also possible his impulsiveness and lack of foreword thinking stem from his immaturity as most children lack the reason to think things through and tend to act on impulse rather than reason.
• The inspirations taken from Hamlet are pretty well documented, but does anyone else think the story also has similarities to Oedipus the King? In Oedipus, Thebe is suffering from a plague, as a form of divine retribution, because the murderer of the previous king, Laius was never punished. In Lion King the Pridelands are devastated by overhunting and a drought, the latter of which ends the moment Scar, the murderer of the previous king, dies. Laius was killed by his own son (Oedipus) throwing him off from a chariot. Mufasa was killed by his own brother throwing him off from a cliff. The gorge even has a small fork in it, caused by the tree in the middle, and Oedipus killed Laius at the crossroads. It can even be argued, that Simba returning to his birth pride, instead of seizing a new one for himself, as male lions do in real life to avoid in-breeding, mirrors Oedipus unwittingly marrying and having children with his own mother, Jocasta.
• This one is minor, and may not even be intentional on the writers' part, but: recall how, in the scene in the dens of Pride Rock, when cub Simba comes in to wake Mufasa for their morning talk, the king and queen have this amusing exchange. "Your son is awake." "Before sunrise, he's your son." Now flash-forward to the movie's climax: Simba does in fact reunite with Sarabi before taking the throne as king, which means he does get to be her son before acting as Mufasa's.

Fridge Horror

• Simba and Nala are stopped by Zazu in the elephant graveyard just before they enter an elephant skull through an opening in the middle. Not even a minute later, Shenzi, Banzai and Ed come out from the same skull to take a look at their territory's trespassers. For being a secondary character, Zazu made sure the movie wouldn't have ended before the 30 minute mark.
• Just in case the scene where Simba finds Mufasa's body wasn't creepy enough, Simba goes through the motions of the actions he used to wake Mufasa up earlier on in the film...
• "I Just Can't Wait To Be King" is very much Harsher in Hindsight, considering what happens to Mufasa the next day. And even though he didn't mean it that way, Simba was basically singing "I Just Can't Wait For My Dad To Die".
  • Simba might've thought that Mufasa would end up abdicating at some point.
• Whatever did happen to Mufasa's body? Think about this for a second. The Hyenas chased Simba out of the Pridelands, and supposedly came back to where the chase started. Given the Hyenas eating habits (which is not at all altered by the movie), and that Scar is their boss, it's not hard to think he allowed them to eat Mufasa's corpse. Considering that Mufasa was trampled to death, his body may not be all that worse for wear.
  • Averted in the musical, in which the lionesses place his body on a bier and mourn over it.
  • There is also the possibility that a way was found for Mufasa to go back to nature and become part of the great Circle of Life. Maybe after the mourning on the bier is over, the lionesses took his corpse to the fields to decompose and become the grass that the antelope would eat, as he said in an earlier part of the movie to Simba?
    • There's more than one way in which one can decompose and feed the grass. Hyena droppings being one of them...
  • Additionally, lions are known to be cannibalistic towards already-deceased members of their pride. In the film, Scar can be seen fooling around with a lion skull. The implications here are clear.
    • That's not a lion skull, though. That's a baboon skull.
• As a cub, Simba had a massive ego, and thought that being king was all about getting your way and bossing others around. He and Scar were not so different after all. If not for the film's events (and his father teaching him right from wrong), he could've ended up an immature, self-serving despot, just like Scar.
• In the Game Boy port of the video game, the "Cub" difficulty ends at the Stampede level. There's only a few possibilities of what could happen, and none of them are good.
  • There is another way to think about it. In the film, when the stampede ends, Simba sees his father's dead body, Scar tells the cub that it was his fault Mufasa died, and he is promptly banished from the Pridelands and chased by bloodthirsty hyenas into the desert, where he thinks he will surely die. This is the exact moment where Simba's childhood and innocence died. He is no longer a cub.
  • Simba didn't kill Scar, the hyenas did, and when Scar asked if he would kill him, he said "No, Scar. I'm not like you." Also, his line from his talk with Kovu:
  Simba: Scar couldn't let go of his hate... and in the end, it destroyed him.
• That chameleon young Simba kept growling at couldn't run very fast. Seconds later, there's a stampede...
  • And here we all thought there weren't enough horrible (and Fridge-Horrible) things about the stampede ...
    • Unlike the lions, the chameleon is tiny. It could easily have hidden somewhere out of the way.
• After Timon & Pumbaa revive young Simba after finding him unconscious in the desert ("You almost died!"), the depressed cub's immediate reaction is to attempt to head straight back into the desert. If 'Hakuna Matata' hadn't happened, the movie might've been a whole lot shorter.
  • To be fair, Simba might not have put that much thought into it. He's not purposefully killing himself, he just doesn't give a damn whether he dies or not, and doesn't want to be around people. Y'know, kind of like half of this generation.
• After the hyenas killed Scar, there was still the little problem of half the pridelands being on fire. Even though heavy rain extinguished the fire a few minutes later, many hyenas probably didn't make it to safety without severe burns, let alone injuries from smoke inhalation. Young cubs would be especially susceptible to the latter, and would have difficulty outrunning the flames.
  • And you know who would have been a young cub at that time, according to the sequel? That's right; Nuka. That actually explains why his development is so wonky in that film; he never gets a full mane, is scrawny and mangy, and he's termite-ridden. It's all because he inhaled smoke as a baby.
• The "Be Prepared" song from The Lion King (1994). Sure, scary hyenas playing with skeletons in steam and fiery colors is Nightmare Fuel by itself, but that one parade scene really hits home after you've learned a little about history.
  • Now, knowing what the parade scene was based on, watch it in German.
    • Yeah, then try watching it in Hebrew, where and it gets even worse.
    • Partly because the Hebrew voice-artist is equipped with a Deep Bass that became popular with other Disney dubbing.
  • Also, this Troper is of the opinion that if you didn't watch the film, it looks like the hyenas are EATING ONE OF THEIR OWN at the beginning!
• The hyenas ate Scar. Eternal Nightmare Fuel.
  • It's even worse if you know how hyenas "hunt". They've been known to eat things alive, and their jaws are rather powerful, so think of all the pain you could suffer before dying. Not to forget the blazing heat in that scene, due to the close fire.
    • I heard that hyenas primarily eat their prey alive, and they consume the ENTIRE body, bones and all. There's a good chance both Scar and Mufasa ended up as hyena crap.
    • Yep. Hyenas aren't designed to ambush and strangle like lions or crush spines like tigers. They chase prey to exhaustion then disembowel it. They eat while the prey still lives because they are often driven away from their kill by lions, leopards, and other hyenas.
    • Scar WAS the bad guy. Scar killed an innocent lion and framed his nephew.
    • Yeah, but being eaten alive is still a rather grisly punishment for him.
• A minor one. Zazu was imprisoned inside a ribcage. Its length and girth were approximately similar to that of... Mufasa. Scar didn't just kill his brother, he defiled his remains.
  • What's worse is that he probably got the hyenas to prepare his remains...
    • Look at that scene again. At one point, Scar uses a skull for a puppet. A skull with fangs. Consider for a second what male lions do to cubs that aren't their own...
    • Watch the scene again and you'll notice that the skull is smaller than Scar's, so the odds of it being a lion's skull is pretty small. The shape of the skull he uses is actually spot-on for a baboon skull.
• Simba is told that he has no choice but to marry Nala, since arranged marriages are their tradition. They seem happy, but what if future heirs are arranged into unhappy marriages?
  • Well, Simba apparently ended that tradition by the second film. Even if he hadn't, it wouldn't be that hard to head off problems. As lionesses usually give birth to multiple cubs there would be no reason to betrothed two cubs that weren't even friends, Kiara and Simba being odd, possibly tragic, cases. This coming up would be the least of a cub's problems, as the king is probably as negligent of his kingdom as he is his cub.
    • A lot of people seem to assume that Nala was a "gift" from another pride, so it's not too much of a stretch to assume that Simba could have done the same thing for Kiara. Still raises the question of why he didn't seem to be actually actively looking for someone for Kiara to marry, though...
    • It could be because Simba really did go through with getting rid of arranged marriages, like he said he'd do when he was a cub after finding out he and Nala were betrothed.
• Since most of the animals talk in the film, the Lions would be eating their own servants.
  • Most of the animals. Disregarding the third installment (which is more of a parody anyway), the rule in this movie seems to be that the more likely an animal is to be a prey, the lesser their sentience. So baboons, warthogs and meerkats are sentient and can talk, but wildebeest decidedly cannot.
    • True...but since the wildebeest's only screen time was them being chased by hyenas and stampeding, their only sensible line would have been..."Oh, Crap!"
    • Actually, there's a deleted line of dialog in the original movie that has Mufasa talking with an antelope in the scene when he speaks to Simba about the circle of life. Mufasa even knows his name. The dialog went something like this: "Catch you later, Fred!" to which the antelope answers "Not if I can help it!". And both the songs I just can't wait to be king and Not one of us have zebras and other prey-like animals singing anyway.
  • Sentient or not, at least you don't have to watch the good guys eat any animals on screen... Unless you see the Broadway musical, where there's a whole song and dance number showing Sarabi and the other lionesses hunting down and killing an antelope.
• Don't lions usually have more than one cub per litter? There is a conspicuous lack of siblings for Simba...
  • Lion cubs have a disturbingly high mortality rate. Its not unreasonable that Simba is the only cub to survive. If he had a twin the other cub probably got sick and died. With Mufasa's poorly placed trust in Scar, the king doesn't seem like he'd think having more than one cub would be a bad thing, especially if the other cub wasn't a male.
• Nala was originally supposed to have a younger brother named Mheetu. The original stampede scene involved Scar, a random rogue at this time, luring him into the gorge. Simba tries to save him but gets stuck, forcing Mufasa to save them and the inevitable happening. It's never been said what happens to Mheetu afterwards. The portion where Simba leaves and lives with Timon and Pumbaa wasn't written yet as they were his childhood friends at the point but he probably left the Pride Lands. Considering Scar was a rogue and what rogues do to male cubs that aren't their own...
  • Unless Mheetu was Scar's, in which case a rogue male could have come in, killed the cub, then ran off before Scar could react. When Scar finds out about it, he might have plunged as his once-lush kingdom then crumbled and died before him, the food they relied on diminishing and the water the needed depleting, Scar would have been slowly going insane from the suddenness of the kingdom becoming a Crapsack World. He tries to court as many lionesses as he can in a attempt to spread his genes as much as possible, then he begins to slip right into the psychotic Scar of the second half of the film. This not only is Fridge Logic, but it also doubles as a bit of Fridge Horror, considering that Scar was only craving for power, was not intentionally being a brat, and seemed to have no idea of the hard work of being a royal lion... It puts Scar a little closer to Woobie territory, if you think of it.
    • This is going a bit too far into WMG territory to be believable. First of all, in that version, there's nothing stating Scar would be Mheetu's father, which is only Fridge Logic used to explain Nala's parentage in a pride with only two lions. If Scar was a rogue, it's highly unlikely that he would have been Nala's father, let alone Mheetu's. Second, no-one said a rogue lion would show up to kill Mheetu in that scenario. It's far more likely that Scar would just do it himself; he's proven it's in his character to do exactly that already, and besides, it's common in lion culture to kill or drive out lions who reach maturity.
• Consider the stampede from Zazu's point of view. After noticing the wildebeests being on the move and Scar arriving to reveal Simba is in the gorge, all three of them go racing to save him. He finds Simba on the tree, rejoins the others, and points out his location to Mufasa, who then goes racing to the rescue. He decides more help is needed and is about to go back to the rest of the pride when Scar swats him and knocks him out. But this happened to him from behind so he had no idea what happened—for all he knew, he knocked himself out running into the cliff wall or a tree branch, or something was thrown up by the stampede. Either way he's knocked out...and when he wakes up it will be to the news that Mufasa and Simba are dead, and Scar and the hyenas are now ruling the Pride Lands. So from his perspective, everything has gone horribly wrong—because he didn't make it back in time to fetch any help. Add this to what Scar does to him and he becomes quite The Woobie.
  • Nobody knows the trouble he's seen. Nobody knows his sorrow.
  • With this in mind, one can't help but wonder if Scar decided to pull an encore performance of his "it's all your fault" trick on Zazu like he did on Simba.
• By the end of the first movie, Timon and Pumbaa are now living with carnivores who regularly eat meat. They may have protection due to their closeness with Simba, but it's still a lifetime of watching other animals being slaughtered and eaten. Added to the fact that there was a famine going on...the two better not venture too far out alone.
  • The ending of The Lion King 1 1/2 shows Timon and Pumbaa living it up back in their Hakuna Matata paradise with all of Timon's colony...and Simba to boot.
  • Is this somehow connected to the "Fish are friends, not food" movement of the sharks?"
  • Real warthogs are carrion-eaters, and real meerkats are perfectly happy to eat small vertebrates, not just insects. Timon's and Pumbaa's self-proclaimed distaste for red meat is probably more a matter of laziness - and, after they met Simba, a desire not to tempt their young lion friend into "backsliding" into true carnivory - than an actual moral or cultural disdain for meat. So long as Simba is firm about the other lions not stalking his buddies and lets them have a share of the scraps, their objections are bound to dry up pretty quick.
  • Who's to stay they didn't leave the Pridelands at some point? Sarabi brought up the idea of moving to greener pastures, at least until the Pridelands had recovered, and Scar shot it down for no reason other than not wanting to give up the territory he'd schemed to take over. With Simba in charge, it's likely he follows her suggestion.
• Why is Scar called "Scar"? We know from later films that his name was "Taka," but as of The Lion King, everyone refers to him as Scar. Yet almost all of the other characters are called to by their proper names. His name is a nickname, a reference to a horrible, disfiguring incident that was no doubt extremely painful, terribly frightening, and possibly dangerous to the health of his eye. The creatures that are supposed to be closest to him and are supposed to love him best—his family, his brother—use the reminder of a horrifying wound as his name, effacing all the identity and dignity a proper name implies.
  • Scar's regular name (which, when translated, isn't much nicer) comes from a storybook sold after the debut of the Lion King back in 1994. In the book Scar gave himself his much more well-known name/nickname as a reminder of what occurred the day he got his scar. After a while, especially if Taka/Scar refused to answer to anything but 'Scar', the pride would have gotten used to calling him that if for no other reason than to not antagonize him.
• Since Lion King is based on Hamlet, did Scar sleep with Simba's mom? If you thought the possibility of Scar allowing the hyenas to eat his brother's corpse is creepy, what about your uncle having sex with your mother after killing your dad?
  • Entirely possible. It's called a levirate marriage; the brother of a deceased man is obliged to marry his brother's widow. Keeping the power within the clan.
    • Unlikely. That's, to my knowledge, a custom from the Middle East, not Africa. And that's not what that type of marriage was for. The idea behind a levirate marriage was to produce children to take care of the woman in her old age. Also the firstborn son of such a marriage was always considered the son of the deceased brother rather than the biological father so that the father's family name would continue on. Such a marriage also occurred only if the deceased had fathered no children to begin with.
  • It's fairly normal for a new alpha lion to take over and mate with all the lionesses. If a cub is killed (which everyone thought had happened to Simba), the mother will go into estrus again.
• Wait. If Mufasa and Scar are the only male lions in the pride, then Nala's dad is probably... Simba's father or Simba's uncle. Oh, Crap!.
  • Averted with an episode of The Lion Guard which revealed that Nala's father was neither Mufasa nor Scar, but rather a member of the Lion Guard. Who was killed by Scar. It's debatable whether that makes it better or worse.
• Under Scar's rule, the Pridelands are utterly desolated; the herds have long since left, and there's no water for miles. So how did the lions and hyenas (and possibly Zazu) survive for so long? They likely became cannibalistic.
  • In Real Life animals are cannibalistic anyway, when need be.
  • They could have been subsisting on carrion and groundwater.
• Hyenas are known to devour their prey alive (as seen with Scar). If they had succeeded in either attempt to kill Simba, this is most likely the fate that would have befallen the helpless cub.
  • Actually, hyenas devour LARGE prey alive, mostly because once it's down, it's a waste of time to actually kill it before they start eating. Small prey generally dies much more quickly and easily.
• Simba and Nala's fight at the beginning of their reunion could have gone very differently if Simba hadn't of recognized Nala thanks to her pinning move she used on him. If she had not used it or if Simba just did not recognize it then their fight could have ended with one of them killing each other, and neither of them ever knowing it was their best friend they murdered. The Death Glare and growl Nala gives Simba after she has him pinned certain looks like she is ready, or at least willing, to kill her defeated opponent.
• At the very beginning of the movie when Simba is still a baby, Scar in his first scene with the mouse Zazu and Mufasa seems resigned to not being king and reluctantly content to simply snark and disrespect Mufasa while still accepting his rule. Only when Simba is now a young child a few months to a year later is he now ready to attempt a coup? What changed? Simba was no longer a baby and proved to be brash immature and easily manipulated by good old "Uncle Scar". Scar realized he could get to Mufasa through Simba. In a way Simba's very existence and personality as a cub doomed his father.
• Can wildebeast talk and think, like lions? If so, why didn't they stop before trampling Mufasa? Because it was a stampede. Humans too have been known to trample each other in mass panics. Still, though: if they are intelligent, they will afterwards remember that they trampled their king. The lone wildebeast that lagged behind may even still have heard the echoes of little Simba's crying. Not a happy memory for the whole herd.
  • Unless that he is already dead from the fall and hit the ground first.
    • I doubt that it would bring them that much comfort. Besides he was there because they were stampeding and Simba was trapped, and people have blamed themselves for less.
  • On the one hand, one may wonder how much the wildebeasts appreciate their king when their role in the cycle of life is as prey. But on the other hand, even if you assume they wouldn't care much for the lions given their role in the food chain, this still leads to Fridge Horror. Mufasa's death leads to the Pridelands being overcrowded by the encroaching hyenas, which as noted a few times in the Fridge Brilliance section concentrated too many predators in one area, making the resulting overhunting and starvation Scar's fault. If the wildebeasts see themselves as responible for Mufasa's death, then there's likely a lot of Survivor's Guilt among whatever's left of the herd given the consequences of Scar's rule.

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