The Lion King VHS tape was a staple in every childhood home around the world from the 1990’s until the early 2000’s. Since this era, we’ve upgraded from rewinding tapes for what felt like hours on end, to binge watching five Disney's original animated movies in a row on Netflix, but the messages and images shared with children in these movies remain the same. Since this film was released in 1994, children everywhere have been enamored with the story of Simba, a young and zealous lion cub who runs away from home after falsely believing he was responsible for his father, Mufasa’s, death. Along the way, he meets Timon and Pumbaa, a pair of misfit friends who help him to find certainty in himself and his legacy, reunite with his friend Nala, and eventually take over the Animal Kingdom, which is rightfully his. While this is generally a very inspirational plot in which children can take away important lessons on friendship and ideals such as “Hakuna Matata”, there are clear hurdles in fully comprehending this plot when looking through a developmental lens.
To begin, there is a clear issue in comprehension for young children when it comes to the anthropomorphic nature of The Lion King. Research studies, such as those conducted by Wilson on children and media violence, show that young children are unable to understand the severity of violent acts committed by media characters that are not human and, for that reason, are more likely to imitate these behaviors. (Wilson et al., 2002) Some violent acts that are more likely to model are scenes such as Rafiki hitting Simba on the head very firmly with his walking stick, the roughhousing nature of Nala and Simba’s greetings with one another, or the battle between Simba and the hyena (shown here). If children are more likely to emulate behaviors shown by likable, anthropomorphic characters, then actions like these in The Lion King are particularly dangerous for children to view in terms of their own personal well-being in play and other activities. Additionally, the anthropomorphic characters could lead children to recreate various behaviors that aren’t violent, but still potentially dangerous. For example, in the “Hakuna Matata” scene, all three of the characters are shown consuming bugs and other questionable creatures. Very young children, who are the target age range for this film, would not be able to view these acts as potentially dangerous to their health which could lead them to mimic the behaviors and have to deal with consequences that the characters themselves don’t.
Another element of this film that could be potentially harmful to young children is the visually frightening nature of many of the “bad” characters in the film. It is common practice to make the villains in children’s programming aesthetically displeasing, as young children are most frightened by visual stimuli, but many of the settings, such as the hyena caves and the elephant graveyard, could scare younger viewers to the point of distracting from the plot. (Farrar, 2017) Again, the villainous characters, such as Scar and his band of hyena counterparts, all are visually very scary, especially considering their coloring, haphazardness, and intense features. This could leave a very negative impression on young children and potentially cause prolonged fears associated with animals into their adolescence.
Lastly, the emotional range needed to comprehend the various aspects of this film are also far beyond that which a young child, even up to age 10, might not have yet developed. Notions such as Simba’s guilt regarding his father’s death, Scar’s betrayal of his family, or self-doubt in if Simba has what is needed to be a good king, are emotionally complex situations involving contradicting thoughts and actions that may be beyond the understanding of children. (Lapierre, 2015) Given that they can’t understand the depth of the relationships these characters have and, therefore, the motives behind their actions, the themes that emerge from this film may not be received by a young audience. Individuals pull from their own experiences and those of their peers to comprehend themes in media, meaning that the understanding of this film may be more feasible to a more adolescent audience than very young children. Knowing all of this information, it is clear that while The Lion King is an entertaining film, the dangerous behavioral modeling coupled with the lack of experiential schemas may make this film too complex for an audience of young children and should be recommended to slightly older children, over the age of 10, in order to safely watch this film and receive the most positive messages from it.
References
Farrar, K. (2017). Fear Reactions and Media. [Powerpoint slides]. Retrieved from https://lms.uconn.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/content/file?cmd=view&content_id=_1218841_1&course_id=_27516_1
Lapierre, M.A. (2015). Developmental Persuasion and Understanding: Predicting Knowledge/Selling Intent from Children’s Theory of Mind. Journal of Communication, 65(3), 423-442.
Wilson, B. (2002). Violence in Children's Television Programming: Assessing the Risks. Journal of Communication, 52(1), 5-35.
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