I recently made a trip to the cinema like many others to go see the 2019 remake of the critically acclaimed movie ‘The Lion King’! My first experience of this film was many years ago watching the 1994 original animation of this Disney classic, to my now renewed experience watching the 2019 remake. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures, an American film studio based in Hollywood, both the original and remake have had huge success at the box office. The 1994 original film grossed $312.8 million, making it to the fifth highest domestic grossing film in history, and the 2019 remake grossed $1.5 billion worldwide, making it the highest- grossing animated film!
I thoroughly enjoyed both versions of the film, and give credit to the 2019 version for its incredible computer animation and complete realism. Although many people have poorly received it, I am pleased the filmmakers kept the original storyline and utilised modern day technologies to improve its visual aspect and complete realism.
The films intended audience is mainly aimed for a younger age group although adults like me can also enjoy it for a more lighthearted family movie. However, The remake is “darker than its predecessor” as it involves “sequences of violence and peril” (Holmes 2019). This demonstrates that the original film being rated ‘G’ to the remake being ‘PG’, the film now consists of more violent scenes and dark themes, shifting the intended audience to a slightly older cohort.
For a film with such great success, I question how well it has flowed across the globe and been received internationally. “Audiences may have similar understandings of Disney, but the contexts in which they arrive at this understanding are always culturally specific”(Fung, Lee 2009). What cultural knowledge do I possess to decode this film?
Many blockbuster films produced in America are hybridised in other countries to resonate with their local culture, whether this be through local actors, the language used etc. Many would argue that through globalisation ‘it americanises and promotes homogenisation'(Stringer 2003) in films. I discovered in my research that ‘The Lion King’ is an example of cultural homogenisation, with the film flowing in the one direction from the global north to the global south, ‘Americanising’ other cultures.
I enjoyed the film because of my cultural proximity of growing up watching Disney films, understanding the language spoken and its underlying values.
The Lion King Internationally
The film offers the option of subtitles, but aside from this it has not been culturally adapted otherwise. I found it interesting to discover that Hong Kong’s Disneyland have a Lion King live show at the theme park. Would this be understood by their audiences?
Disney icons such as Mickey Mouse and his cohorts “have been symbols of American imperialism and cultural hegemony, and more recently of globalization seeming to be oblivious to local tastes in foreign markets” (Fung, Lee 2009). So how does an audience in Disneyland Hong Kong understand their media? Audiences across the world can understand the disney media through sharing common values about ” family, fantasy, fun, good over evil, happiness, imagination, love/romance and magic” (Fung,Lee 2009). Aside from this though, In Hong Kong Disneyland’s version of ‘The Lion King’, it is performed in English, with no Chinese translation provided. With a large sum of tourists being Chinese, many have limited knowledge of the storyline and the only cultural reference they can utilise to unpack the show is ” using their cultural resources of Confucianism and Chinese ethics, to grasp the notion of championship of justice over wickedness, good over evil and harmony over disparity.” (Fung, Lee 2009)
“The Disney vision has permeated our culture; it is recognisable, inescapable” (Ward 2010)
I wonder if there is anyone left in todays society that hasn’t been exposed to Disney in some way, what do you think?!
References
Berry, C. (2003). “What’s big about the big film?”: “de-Westernizing” the blockbuster in Korea and China. In J. Stringer (Ed.), Movie Blockbuster (pp. 217-229). London: RoutledgeURL
Fung A, Lee M 2009, localising a global amusement park: Hong Kong Disneyland, http://vpnmentor.com
Holmes, A 2017, The Lion King Live Action Movie, https://www.cinemablend.com/news/1698589/the-lion-king-live-action-movie-heres-what-we-know
Ward, A 2010, The Lion’s Kings Mythic Narrative, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01956051.1996.9943703?casa_token=9pky2HVLYMQAAAAA%3AcchZvDu7aOtryE5JwDmsqytgHSn1aXpPwrVLVM_zOdA06ZpgijIB0ADgWF6W9ke4ybp8iON3XXiArQ&
Georgia Woods 