There's a lot of things I do in the 21st Century that I would have scoffed at in the last.  Buying water in a bottle from a vending machine, for one.  Paying to see a movie that I own in a theater is another.  Now, if I were to tell the truth, my copy of The Lion King is on VHS, and we don't even have a VHS player, but I could have purchased the DVD for less than it took to take just two of my kids to see it in 3D.  And, I had even paid to see The Lion King at the IMAX in January 2003 (I think, maybe 2002).  I remember my brother-in-law saying once that George Lucas must be a genius because he had bought Episodes IV, V and IV in three different formats.  So, was it worth the price of admission to see this Disney classic in the theater for the third time, but in 3D?

[As an aside, I do think LK is a classic.  I just got back from Malawi, in East Africa, and not a day went by that some of my companions wouldn't remark that they could hear the opening song of the movie as they looked out upon the beautiful landscape.  And every time we saw a warthog, we asked each other, "Is that Timon or Pumba?" ]

Back to the question at hand, I would say yes.  When I went to see LK in 1994, it was a beautiful movie, even in hand-drawn 2D.  The opening sequence seemed like 3D, and that sequence has become part of animation history.  With the added 3D, which I'm usually not a big fan of, it was really spectacular.  The price of admission was worth my 4 year-old whispering, "I almost touched it." 

Because we don't have a VHS player, my 9 year-old had not seen the movie in his memory, and the youngest had never seen it.  The older boy loved it and was very into it.  ("into it" for Luke means talking back to the screen)  Will was a little distracted because his birthday party was after the movie, and he knew that.  He also could not put together that Little Simba (voiced by Jonathan Taylor Thomas) and Big Simba (voiced by Matthew Broderick) were the same lion.  He was also not quite sure that Rafiki was "a good guy," even though I tried to assure him of this.  Neither of the boys brought up any of the controversies I barely remember form 1994:  Was Scar gay or just a dry Brit?  Were the hyenas offensive caricatures of urban gangsta youths?  Isn't Mufasa's explanation of the "circle of life" just a little simplistic and self-serving?  These were not issues we focused on!

What hit me this viewing is that probably the catchiest song is one you're not supposed to agree with:  Hakuna Matata.  Hakuna matata is the mantra of the loser slacker animal who is content to live off the jungle equivalent of ramen noodles and junk food than work for a living.  Responsibility is scoffed at.  Simba has to repudiate this lifestyle to mature and come into his inheritance.  Unlike in the real world, Simba seems to be able to take his slacker friends with him.  This strange irony reminded me of that modern-era Disney classic High School Musical, in which one of the catchier tunes is "Stick to the Status Quo," which of course is not the moral of the tale, which celebrates a nerd and a jock branching out into musical theater.  Is "Bare Necessities" from the Jungle Book ironic also, given that Mowgli eventually lives like a human?

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