Plot
In the Pride Lands of Africa, a lion pride rules as royalty over the other animals, who celebrate the birth of future king Simba. Simba's father King Mufasa gives him a tour of the pride lands, teaching him the responsibilities of being a king and warning him about the shadowy place beyond the borders. Later that day, Simba's envious uncle Scar, Mufasa's younger brother who longs to be king, tells him that the shadowy place is an elephant graveyard. Simba's curiosity is piqued, and he convinces his best friend Nala, a female lion cub, to come with him. At the graveyard, the cubs are attacked by three spotted hyenas, Shenzi, Banzai and Ed, before Mufasa rescues them and willingly forgives Simba for disobeying him. The hyenas are friends of Scar, who then plot with them to take over the Pride Lands.
On Scar's orders, the hyenas stampede a large herd of wildebeest into a gorge where Simba is. Mufasa rescues Simba, but as Mufasa tries to climb up the gorge's walls, Scar throws him back into the stampede, killing him. After Simba finds Mufasa's body in the gorge, Scar tricks him into thinking that Mufasa's death is his fault and advises him to run away forever. As Simba leaves, Scar orders the hyenas to go after Simba, but the cub escapes. Scar then announces to the pride that both Mufasa and Simba were killed and steps forward as the new king, allowing a swarm of hyenas to live in the Pride Lands.
Simba, now far from home, collapses in a desert from exhaustion, but is found by Timon and Pumbaa, a meerkat and a warthog who nurse him back to health. Timon and Pumbaa then take Simba in, and the lion grows on a carefree life under the motto "hakuna matata". Years later, Simba, now grown, rescues Timon and Pumbaa from a hungry lioness, who turns out to be Nala. The two reconcile and fall in love. Nala tries to get Simba to come back home by saying that because of Scar allowing the hyenas to live in the Pride Lands, it has become a wasteland with not enough food and water. Still feeling guilt over his father's death, Simba refuses and storms off.
Wise mandrill Rafiki tracks Simba down, telling him that Mufasa is still "alive" and taking him to a pond where he is visited by the specter of Mufasa, who tells him that he has forgotten who he is and thus must take his rightful place as the true king of Pride Rock. Simba then realizes that he can no longer run from his past and goes back home. Nala, Timon and Pumbaa follow him, and agree to help him fight.
At the Pride Lands, Simba confronts Scar on Pride Rock after he attacks his mother Sarabi. Scar taunts Simba, who still feels guilt over his father's death, but after pushing him over the edge of Pride Rock, Scar reveals that he killed Mufasa. The enraged Simba jumps back up and forces Scar to reveal the truth to the other lions. Timon, Pumbaa, Rafiki and the lionesses fight off the hyenas while Scar, attempting to escape, is cornered by Simba at the top of Pride Rock. Scar begs Simba for mercy, saying he is family and places the blame on the hyenas. Simba says he does not believe Scar anymore, but spares his life and tells him to run away and never return. Scar meekly walks past him, but then attacks his nephew. After a fierce battle, Simba triumphs and throws Scar off Pride Rock. Scar survives the fall, but is attacked and killed by the hyenas, who overheard his attempt to betray them.
With Scar and the hyenas gone, Simba descends from the top of Pride Rock where he is acknowledged by the pride as the rain falls again. Sometime later, Pride Rock is restored to its former glory and Simba looks down happily at his kingdom with Nala, Timon, and Pumbaa by his side; Rafiki presents Simba and Nala's newborn cub to the inhabitants of the Pride Lands and the circle of life continues.
Read more about this topic: The Lion King
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“If you need a certain vitality you can only supply it yourself, or there comes a point, anyway, when no one’s actions but your own seem dramatically convincing and justifiable in the plot that the number of your days concocts.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“There comes a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given him to till.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)