Stage 2 in The Lion King: Chapter 1 Part 1 of

THE BIG PICTURE: A POST-JUNGIAN MAP OF GLOBAL CINEMA

by James Whitlark, Ph.D.

Stage Two in The Lion King (1994)

Again, I do not want to examine at length some cuddly rabbit-family cartoon that would be a purer and thus less interesting version of stage two. I prefer again to cite a work that borrows an ota from a higher level but markets it at a lower one. Whereas the filmed Last Temptation of Christ only leaves shards of stage seven in its pervasive stage one, a much more common and successful strategy involves packaging ideas from stage six in stage two. Godspell, for instance, images its vision of non-dogmatic, Christian empathy in terms of childlike young trickster-clowns, forming a trusting, surprisingly egalitarian community, where all share in the telling of parables that the Gospel of Matthew (the film’s alleged source) assigns to Christ alone. At least in commercial terms, the most successful use of ideas from stage six concealed in a stage—two structure is in “family” entertainment–a genre the Disney corporation dominates. Particularly since Walt’s death, it has been adding a veneer of “political correctness” (stage six) to material about tribes/families, i.e., stage two. If you have visited Disney World recently, you may have noticed the large numbers of “physically challenged,” “ethnically diverse,” and “foreign—language—speaking” guests served by people now called, not attendants, but “cast” (to show respect to them as well). The park might go bankrupt if limited to the narrow stratum of the population who first attended Disneyland. Wide appeal is so important to Disney products in general that the corporation safely ignores fundamentalist boycotts against its new liberalism. It, nonetheless, must make its products comprehensible to very small children–thus the stage-two structure of them.

A notable example of crowding once-sophisticated notions into a relatively narrow structure is The Lion King. As a trope of multi-ethnic cooperation, the opening music combines singing in Zulu and English. In the international trailer that advertised the movie, this song was performed in eleven different languages–a clear appeal to stage six. In the movie, however, the Zulu is primarily an evocation of African music, establishing an analogy between the lion family and human tribal life, i.e., the emphasis is on what they have in common–stage two. Its “circle of life” is certainly not the mazelike, fractal patterns of stage-seven ecology. It is not even the ecology of stage-six round-tables, comparable to the multiple perspectives of Rashomon. Instead, the audience is simply expected to trust a cute simplification. The movie’s focus on stage two means that its “circle” hearkens back to that motif in tribal art as does the ceremonial opening.

Central to this rite is one of the characters who most effectively juxtaposes stages two and six; Rafiki, a “baboon shaman.” About half the time, he is a stage-two comic trickster, devoted to clowning and pranks. As is the way of tricksters, he employs these relatively crude manifestations of the unconscious to spark insight in his listeners. Periodically, however, he drops this guise and speaks as a dignified personification of wisdom (i.e., the archetype of stage six). In the solemn opening, thus, to the sound of a pan flute, he performs what the screenplay calls a “ceremonial anointment” of the young prince Simba. Then the baboon raises the anointed cub for the obeisance, while a beam of light from heaven illuminates him–a reminiscence of Christian art depicting baby Jesus thus illuminated. Rafiki later sits in a yogic lotus posture and employs Far-Eastern martial arts, since movies have regularly presented the crazy wisdom of eastern senseis and gurus as a mixture of stages two and six.
Among echoes of Christianity, in the first scene, the lyrics cite St. Paul’s triad “faith,” “hope” and “love,” while the very idea of an anointment is charged with two-thousand years of the Western world’s reverencing the Christos (Greek for “anointed”). All these images, though, are placed within the tribal world of circular time rather than the straight line from Adam’s fall to Judgment day that structures Christian chronology. Simba is not the unique savior, but one in a succession including all his royal ancestors and descendants. According to his father, Mufasa, the former are stars in the heaven, where they continue to guide their tribe on earth. Former generations are still part of the family or tribe–a common notion in stage two, because it supports accepting the cultural heritage those generations produced. The notion, though, also resembles Jung’s collective unconscious, where the archetypes are, in a sense, ancestral voices. Indeed, Rafiki tells Simba that his father is within him and then this internal presence appears to him in the water (a common image of the unconscious) in order to represent all the previous kings, making him as collective and archetypal a Wisdom Personified as could be imaged.
Not at first for wisdom, Simba, like most young males in Disney films, is at the Trickster phase of stage two. He sings “I just can’t wait to be king” while he orders his future subjects to play tricks on the horn bill Zazu. The audience sees where this play could lead if it turns into the conscious behavior of stage three, embodied in Scar and his hyena allies. Their villainy arises from being frozen at that stage, the hyenas because of stupidity and Scar probably because of trauma. His name and appearance suggest some injury that left him too cowardly and resentful to progress.

Unfortunately, Simba also undergoes a psychological trauma, one that not only stalls his development, but pushes him backwards. Almost dead in the desert, he regresses to life in a pre-tribal band, the kind of primitive organization Graves sometimes associated with stage one (since he was never quite certain how solitary this level must be). The name of Simba’s new companion “Timon” alludes to Shakespeare’s hermit, Timon of Athens. The group’s archaic character is emphasized by the scene where Simba’s new friends start guessing about what the stars may be. Lacking any traditions about such things, they are impressed when Simba recalls the tribal legend that the stars are the deceased lion kings watching the earth.

With the help of Rafiki, who summons the spirit of Mufasa from the stars, Simba finally recognizes who he is (according to the in-dwelling presence or ghost of his father) the “one true king.” To assume that role, however, he must fight Scar, who makes it largely a psychological battle by triggering Simba’s guilt about causing his father’s death. Despite this provocation, Simba refuses to fight to the death; thus, he rejects the aggressive competitiveness of stage three. At the end, the hyenas devour Scar and the film comes full circle, showing the anointing of Simba’s heir with the jungle (which became blighted by Scar’s reign) once again flourishing–a link between king and country as in the myths on which Fraser bases his Golden Bough.
How is this odd mixture of talking animals, tribal customs, and mythic resonances satisfying? Ambiguously, it manages to combine conservative and progressive paradigms. The former appears in all the circular imagery. The latter, however, comes from its artful manipulation of Graves’s levels. It begins at late stage two, with Mufasa like Simba playing tricks on Zazu. After regressing to stage one, Simba’s maturity is a return to stage two, but a stage two laced with stage-six ideas and imagery so that it seems superior to Scar’s stage three.

Although the beginning and ending are almost the same, an important difference is the inclusion of Timon and Pumbaa in the final battle. Previously, Mufasa seemed to be the sole warrior and all temporal power belonged to the lion kindred. There were servants of other species and even a spiritual councilor but Mufasa was the only defender of the kingdom seen fighting. At the end, Timon and Pumbaa join the lionesses and Rafiki in the battle. Thus, the kingdom appears more democratic, pluralistic, and, of course, ecological (i.e., virtually stage six).
As a glance at the internet shows, The Lion King has inspired considerable fan fiction set in its 2/6 world. Intent on exploiting its products to the maximum, the Disney corporation has also spread the film’s vision into an Epcot ride, an animated television series, a very successful musical and, of course, an array of merchandise. It has had a sequel, The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride, based loosely on Romeo and Juliet (as The Lion King is on Hamlet). Disney’s commercialization deserves attention because however hypocritical the motivation may be, it extends the The Lion King’s 2/6 ota all-the-more deeply by affecting people from childhood forward.

Continue to THE BIG PICTURE Chapter 1 Part 5

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