https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=eCUkWYV7y2E
And this is the initiation scene, right? Which we talked about at the beginning of the class This is the descent into the underworld And it’s a prerequisite to radical personality transformation So anyways, he goes through this horrifying underground tunnel system where everything’s all tangled up Which is, you’ll know if you ever fall into chaos that everything down there in chaos is tangled up It’s a tangled mess He’s quite, and there’s horrifying music going on in the background He goes deeper and deeper until Rafiki says, he finds a pool in the middle of the chaos A deep pool, and that’s another symbol of the self It’s the deep unconscious, there’s something down there that’s alive That can be drawn up to the surface And so, Rafiki shows him the pool, and Simba, who’s quite terrified at this point, looks in it And the first thing he sees is he only sees himself He only sees his own reflection, and Rafiki says, look deeper Now you see what the animators do here, it’s very cool So there’s Simba, and there’s his reflection, but you see that is already half his father And you look at the difference in the eyebrows And the look, so there’s a tightness of jaw and a firmness of face that’s starting to manifest itself there And that means that he’s starting to see the man he could be beyond the adolescent That’s a good way of thinking about it And then all of a sudden, well there, that’s a whole different face, right? That’s a seriously different face That, everything’s going in, and that, it’s like, get out of my way Because things are going to happen around me Very judgmental as well So it’s not naive by any stretch of the imagination But, you know, we know his father’s a good guy And so, there’s something archetypal about this And so, he sees the man he could be reflected back to him And then that switches, that actually becomes a cosmic event And we switch up to the sky instead And so, Mufasa manifests himself basically as a solar deity And he tells Simba that he’s forgotten who he is Which is the son of a king And that he should remember that And start acting like it And, that’s an archetypal idea So if you’re just a useless adolescent, then you’ve forgotten who you are And the consequence of that is that The state is going to fall around Fall apart around you And you’re not going to do anything to fix it And you’re not going to be good for anything And no one’s going to be able to rely on you And you’re going to be all whiny and resentful And then after that, it even gets worse And so, that’s basically what Mufasa tells him And so, Simba is like, blown away by this vision, right? Because he sees what he could be and also what he’s not Which is pretty damn horrifying So, anyways The storm, so to speak, clears And Rafiki comes up And Simba’s a lot more thoughtful And not quite as whiny and resentful anymore And Rafiki leaves And so, Simba now knows what he’s supposed to do He’s supposed to stop being useless And take on the moral requirements of setting the kingdom straight And so, he runs back across the desert There’s all sorts of impressive music happening And then he comes back to his kingdom And it’s not looking so good And that’s the consequence of his abandonment of it That’s a big part of it So now it’s dead But also, his abandonment of it to nothing but malevolence and chaos And so, he’s pretty taken aback at what’s happened And that he exaggerates his guilt Or it should, anyways And Nella shows up And they decide they’re going to stop They decide they’re going to do something about this So, in the meantime Simba’s mother is complaining about the fact that there’s no food in the kingdom anymore And that they’ve gone as far as they can And Scar doesn’t want to hear this So, he attacks her And Simba decides to go to war And so, this is where he wakes up And he’s willing to encounter the shadow at this point And so, he confronts Scar And Scar’s very concerned about this Because actually Simba’s looking pretty impressive now And he thought he was dead, besides And so, he tries to use treachery and whininess and subordination to excuse himself But he’s planning to overthrow Simba nonetheless To resist him So, he tells Scar to leave He’s going to banish him to the nether regions outside of the kingdom Like Scar did to him And Scar basically refuses And then a storm gathers, right? And lights the dead wood around the rock on fire So, we have another kind of descent into hell scene here Very common in Disney movies This notion of the hero fighting the evil force on the edge of something that’s burning It’s quite a common motif You see it in Sleeping Beauty, for example So, they have a big war Scar ends up putting Simba in the same position that Mufasa was in And then he whispers to him that he killed his father So, Simba’s been thinking all along that it was only his fault And it is sort of his fault But he didn’t know that there was a more archetypal theme playing out in the background Which is that societies are always endangered by malevolence Always And that’s independent to some degree of Simba’s decisions and his lack thereof Anyway, Scar tells him because he thinks he’s won And that energizes Simba to have this sort of final battle He leaps out from the pit and they have a big fight And he pins him, basically And the female lioness has come to his aid And Simba tells him that, again, that he has to leave And so they have a big fight That’s a particularly good bit of animation So there’s a real demonic aspect to Scar there Sort of king of hell imagery But he loses And then, ha! He blames his minions He blames the hyenas for everything terrible that’s happening Forgetting that they can hear him And then he falls off the cliff And the hyenas go in and finish him off So, it’s a pretty brutal ending for poor old Scar Eaten by his own minions And then Scar’s dead and Simba has won And so the rains come immediately And so what does that mean? Well, it means that when proper order is restored in a kingdom Then everything starts to flourish again And so the rains come And then While it’s raining, Simba climbs up to the top of the rock And now he’s completely mature, right? The pathetic facial expression disappears entirely And he straightens himself up Because now he’s full of serotonin after having defeated good old Scar And all the lionesses are roaring And he climbs up Pride Rock And they roar at him Which is good, they’re tough And he’s tough And they show in their teeth It’s not a society of naive and harmless creatures It’s something that’s got some bite And the rains come And then the next thing you see is the restoration of the kingdom And so basically what that means is that If the individual is willing to confront their own shadow And then to take on the malevolent forces that continually undermine society Then harmony can be restored And everyone can do well And so then we have a return to the beginning Right? And so Simba and Nella are now a couple Along with Pumba and Timon And they have a baby And Rafiki shows up and does the same thing You know, he’s going to present the baby to the sun And have all the animals bow again And that’s the end of the movie