Wednesday 2 December 2009

Simba and his campaign for Presidency!

Simba is a character from the Lion King and son of Mufassa. Simba would be a great president because of his morals and beliefs. For example, Simba is an angelic, lively and ambitious Disney character, who always stands up for their friends. Furthermore, Simba deserves to be king of Disney because he is innocent and doesn't resemble a character from Disney who is perhaps racist, or resembles social class issues, because being a lion, these issues associated with Disney don't apply.
For example, there are many arguments associated with the issue of racism from Walt Disney. However, this could just be a result of the context and era in which Walt Disney was alive and creating Disney films. For instance, segregation was still apparent in the 1960's, thereby this would have influenced Walt Disney. As a result however, certain Disney films such as Jungle Book has been criticised for portraying racist views. Therefore, Simba would be a perfect character as king of Disney because racism and social class issues aren't an issue in the film.
Simba is also innocent and doesn't intend to hurt any other character throughout the film Lion King; and thus is very popular with young children as they will look up to Simba. He is also a young lion, therefore he has a eager mind to learn new things and has the energy and ability to become president of Disney! Also, Simba would be a better candidate for becoming president of Disney than characters such as Hercules, because Hercles is a typical strong male "hero," who is full of himself. Where-as Simba isn't over confident, yet he is un-aware of his abilities. Furthermore, females wouldn't be able to identify with a character such as Hercules because he would only relate to males who would aspire to be like Hercules. On the other hand, Simba would appeal strongly to both genders of all ages, so there is no chance of gender bias.
The type of morals Simba has is that he believes in friendship helping you get by, and most importantly he looks up to family which will portray a positive message across to young children, influencing children to realise the importance of having family and friends around you in order to succeed.
However, although audiences may suggest that there is representation of a class system in the Lion King because Simba and his father Mufussa are king, this isn't represented in a negative way. For example, the characters of Mufussa and Simba are kind and wise, therefore they treat other characters in the Lion King as equals. There isn't a character in the film that is looked down upon as lower class or judged for being "beneath them," therefore the class system is represented as negatively to an audience. Perhaps this is because Disney films are aimed at young children, therefore producers of Disney wouldn't want to influence young children into believing there is a social hierarchy.












2 comments:

  1. A strong contender for President!

    You have a sound understanding of the task and have incorporated issues discussed last lesson well with an objective view of Disney.

    I do have a question though - if Simba is to be king (as lions are king of the jungle) then surely there is representation of a class system in The Lion King...?

    Perhaps you could defend this statement in an additional paragraph.

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  2. Forgot to add - can you re-label this as 'G325'. Ta.

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