Be Prepared - The Lion King and Nazis

This weekend I went to see The Lion King in 3D. I hadn’t seen it in a long time, and noticed quite a few things that I hadn’t noticed when I watched it as a little kid. The main thing that stuck out to me was the song “Be Prepared” sung by Scar. The song argues us into the position of being against Scar; however this is not the interesting part of the clip. Rather the interesting thing is the way we are put into that position.

The first way we are put in the anti-Scar position is by the character of Scar himself. Unlike the other lions, Scar’s claws are always out. This gives him a more aggressive and dangerous feel. His scar also contributes to his evil persona, however I cannot come up with the exact feeling the scar gives. (This may be because I personally was totally in love with The Lion King as a kid. I associate the scar with evil because of the character of Scar. His character has constructed what I – and I assume many children – perceive as signs of an evil character.) The final aspect of Scar that causes us to sense the evilness of his character is something that people have repeatedly pointed out in Disney movies. It is the issue of race. Disney has developed a reputation for being racist in their classic movies. Scar is a perfect example of this. Scar is the only “black” lion in the movie. (All the other lions have light coats and reddish manes, while Scar is brown with a black mane.) Disney attempts to use his “race” as a way to turn us against him, calling upon any social construct of racist tendencies the audience may have. (It should be noted that Disney has attempted to redeem this racist quality as in The Lion King 2 one of the two main protagonists – Kovu – is also a “black” lion).

The second way – and in my opinion more interesting – way we are put against Scar occurs from about 1:40 to 2:05 in the video above. We are given the signifier of the hyenas’ march, and are immediately linked to the signified: Nazis. The walk in front of the leader is a link to Hitler’s Triumph of the Will, a movie created as Nazi propaganda. Scar and his hyenas are presented as Hitler and his Nazis, and we identify them as such. One interesting thing is that children watching this movie are likely not familiar with Nazi Germany. This means that while adults are put into the position of being against Scar because of the march, children are eventually pushed toward the position of being against Nazis because of the images they’ve seen in The Lion King.