Remembering Disney

At Man’s camp, the fire gets out of hand, and starts spreading to the woods. Then the trees start catching on fire. The fire spreads throughout the forest.
When we next see Bambi, the Great Prince is over him, coaxing him to get up. After much persuasion, Bambi finally gets up, and starts limping after the Great Prince. He barely disappears when the fire engulfs the spot where he had lain. The two deer start walking away, slowly at first and gradually increasing to a run. Then they find a river, and follow it to a lake far away from the forest. On the lake is a small island, with all of the animals of the forest—Man is not included; it is implied that Man dies in the fire—on it. Then Bambi and his father arrive, and Faline and Bambi are reunited.
The final scene of the movie shows springtime once again coming to the woods; one year has passed, and the ground is starting to regrow. We see Thumper’s children and Flower’s son—named Bambi after Flower’s old friend—passing Friend Owl’s house, saying that “it” has happened. Then we find out that Faline has had not one but two fawns. Friend Owl says the final words of the movie: “Prince Bambi should be very proud”.
Up on a nearby hill, Bambi and the Great Prince look down at Faline. Then the Great Prince looks over and says something to Bambi—the book says the Great Prince says he will die very soon, and he loved Bambi dearly—and walks away one final time. Then Bambi looks back at Faline, and the sun rises behind him.


According to many film historians, Bambi was a basic blueprint for Disney’s later and popular Lion King. Yet both are great in their own way, probably because Man does not visibly appear in either movie.
Bambi is a coming-of-age story, and one that catches the hearts of people everywhere. Bambi has a place in all of our hearts, whether we be two or a hundred and two.
Three cheers for Bambi, the definition of a love that never ends.
 
Fantasia (Visible Music)

ITS ORIGINAL title was The Concert Feature. The idea behind it was completely experimental. Every time you went to see it in theaters, you’d see different short films than previously, along with some of the older favorites.
To quote Steve Martin, “I think we’re all glad that they changed the name to Fantasia.”
Over the years, Fantasia has remained basically the same. There was only one new short that made it into the later movie, but it is now cut out permanently. Recently, the original Host’s Introduction was added between all the clips, the host being Deems Taylor giving a bit of an overview of each of the clips coming up next.
Fantasia was re-released in theaters five times, more than any other film except for Snow White. Perhaps this is because human beings in general are stunned by the effects of music. Fantasia not only had music, but visible music, something that had not been done ever before, and was only done a second time sixty years later, with Fantasia 2000.
The generally known version of Fantasia has eight parts, each separated by the Host’s Introduction. In order, they are “Toccata and Fugue”, “The Nutcracker Suite”, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, “The Rite of Spring”, “The Pastoral Symphony”, “Dance of the Hours”, “Night on Bald Mountain”, and “Ave Maria”. Of these, “Apprentice” is the most remembered, since it stars Mickey Mouse.
But all have a place in the heart of America. Let’s take a moment and look at Disney’s second animated movie of 1940: Fantasia.
 
Walt Disney’s third animated feature begins with live-action shots, the first but not last for a Disney film. As the curtain opens, we see shadows walking up stairs, and then we see humans sitting down with musical instruments, setting them up and tuning them.
This continues for about five minutes, until Deems Taylor walks up to the platform and starts talking. He introduces himself and the orchestra behind him, and starts explaining what the audience is about to see. There are three kinds of music, he says. First there is the kind that tells a definite story. The second is the kind that, while it has some story elements to it, cannot exist on its own. The third kind of music exists for the sake of itself. It is with this music, Taylor says, that the presentation of this Fantasia will open with.
After the conductor, Leopold Stokowski, is introduced, he starts conducting the orchestra. As he does so, various instruments start lighting up with colors. After about a minute of this, the live-action picture fades into impressionistic, animated clouds. The clouds act as a background for various unusual shapes playing around in the air. After a second or two, we find these to be violin bows, and then cello strings start flying through the air.
The rest of the song is filled with abstract images flying to and fro, obviously of their own free will. This was compared, in the late 1940s, to stars in the universe, flying around of their own free will. The song ends with the background fading back to live-action, and Stokowski ending the song.
Taylor starts his narration again, this time talking about the second type of song: the one that has some but not all elements of a story. This particular song, The Nutcracker Suite, has multiple variations, but only a few will be played. Incidentally, Taylor says, we will not see a nutcracker on the screen; his place in this ballet is only in the title.
The first notes of the song are played against a pitch-black screen. Then as the harp starts playing, a few lights start falling around. These are flowers, falling from trees. The rest of the variation shows the flowers falling onto water, dancing on it, and then falling over a waterfall.
Underwater, several goldfish swim around, scattering when they look at the camera—at you, it seems like. The music blending with the dark colors gave me chills, not so much because it was scary, but because it made me feel as if I was in a very dark place. After the camera finds three goldfish that won’t swim away, the fish start putting on a ballet, quite entertaining to watch in microgravity. The music still holds the same tone, but by that time I started feeling the darkness fall away.
The next dance is probably the most entertaining of the whole song: the mushrooms. All of them are the same height, save one that is smaller than the rest. Together, the mushrooms make a very enjoyable dance; it was reported that the audience clapped after that movement at the world premier for Fantasia.
The next scene involves fairies, all small enough to fit inside flowers. They fly around, lighting up flowers and trees and leaves with their little wands. This is perhaps a fairy tell that pixies are the ones who melt away winter and bring about spring. After these movements are over, the song ends.
 
The next song, Taylor says in his introduction, is a song that tells a definite story. He says that, in this case, the story was written before the song. It is the story of a boy, who lived during the time of Christ, who was an apprentice for a mighty wizard. One day, when the wizard orders the boy to fill up his well, the boy decides to use magic to make a broom do it instead. However, when the boy cannot remember the words to stop the broom, he finds himself in a whole too deep to get out of.
It is not said that the boy is Mickey Mouse, but it turns out that that is exactly who he is. The song opens up with the wizard forming smoke into the shape of first a bat and then a butterfly. Mickey watches this as he does his chores. When the wizard finished, he takes off his hat and lays it down, and goes upstairs to get some sleep.
Mickey makes sure the wizard’s door is closed, and then puts on the hat. He turns to a nearby broom, and makes it come alive. He then gives the broom two arms and the ability to walk, and shows the broom what to do. While the broom goes to get the water to bring to the well, Mickey drowses off.
While Mickey sleeps, he dreams that he is the ruler of the entire universe; he can control the stars, the land, the water, and the weather. But when he wakes up, he finds that the broom’s work is getting out of hand—the room is starting to flood! He orders the broom to stop, but having just woken up, he cannot find the right words.
Desperate, he takes an ax and slices the broom up. Recently, sketches of him doing this on-screen have been found, but Walt Disney didn’t want Mickey to do such an act of violence on-screen; by then Mickey was known for his gentleness. So it was substituted with a shadow instead.
After the broom is destroyed, the color goes to back and white. Then suddenly, the broom’s pieces, still under their magic orders, come back to life, becoming whole brooms. It is suggested that there are now at least three dozen brooms, and all of them will do their duties until they are told to stop.
Mickey is trampled by the brooms, and knows that he is in deep trouble. After unsuccessfully trying to bail the water out—it fills up too fast for him to get it out the window—he find his master’s magic book and starts searching for the orders. But he can’t find them, and is sucked into a whirlpool.
Before he disappears, however, his master, awakened by the noise, comes downstairs and orders the brooms to stop and the water to disappear; he knows the correct spell. He finds Mickey lying beside the broom and the book, just reviving. Mickey hands his master the broom and grabs his buckets, by now willing to do anything to get away from the broom. Then the wizard gives a not-so-gentle nudge on Mickey’s backside, and Mickey Mouse disappears into the darkness.
 
The middle song of the movie is called the “Rite of Spring”. It was originally meant, Taylor says, as a Russian folk dance, but Disney artists found in it the story of life’s history. He says that, four billion years ago, there was the sun and the earth. The earth was devoid of life, and teemed instead with lava and volcanoes. After this period ended, water came to the earth. In the water there was a small, one-celled creature that wasn’t much of anything really. Over millions of years, that one-celled thing evolved into multi-celled creatures, eventually to fish, and then to amphibians, and then to reptiles and birds. “Science, not history, wrote this story.”
The first notes of the song are very melancholy. And then we find ourselves flying through space, toward a distant galaxy. As many people noted, there was no “Big Bang” that started the universe—just a galaxy appearing from the darkness beyond. And then as the camera goes into the galaxy, stars start appearing. One of these stars gets bigger, and we see our own sun, very cartoony but nonetheless brilliant. Then our moon whizzes by, obviously in the same stage as that planet beyond. What is that planet? Venus? Mercury? Mars? No. It is our own planet: Earth.
Whether this is accurate or not is not the point; the point is that this is one of the best visual effects in film history before the invention of computers. You could argue on whether the Creation of the earth was as evolutionists say or as creationists say, but the bottom line is that, some way or another, the earth was really formed. Walt Disney was a Christian, and if he chose to do this, who were the animators to stop him?
The earth is in turmoil; volcanoes spill millions of gallons of lava a second into the sky, mudpots belch fire instead of mud, geysers spread toxic fumes instead of water. In short, everything is a mess.
And then, under the water, a small blob of something swims around, not a purpose in life. Then it starts splitting, and the splittings start splitting, and then the image fades away. Now there are plants and recognizable fish swimming under the water. The image fades again, and we see amphibians with legs swimming around. One of them—the first animal ever to emerge from water and go onto land—comes to the surface and walks onto land.
The next seen takes place a few hundred million years later, according to evolutionists. Dinosaurs of every shape and size roam the land and the sea. For several long minutes, we see the various species of dinosaurs and their habits. The herbivores eat plants, and the carnivores eat the herbivores. Then, about halfway through the song, we see the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the king of all bad guys. This T-Rex attacks the smaller dinosaurs, and picks out a stegosaurus to eat himself. The stegosaurus gives a good fight, but ultimately falls down dead.
As Taylor said earlier, all of a sudden the dinosaurs died. This is to date not explained fully; evolutionists claim drought caused by a meteor, probably one of Earth’s early moons that fell out of orbit; creationists claim the deluge, or the worldwide flood. At any rate, the dinosaurs all died.
With an eclipsing moon to show the change in time, the camera follows the dinosaurs as they roam the land in search of water. Those who are lucky enough to find water have to share with others—they know they all have to work together to stay alive. Eventually, however, all the water is gone, and dinosaurs start dying. And then, as the moon says, a few years later, and all that are left of the dinosaurs are their skeletons.
An earthquake comes about a thousand years later, and the bones—completely intact—are either buried in the ground or are crushed as mountains rise and fall. Water arrives—too late for the dinosaurs, who have all started to simply disappear—from the ocean, and covers the land, so that only the mountains are left. By the time the moon fully eclipses several million years later, all that are left are the fish, amphibians, reptiles, and a few birds. The earth orbits away from the camera, and we can vaguely see our own continents, starting to drift away from each other. The earth has now completed forming, and is ready to greet humans.
 
I just want to quickly say that...THIS IS AMAZING.
I think its so well written and its really imformative, I have learnt alot about Disney movies that I never knew.

Keep up the great work! Are you thinking of having this published?????? I think it would be a great book:D
 
I'm going to finish writing it, finish up high school, and then try to have it published. If I can't...I'll email it to anybody who's interested.
 
The next song is the “Pastoral Symphony”. No, it does not have anything to do with clergy members. As Taylor says, Disney animators turned to Roman and Greek mythology to tell this particular story.
The song begins with a very merry tune, the first time this happens in this movie. Throughout this song, we meet mythical creatures, from fauns to fairies to centaurs to Pegasus and his family. In the third portion of the song, we meet several Greek and Roman gods, such as Bacchus and his donkey; Zeus, the ruler of the gods; and Apollo, the sun god. While this song does have several story lines, it is one of those songs that exists for its own sake. It is one of the longest songs of the program, but one of the merriest too.
The song that comes next is the “Dance of the Hours”. As Deems Taylor says, it is a song that tells the story of the day. First are the morning hours, and then the day hours, followed by the evening and night hours. Then all the hours of the day come together in a climatic mix.
This song is arranged as a ballet; the animators watched ballerinas days on end to make sure that they had the correct animation. The morning hours are about twenty ostriches, one wearing a pink ribbon in her hair and wearing pink slippers while all the others wear blue. The unique ostrich hands out an assortment of fruit to half of the others, but keeps a bundle of grapes for herself. The half that didn’t get their fruit pursue her, until they fall from her grasp and land in a well. Annoyed, all of the ostriches walk away.
A hippo emerges from the well, apparently having just finished the grapes. Other hippos arrive, dancing with the one from the well. After a few minutes, the hippo gets tired and lays down for a rest. The others leave.
The evening hours are elephants, who blow bubbles while dancing around the hippo. While they dance, they are blown away by a strong wind.
The night hours are alligators—the only males in this song—who come and surround the still-sleeping hippo. One of them, knowing that the others will eat her, scares them away and gently wakes the hippo up. The hippo is scared at first, but eventually starts dancing with the alligator.
Then all the hours of the day come together, and start dancing. The alligators start grabbing other animals, trying to kidnap them. Finally, they all plop down on the ground and rest. Their work is done…until tomorrow.
In the final Narrator’s Intro, Deems Taylor introduces the “Night on Bald Mountain” segment, as well as the “Ave Maria” that will follow. A Russian legend has it, he says, that one night every year, Satan and his followers become visible and dance wildly, taking up spirits from their graves and forcing them to do so as well. This is much like our own Halloween. Then, when the dawn comes, the demons simply disappear, and the hope of God will restore all that has happened overnight.
True to Taylor’s words, “Night on Bald Mountain” begins with the mountain coming to life; its sides unfold like wings, and a creature from within emerges. He stretches out his hands like shadows and takes spirits from their graves. He opens up the pit of the earth and demons emerge. The music fits this sequence perfectly. Then, when Satan is about to destroy a church, its bell rings. He recoils, hesitates, and starts again. The bell rings once more, and then again. With each ring, Satan recoils a little further. Finally, he orders his followers back to where they came from. After a final bell ring, he folds his wings and is simply the mountain again.
The picture fades away, and fades back in to show pilgrims with glowing lanterns walking in lines to the church. In early production, the lanterns were supposed to have cross-shaped lights, but was changed later on to show orbs instead.
The picture fades once more, and then—in the longest uncut shot in animation history, nearly five minutes long—cuts back in. The camera rolls extremely slowly through a church, with reverent music in the background. Up ahead is the door, and when the camera finally reaches the door, the sun rises over a nature scene. Thus concludes Fantasia, with a song of hope that will confirm that the best, both for Disney and for the church, is yet to come.
 
The Lion King (Can You Feel the Love Tonight)

THE FIRST movie I saw in theaters could quite possibly have been The Lion King. At the time, I was pushing two years old, and I think that my parents must have thought that I was old enough to be seeing movies in theaters.
My memories of that theater experience are, sadly, vague. I distinctly remember the wildebeest stampede, as well as the scene of Simba and his dead father. Young as I was, I remember being moved by that scene. The only two other scenes I remember are the scene taking place during the “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” song, and the end clip that takes place right before the end credits.
I didn’t see The Lion King again until I was eleven years old. At the time, Disney was beginning to release its animated films on DVD, and when I saw that The Lion King was available, I pinched in every penny I had, and got it. I remember that the film was a whole lot darker than I remembered as a younger kid, but a lot brighter at moments, as well. It soon became my favorite movie of all time, and remained so until I saw Bambi in 2005.
The story of The Lion King was one that made Disney popular in the first place. It was a story of love, faith, and courage.
Not only was this the ultimate best film of 1994, but I believe that it was the film of the whole decade. These days, when people think of Disney movies, three movies come to mind: Snow White, Brother Bear…and The Lion King.
 
This particular Disney movie begins with something a bit out of the ordinary for a traditionally animated movie from the Company: there is nothing to describe what has happened beforehand. The movie simply begins with a sunrise over the African plains. But there couldn’t be a better beginning for this movie.
The camera shifts to different species of animals, from rhinos to zebras. Just about every African animal appears sometime in the first few minutes of the movie…except lions.
We first see a lion on top of a huge rock. He overlooks the animals as they all flock about around the rock. One of the animals, a beautiful bird, flies up and lands in front of the lion, bowing. It is now obvious that this lion is a king of some sort, but throughout the movie it is never specified if he is king of just the lions or of all Africa.
Down below, the animals part into two groups to let somebody walk through. This somebody is a baboon, whose name is mentioned only once in the entire movie: Rafiki. Rafiki walks up to the rock, and approaches the lion. They hug—they are obviously old friends—and then walks into a cave within the rock. Inside the cave are numerous lionesses, one of which is holding a cub. Rafiki approaches this lioness and her cub, cracks open a fruit shell on his walking stick, and sprinkles some of the juice inside onto the cub’s forehead. Then he picks up a handful of dust and scatters it onto the juice. The cub sneezes. Then Rafiki picks the cub up—with the lioness’s pre-set permission—and takes him out to the edge of the rock. Then he holds him up for all the animals to see.
The next scene takes place in a different cave inside the rock. A lion—quite different from the one previously scene; this one has green eyes and brown fur—captures a mouse, intending to eat it. Before he does so, however, he complains that “I will never be king.” Then, just before he is about to eat the mouse, the bird that was seen in the previous scene stops him. In the following conversation, we learn the names of at least three major characters: the lion king is Mufasa, the bird is Zazu, and the other lion is Mufasa’s brother Scar. According to a set of books published in 1996, Scar’s real name was Taka, but after receiving a scar from an angry wildebeest, his name was forever changed, both for Africa and the audience.
Zazu says that “King Mufasa is on his way. So you’d better have a good reason for missing the ceremony this morning.” Scar then deliberately lets the mouse go, and starts complaining that Zazu made him do so. But Zazu says that Scar should have more to worry about, when Mufasa gets done with him. Scar, more out of anger than hunger, grabs Zazu, and is about to eat him when Mufasa appears in the entryway and tells him to release the bird.
Mufasa’s next sentence reveals the names of two more characters: “Sarabi and I didn’t see you at the presentation of Simba.” Obviously acting, Scar says that he is sorry, and it must’ve slipped his mind. Zazu, plucking up his courage, says, “As slippery as your mind is, as the king’s brother you should have been first in line.” Scar replies that he was first in line, “until the little hairball was born.” He walks away.
Zazu murmurs that there’s one of Scar’s personality in every family—“Two in mine”—and asks Mufasa to try to not think of it so much. Then he jokes that Scar would make a great floor rug, and whenever he got dirty Mufasa could take him out and beat him.
That night, during a thunderstorm, Rafiki sits in the tree that serves as his home and paints a picture on a branch. This is obviously nonsense, but Disney obviously thought it would help the story along, which it did in a very nice fashion. Rafiki paints an abstract picture of a lion, which has become sort of an icon in Disney history. “Simba.”
 
The next scene takes place perhaps a few months later. We an adolescent Simba walking around his home-rock—it is later called Pride Rock. Young Simba is voiced by the very talented Jonathan Taylor Thomas, who later went on to do comic films. He is probably best remembered, though, for playing Simba.
After seeing that the sun is about to rise, Simba runs inside a cave. He wakes up his reluctant father, saying that he promised to do something. Mufasa, after fully waking up, leads Simba up to the very top of Pride Rock, just in time to see the sun rise.
“Look, Simba. Everything the light touches is our kingdom,” he says. Then, starting to explain to Simba in a very loving way, he says, “A king’s reign is like the rising and setting of the sun. One day the sun will set on my time and rise with you as the new king.”
Simba doesn’t pause to think over what his father meant; he simply says, “And I get all of this?” Then he notices a piece of land that is shadowed. When he inquires about it, Mufasa says it is beyond their borders and to never go there.
They come off of Pride Rock and start walking on the ground. Mufasa continues to explain. “Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. As king, you will need to keep that balance and respect all the creatures from the crawling ant to the leaping antelope. We are all part of the Great Circle of Life.”
Before he can continue, Zazu flies up and says he is ready to give the morning report. In the DVD Special Edition of the movie, Zazu actually sings a song, but in the original release Zazu simply spoke his report out. The scene differs in both editions, as well; in the original version, Simba tries to catch a butterfly, and in the special edition he tries to catch a groundhog. Either way, Mufasa decides to help Simba out, and Simba next targets Zazu, whom he gets.
While Mufasa congratulates Simba, Zazu has a visit from the groundhog—more understandable in the special edition. Zazu hears what the groundhog has to say, and then shouts at Mufasa, “Hyenas in the Pride Lands!” Obviously, hyenas are not supposed to be on Mufasa’s land, so he disappears to find them and run them away. Simba starts complaining that he doesn’t get to go anywhere, but Zazu, in his humorous nature, says that one day Simba will be king, and then he will be able to catch those hyenas.
The next scene opens with Scar walking along a trail on the backside of Pride Rock. Simba arrives within seconds, and then starts announcing, innocently enough, that he will be king of Pride Rock. Scar simply sighs and falls onto his side; he is obviously getting tired of hearing that fact over and over again. Then he tries to entertain Simba—something new to Disney; the villains almost never tried to have contact with the heroes—and asks if Mufasa showed him the entire kingdom, then narrows it down to the northern border. Simba says no, he couldn’t go there. Scar says of course not, an elephant graveyard is no place for any lion. He then covers his own mouth, realizing he’s said to much—in an interview with Jeremy Irons, the voice of Scar, he said that Scar was genuinely absent-minded when he blabbed, and simply worked it to his own advantage. Scar tells Simba that, as long as he doesn’t go there, it could be their little secret about what it really was. Simba promises and walks away.
Simba runs down Pride Rock and to a place on the ground were about six lionesses are sunbathing. He approaches one, who has a female cub of her own, and says to the cub, “C’mon, I just found a really great place.” The cub—Nala, by name—replies that she’s kind of in a middle of a bath. Then a voice from behind says, “And it’s time for yours.” It is Sarabi, who picks up Simba, gives him three licks, and lets him go playfully. Simba pushes his hair back in its original place, and says, “Okay, I’m clean. Can we go now?”
Nala asks where they’re going, and Sarabi repeats the question. Simba says his first—and only—lie of the movie, and says that it’s around the water hole. When Nala asks, why the water hole, Simba replies with gritted teeth, “I’ll show you when we get there.” Nala asks her mother if it’s okay, and her mother in turn asks Sarabi. Sarabi considers it for a minute, then says, “It’s all right with me…as long as Zazu goes with you.”
The next scene cuts in, keeping the audience from seeing what took place between the two scenes. We see Nala and Simba walking slowly on the ground, and Zazu flying equally slowly in the air. Nala and Simba speak in low tones—Simba told Nala where they were really going—and Zazu, seeing this, flies down to talk with the to of them. “Oh, just look at you two. Basking together under the Savanna sun. Your parents will be thrilled, what with you being betrothed at all.” This is something common in Africa: pre-arranged marriages. When Zazu starts explaining to the confused cubs that, “One day you will are going to be married,” they both just stare at him like he’s nuts. “I can’t marry her; she’s my friend,” Simba complains; she is likely his half-sister, as well. Then he starts going into an argument with Zazu that, when becomes king, pre-arranged marriages will be the first thing to go. When Zazu says that only the king can do that—and Simba’s not king yet—Simba starts a song that includes all three of them: “I just can’t wait to be king!” The song is very creative—one of the first in a long time for Disney—and spreads colors everywhere. During the song, Simba and Nala escape Zazu, and it ends with Zazu getting stuck with a rhino on top of him.
 
After they escape, Simba and Nala start congratulating each other, and then themselves. They start a playful fight, and when Nala pounces Simba, they start rolling down a hill.
A geyser erupts, and the two cubs start walking toward it, entranced. They come up to a hill, at the top of which is the remains of an elephant skull. “This is it,” Simba says needlessly. “We made it!” Nala, more out of gut than bravery, asks Simba if the elephant’s brains are still left. When Simba says that they should check it out, Zazu suddenly appears and says that they only checking-out they will do is check-out of there; they are beyond the boundary of the Pride Lands.
Simba says that he laughs at the face of danger—only to have three voices from inside the skull laugh at his statement. From within, three hyenas—Shenzi, Bonzai, and Ed—come out, starting to circle around the three others. When they try to escape, Shenzi asks, “What’s the hurry? We’d love for you to stick around for dinner.” To which Bonzai answers, “Yeah, we can have whatever’s lion around.”
The three hyenas start making jokes, until Ed points out that Simba, Nala, and Zazu are starting to run away. The chase is on, but only Zazu escapes. Soon, the hyenas have the two lions cornered. Simba, probably only to impress Nala, gives a short, half-hearted roar—this is Jonathan Thomas’s voice, not at all like a lion. When asked to do it again, he tires, and a real lion’s roar sounds.
Then Mufasa appears, tackling the three hyenas. They hurriedly run away, not wanting to deal with him. Zazu appears—he obviously told Mufasa what was happening—and escorts the two cubs away. As the four of them disappear, the camera shifts up, and we see Scar stalking back into the shadows—it is obvious he arranged everything, confirming that he is the real villain.
As the four of them walk home, Mufasa asks Zazu to take Nala ahead, and then asks for Simba to come sit beside him. Mufasa—voiced by James Earl Jones, the same voice behind the famous Star Wars villain Darth Vader—says that he is very disappointed: “You deliberately disobeyed me. And what’s worse, you put Nala in danger.” Simba responds that, “I was only trying to be brave like you.” But Mufasa is only brave when he has to be; being brave doesn’t mean you go looking for trouble. Simba starts to realize what his father is telling him: “Guess even kings get scared, eh?”
Then they start a playful fight—quite common among lions, as well as fathers and sons of all species—and afterwards Simba says, “We’re pals, and we’ll always be together, right?” Mufasa tells Simba to look at the stars; the great kings of the past look down on them from those stars. “So, whenever you feel alone, just remember that those kings will always be there to guide you…and so will I.” This innocent statement doesn’t seem important at the moment, but plays a key role later in the film.
In the out-lands, the three hyenas try to recover from the wounds they received from Mufasa. Then they start complaining about lions in general, but from the side, Scar—in the shadows—replies that, “Lions aren’t all that bad, are they?” Then he starts complaining that, since the hyenas didn’t do their job, he was being generous at even letting them eat a meal, which he gives to them. When asked what they really should have done, “Kill Mufasa?” he smiles and says “Precisely.”
During the song that follows, he tells the hyenas his ultimate plan: Kill Mufasa and Simba, and make Scar the king of the Pride Lands. The hyenas concur, and their howls of “Long live the king!” echo throughout the night.
 
The next day, Scar takes Simba into a ravine, telling him to wait beside an old tree. While he does, Scar goes up to the top of the ravine and gives a signal for the three hyenas to do something—we can guess what it is. Meanwhile, Simba finds a chameleon and tries to scare it with his roar, not knowing that chameleons are deaf. Finally, he gives a small, somewhat pitiful roar, and the chameleon starts scampering away. His roar echoes throughout the ravine, and he starts feeling the ground under his feet vibrating. He looks up, and sees a herd of wildebeest coming at him from the top of the ravine. He turns and starts running for his life.
A few miles away, Mufasa and Zazu walk absently, until Zazu points out the herd running into the ravine. As if on cue, Scar appears and tells them that Simba is among the herd. Mufasa starts running to save his son.
Simba finds a tree, climbs it, and holds on for his life—this herd is thundering past so violently that the tree is shaking. Mufasa arrives, grabs Simba and takes him back to the top of the ravine. Then, caught on a wildebeest, he falls back down, only to jump back up and onto the ravine’s wall. As he reaches the top, he calls out to Scar—just a few feet above him—to help him the rest of the way. Scar seems to do so, and grabs Mufasa. Then, when Mufasa is within inches of the top, Scar whispers in his ear, “Long live the king”, and throws Mufasa to the ground. We don’t see him hit, but we can guess what it looks like.
After the stampede disappears, Simba gets to the ravine’s floor, and finds his father. This is something almost exactly like Bambi, when the main character is told his mother is dead. Unlike Bambi, however, The Lion King shows Simba actually finding his dead father.
Whether Simba doesn’t know what death is, or he doesn’t want to accept that fact that it happened, he tries to coax his father to wake up. In theaters, not only did I cry, but almost everybody else cried; it was a very emotional scene. Finally, when Mufasa does not get up, Simba buries his face into his father’s fur.
Scar appears, and asks Simba what happened. Simba, through his tears, says that there was a stampede and Mufasa tried to save him. “It was an accident; I didn’t mean for it to happen.” Scar pulls Simba close, acting as if trying to comfort him, and says that, “Nobody ever means for these things to happen. But…the king is dead. And if it weren’t for you he’d still be alive.” Simba asks what he should do, and Scar tells him to run away, and never return. Simba does so. It is not said what happens to Mufasa’s body; it could either have been left in the ravine, or Scar could have taken it back to Pride Rock to show everyone what happened.
Either way, Scar convinces all the lions that both Mufasa and Simba are dead. And, since there are no other surviving relatives, he assumes the throne. His first act as king is allowing hyenas within the Pride Lands. We cannot see what will happen, but we can guess that it is not a good thing.
The next scene shows Simba unconscious in the desert. A flock of vultures flies down to start eating him, but suddenly a yell shoos them away. We see a warthog and a meerkat run up, chasing the vultures away for fun rather than to save Simba. In fact, when the warthog—Pumbaa, by name—mentions that there’s a lion lying there, the meerkat—Timon, by name—wants nothing less than to simply run away, even though it’s obvious that Simba won’t be attacking them. But Pumbaa asks if they can raise Simba, and after much persuasion, Timon agrees.
When The Lion King came out, there was much dispute on whether Timon and Pumbaa were gay mates or simply friends. This question wasn’t answered until ten years later, then The Lion King 1½ came to DVD. In this movie, we find out that Timon was an outcast from his pack, and met Pumbaa by chance. They grew to like each other, and simply remained friends.
Timon and Pumbaa take Simba to a shady area, and revive him. When asked why he is alone, he says he doesn’t want to talk about it. In an alternate scene, Simba admitted what he had supposedly done, but Disney obviously felt that story would play better this way—which it did. Timon and Pumbaa start saying that, if Simba won’t let go of the past, put it behind him. “Repeat after me,” Timon says. “Hakuna Matata. It means no worries.”
As the next song rolls along, Timon and Pumbaa show Simba their home: an oasis, the part of Africa that has never been seen by Humans. Also during the song, Simba grows up from being a cub to an adolescent, and finally a full-fledged, mature lion. The Simba who was the Lion King is no more.
 
In Scar’s kingdom, the grass is gone, and the bare ground is cracked and gray. We know immediately that this is the hyenas’ doing; the lions would never do that kind of damage. Inside Pride Rock, Scar has locked Zazu in a cage, making him the king’s personal canary. When Scar isn’t satisfied with Zazu singing, “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen”, he asks him to sing something more bouncy. Zazu starts singing a famous Disney song: “It’s a Small World After All.” Scar makes him stop; he still thinks Simba is alive, and doesn’t want to be reminded of it.
Bonzai, Shenzi, and Ed arrive, complaining that “We ain’t got no sinking entrées.” Scar says that it’s the lionesses’ jobs to do the hunting, but, as Bonzai points out, “They won’t go hunt.” Scar sighs, and sends them away, too annoyed with the day in general to put up with any more.
In the oasis, Simba, Pumbaa, and Timon lay under the stars, simply enjoying the night. Pumbaa asks what the stars in the sky are; Timon replies that they’re fireflies; Pumbaa says he thought they were balls of gas; Timon answers that, with Pumbaa, everything is gas. Then Simba is asked, and he answers that “Somebody told me that the Great Kings of the Past are up there, watching over us.”
“You mean a bunch of royal dead guys are up there watching us?” Timon responds. He and Pumbaa start laughing, but Simba gets up and walks away, uneasy. He stares up at the sky, and plops down, sending a cloud of dust up into the sky.
It was pointed out that the cloud of dust seemed to ominously spell “S-E-X” near the end of the scene, and because of the two-year-long dispute that followed, the dust was re-edited for the DVD to simply be random dust particles. However, after watching the videotape over and over again, I noticed that the bottom line of the “E” was less bold than the other lines. In my opinion, then, the letters spell “S-F-X”, a gimmick that is traditional in Disney—in all movies, the special effects department has hidden a picture of some sort that either points to themselves or to a different Disney movie; in Tarzan, a set of pots looked exactly like Mrs. Pots from Beauty and the Beast. In this case, “SFX” is an abbreviation for “Special Effects”; spell it aloud and it will make sense.
The dust flies through the air, and by morning, it has reached Rafiki’s tree. He grabs some of it, puts it into a turtle shell, and reads it. His eyes start to bulge. “Simba? He’s alive?”
That same morning, Timon and Pumbaa walk absently, singing a song that was famous at the time: “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” They sing until Pumbaa walks off the path to follow a bug; it was pointed out earlier that both he and Timon eat nothing but bugs. When he is about to catch it, however, a lioness springs out from the grass and tries to catch him. When he gets stuck, Timon tries to save him, but gets stuck as well. And then, coming to the rescue, is Simba. He pounces the lioness, who rolls over and pounces him right back. His eyes widen. “Nala?”
The lioness gets up, dumbstruck. “Who are you?” Simba replies, “It’s me. Simba.” Then they suddenly embrace and start talking to each other, trying to make up for the time they lost with each other. Timon, staring at the scene, drops his jaw. “What’s going on here?”
In the following minutes, Simba is told that everybody back home thinks he’s dead; Timon and Pumbaa are told that Simba is the king; Nala is told that Simba is no longer the rightful king. Then, after Pumbaa and Timon are told to leave, Simba and Nala embrace once more; nobody can come between them now.
The final song of the movie went on to win an Academy Award, not surprisingly. During the song—“Can You Feel the Love Tonight”—Simba shows Nala around his new home, and then they simply start playing around, something they haven’t done in years. Then, after Simba falls on top of Nala, she gives him a quick lick on the cheek. They smile and hug.
Later that night, Simba and Nala start seriously talking about the situation in the Pride Lands. “There’s no food, no water…Simba, if you don’t come back and do something soon, everyone will starve. You are our only hope.” But despite her best efforts, Simba refuses, and stalks away.
After a while, Simba hears a voice from behind: it is Rafiki. But Simba doesn’t remember the baboon, and tries to ignore him. But when Rafiki says that Mufasa is alive, Simba starts paying attention. Rafiki leads him to a pool of water, where he looks down and sees his reflection. But Rafiki tells him to look closer, and when he does, he sees Mufasa’s face staring up at him. “He lives in you.”
Then, from among the clouds, a voice is heard. “Father?” Simba asks, hoping. And his hope pays off; Mufasa’s outline comes from among the clouds. This scene was inspired by the scene in the Bible of when Moses heard God’s voice from a burning bush; however, the similarities end there. Mufasa looks at Simba and says, “You have forgotten me; you have forgotten who you are, and so you have forgotten me. Look inside yourself, Simba. You are more than what you have become. You must take your place in the Circle of Life. Remember who you are; you are my son, the true king. Remember who you are. Remember.” Personally, I think it would’ve been funny if Mufasa had said, “Simba, you know I am your father.” As I mentioned before, James Earl Jones also voiced Darth Vader. But, even without saying that one line, he got his point across to Simba, who turns to Rafiki and says, “I’m going back.”
When Simba reaches the Pride Lands, he sees that it’s even worse than Nala said it was. Then Nala comes up from behind; she followed Simba. She says, as a memory rather than a mock, “I laugh in the face of danger.” Then Timon and Pumbaa arrive from behind; they followed Nala. “I see nothing funny about this. But, if it’s important to you, we’re with you to the end.”
Simba sends Timon and Pumbaa ahead, as a distraction for the hyenas. He tells Nala to rally up the lionesses while he looks for Scar. But he doesn’t need to look for long; Scar is on Pride Rock, talking with Sarabi. After a brief argument, he strikes her down, and Simba comes up. He helps Sarabi up—they are glad to see each other—and then approaches Scar threateningly. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t rip you apart.”
But Scar is cunning; he makes Simba tell everyone that it was he who killed Mufasa. Then, with the hyena army watching his back, he forces Simba off of Pride Rock. Simba barely catches the edge. Scar smiles; he remembers this scene well, “You’re daddy was in the same position when he died.”
A lightning bolt from the clouds strikes the ground, and starts a fire. Scar grabs Simba, poised to throw him to the ground, and whispers into Simba’s ear, “I killed Mufasa.”
Simba finds his strength, throws himself onto Scar, and orders him to tell everyone else what he just told him. Scar murmurs, “I did it,” but Simba says “So they can hear you.” Scar shouts, “I killed Mufasa!” and then orders his hyenas to attack Simba. But Nala has rallied the lions, and they counterattack the hyenas.
During the ten-minute battle that follows, Zazu is freed, we see Rafiki fight, and we also see Simba pursue Scar. Finally, he had driven Scar to the top of Pride Rock, and corners him. But Scar, scared out of his skin, says, “You…wouldn’t kill your poor, old uncle, would you?” And, in true Disney fashion, Simba says, “No, Scar. I’m not like you. Run away. And never return.”
Scar, angry that things are no longer going his way, attacks Simba. In the fistfight that follows, they both exchange blows, but in the end, Simba throws Scar to the ground. When Scar gets up, Bonzai, Shenzi, and Ed have arrived with several more hyenas. As the fire licks around them, Scar tries disparately to not kill him, but they don’t listen. We don’t see the killing, but the shadow that we do see shows us that his crimes—sins, if you would—caught up with him.
As a rain arrives that extinguishes the fire, Simba limps down from the top of Pride Rock. Then, after hugging his mother and Nala, he walks up to the edge of Pride Rock, and lets out a roar. From among the stars, Mufasa’s voice rings out: “Remember.”
Within months, all is back to normal. In the closing shots of the movie, we see Simba and Nala overlooking their newly-restored kingdom. Then Rafiki walks up with their cub, and holds him above the crowd of animals, for all to see.
 
The Lion King was the first animated movie to have a sequel, this being direct-to-video. In the sequel, Simba and his daughter, Kiara, go through more trials and adventures than the first movie, and it is only at the end of this movie that Simba is truly the Lion King.
It is unknown what happened to the cub seen at the end of the first movie; his name was Kopa, and it was presumed that either he was killed or lost, it is not clear. But it is only for the keen fan to research, and as I am not that keen of a fan, I have not researched it enough.
The score for the movie as composed by Hans Zimmer, who won an Academy Award for his work on The Lion King and went on to do the music for Pirates of the Caribbean, another famous Disney movie. The songs were written by Elton John, who won the Academy Award for his own performance of “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”, sung during the end credits. He was later knighted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth of England.
The story of The Lion King gave Disney its reputation back; after the movie was complete, the movies started declining both in popularity and quality. Thus, when many people think of a Disney movie these days, usually the first one that comes to mind is The Lion King.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I can say for myself that The Lion King didn’t win two Academy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards for no reason; it should be looked upon today as the best animated film ever made.
Yet, the most enduring theme expressed in The Lion King is the theme of love: “Can you feel the love tonight? It is where we are. It’s enough for this wide-eyed wanderer that we got this far. And can you feel the love tonight, how it’s laid to rest? It’s enough to make kings and vagabonds believe the very best.”
 
Here is a list of the movies that will be in my book:

Snow White
Pinocchio
Fantasia
Dumbo
Bambi
Cinderella
Peter Pan
Sleeping Beauty
The Jungle Book
Robin Hood
The Fox and the Hound
The Great Mouse Detective
The Little Mermaid
Beauty and the Beast
Aladdin
The Lion King
Mulan
Tarzan
Fantasia 2000
Brother Bear
Bolt

If "The Princess and the Frog" comes out before I finish my book, I will include it as well. As of now, "Bolt" is the only CGI film that will be in my book.

Thank you all for your support!

Jack
 
Update on my book:

I have had to eliminate Dumbo, Tarzan, and Mulan, because it would make the book too long. I am now in the works of getting my book published sometime next spring.

If you like my book so far, please PM me and tell me. Thank you all!

Stories:
Snow White
Pinocchio
Fantasia
Bambi
Cinderella
Peter Pan
Sleeping Beauty
The Jungle Book
Robin Hood
The Fox and the Hound
The Great Mouse Detective
The Little Mermaid
Beauty and the Beast
Aladdin
The Lion King
Fantasia 2000
Brother Bear
Bolt
 
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Beauty and the Beast (Beauty is Soul Deep)

WITH THE success of The Little Mermaid, Disney started looking for other stories that would have the potential to be made into great animated movies. Some stories that were put to the drawing board included the stories of Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Tarzan, and Atlantis.
But at the top of the list was Beauty and the Beast.
When this movie was released, it soon became a box-office record, becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time. This was passed a year later by Aladdin, and then two years later by The Lion King. It seemed at the time that animated movies had once again come back into fashion, and the Disney Company started calling this period “The Disney Renaissance.”
This film also got some special attention from critics, as well; in 1992, it got seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture—not heard of for an animated film, and not done again until WALL-E in 2008. It went on to receive three Oscars for its score, sound, and the beloved song “Beauty and the Beast.”
Today, it is looked upon as one of the best films ever, animated or otherwise. Let the story of Beauty and the Beast reveal to us that beauty is not on the outside, but in the heart.
 
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