The Lion King as father figure

(The Austin Chronicle, March 16, 2007)



For the rest of the week my blog posts will focus on father themes.














The Lion King was such a great movie. I saw it with my mother in the little theater in Astoria, Oregon, where we were vacationing for a few days.

Mike and I saw the traveling Broadway production of The Lion King in Portland, Oregon. It was a night of wonder. Our seats were near the aisle and close to the stage so we were able to see closely the actors when they used the aisles as part of some acts.

Once wasn't enough for either. I'd love to see the stage production again, and I wish there was a version of it on DVD. Guess I'll have to rent the DVD of the movie soon.

A movie review published in the New York Times on June 15, 1994, says the solemn Mufasa: is given the job of articulating the film's very 1990's heroic ethos. The message boils down to something like "Find Your Inner King," and Mufasa is sometimes positioned against a starry sky to emphasize his noble stature.

Noble stature. That sounds like a fine quality for a father to have.