Baldwin's Lion King

Just as a heads up, this post may seem pretty long, but it has a lot of pictures and videos. Also, sorry if I spoil anything for those who haven’t seen The Lion King, but I hope this post will then convince ya’ll to see it because it’s my favorite Disney movie. Anyways, enjoy.

So, I know I mentioned this in class, but throughout the Baldwin’s story, “The Man Child”, I was getting some serious Lion King vibes. If it’s been awhile since you’ve watched The Lion King, or you haven’t at all (of which I believe is a travesty and that you must watch it right way), here is a brief synopsis: In the Pride Lands of Africa, a lion rules over the animals as king. The birth of King Mufasa and Queen Sarabi’s son, Simba, creates envy and resentment in Mufasa’s younger brother, Scar, who knows his nephew will now replace him as heir to the throne. After Simba has grown into a young cub, Mufasa gives him a tour of the Pride Lands, teaching him the responsibilities of being a king and the circle of life. Later on, Scar lures Simba to a gorge and tells him to wait there while he gets Mufasa. On Scar’s orders, a band of hyenas stampede a large herd of wildebeest into the gorge. Mufasa saves Simba, but as Mufasa tries to climb up the gorge’s walls, Scar throws him back into the stampede, where he is trampled to death. After Simba finds Mufasa’s body, Scar convinces him he was responsible for his father’s death and advises Simba to flee the kingdom. Scar then proceeds to take over as king of the Pride Lands...Well, you all get the picture. Typical Disney stuff. If you don’t know the rest of the story, and would like to know, you can watch the movie or read more online.

In Baldwin’s story, once we get to the scene when Eric takes a walk with his father, where he is shown the land that his will inherit once his father becomes too old to run it, my Lion King senses started going off like mad. There is a scene in The Lion King that parallels this almost completely. (Except with lions, of course).

Interestingly enough, Mufasa, like Eric, also talks about the sun. Mufasa uses the sun to illustrate to Simba how, in the future, he will have to step down as king, and Simba will rise up as the new leader of the Pride Lands. In the scene with Eric and his father, Eric’s father explains that once he gets old, Eric will have to look over the land, along with Eric’s children. In this scene, Eric’s father is introducing to him the responsibilities that he will eventually inherit. It’s a scene to shows a powerful bond between a father and son.

Another parallel between “The Man Child” and The Lion King was the whole situation with Jamie. Now, although there aren’t clear similarities, Jamie reminds me a lot of Scar. First, is the relationship between Jamie and Eric’s father. Now, in The Lion King, Scar and Mufasa are brothers, and there is a lot of tension between them, especially since Mufasa was first born, so he inherited the Pride Lands, and then he bore a son, so basically Scar has no chance of inheriting the lands at any point in time.

Although the relationship between Scar and Mufasa doesn’t directly correlate to Jamie and Eric’s father, they do share some resemblances. One of which being that Scar could have ruled over the Pride Lands, if he hadn’t been born second. In Baldwin’s story, Jamie could have kept his land if he hadn’t apparently messed up his marriage and then failed to take care of his own land, leading Eric’s father to pay to take over it. In this sense, he makes Jamie seem weaker than Eric’s father, being the seemingly lesser fortunate of the two. Even though they are apparently close friends, inseparable even, there is still this competition for dominance, and Jamie is seemingly losing by a significant amount.

The last correlation has to do with the last scene of Baldwin’s story. In it, Jamie randomly kills Eric, leaving the reader to figure out why. Now, during Jamie’s birthday celebration, all Eric’s father does is poke fun at how unfortunate Jamie’s life has turned out. He enjoys making fun at the fact that his wife left him without a son, but that doesn’t matter because he has no land to hand down, even if he did have one. Eric’s father, on the other hand, has Eric, his only heir to the family land. Although, Eric’s mother had another boy on the way, but she got sick and miscarried, leaving the family with just Eric as its heir. One could speculate that Jamie saw how Eric’s father’s legacy hinges on Eric, since he is the lone son of the family. Assumably, this would be the reason why Jamie sought to kill Eric, so as to stop the family line to spite Eric’s father, who constantly makes fun of the fact that Jamie has no family line.

In The Lion King, during the stampede, Mufasa risks his life to save Simba. After he does so, he jumps up onto the rocks in order to get away from the rampant wildebeests. Scar awaits at the top of the rocks and while Mufasa struggles to climb to the top, Scar grabs Mufasa’s paws and throws them off the rocks, sending Mufasa down to his death.

After Simba finds his father dead, Scar convinces him that it was his fault that his father died, and he tells Simba to run away and never return. With Mufasa dead and Simba gone, Scar returns to Pride Rock and claims the spot of king.

There is also another similar scene in The Lion King where Scar and Simba fight. Simba comes back to claim his rightful spot as king of the Pride Lands. But, Scar isn’t so easy to give his newly given title up. The two fight, as seen in the picture below. In this, Scar has already killed the old king of the land, Mufasa, and now he is about to kill Mufasa’s son. This act would have him end that bloodline, allowing Scar to be the permanent king of the Pride Lands.

Now, although these are some loose connections, being an avid enthusiast of The Lion King, I got very excited when I saw some parallels. Whether or not this has convinced you that there are in fact similarities doesn’t really matter to me, because I just rewatched The Lion King...so I could properly assess the similarities between the two stories. (Completely for educational purposes only).