Why are we supposed to think of the characters as humans?

[SummerSnowLeopard]

I would think so too. They are lions though

[TheLionQueen]

I think they are saying treat animals the same as humans

[SweetNala]

Hey, lions deserve to have their own movie without humans butting in!

[SimbasGuard]

[quote="KiarasMate"][quote="thanigraphics"]Good question! I might have the answer, but it's still my personal logic concerning this matter:
The target group for the Lion King movies is families/children. If they made the lions non-talking and gave them their whole wildlife behaviour, it would be very difficult for most children to understand, because there aren't many children nowadays who understand the communication of real lions. (for that, they've invented animal planet and discovery planet, which are quite interesting, though)
As long as I can remember, stories have been told about animals that are able to talk (they're called fables) to make human situations insightable for children. It seems that animals have a thing about them that make children more interested than they are in actual humans.

The movies are full of situations that children recognize from their own lifes: playing, going on adventure, the bond with parents, thinking about what you'll be when you grow up, jealousy, anger, loss.... just things that happen during life.

The Lion King movies are not just a life-lesson, but also entertaining because the whole thing fits: the lions are moving like lions, have actual lion behaviour (like pouncing, hunting, roaring and stuff) and give a little insight in the animal species you'll find in Africa. The African music makes the picture complete.

I can go on longer, but I have to keep it short: I think we are supposed to think about the characters as animals with a human personality.
And my own opinion is, that animals actually CAN feel pain, jealousy, joy and loss. I have cats at my place, and I recognize some of their emotions, and what I know about wild lions, they have family bonds, they can get angry, sad or scared, and they even can have joy like us humans.[/quote]


I think TG nailed this one. I agree completely.[/quote]

As do I, the characters in The Lion King are indeed animals, but with human thoughts and emotion.

[DLFix]

The animator as Scar actually said in the bonus features of TLK that you had to look at the characters as humans, in the way the talked, moved and so on, because in this film they're sort of humans "trapped" in lions' bodies.
On the other hand, it would have been pretty cool if they'd made this movie in the same way as Spirit - stallion of the Cimarron, with non-speaking animals (apart from a voice over from Simba, for instance), and add quite a lot of songs to it. But perhaps that doesn't work if there's no humans in the story, that actually speak "human language".

[DGFone]

At it's core, The Lion King is a human story, just that the characters are not. You can think of them as lions because they are, but real lions don't behave as those in The Lion King do. Humans behave that way.

[LilacLioness]

It's because the characters have humanlike features (expressions, use of "fingers" on paws etc.)
That's my opinion at least. Plus real lions don't talk human language

[imvula]

If we view the animals in disney films as humans, we would no doubt relate to them better. If they were represented as real animals, Simba wouldn't care about his father's death, the lionesses wouldn't grieve his death and would readily accept Scar as their new leader... It wouldn't have the same effect on us as anthropomorphising them.

[Biomac]

Maybe they are animals but they still think and act like humans. And I think that to be taught a lesson by animals is better than to be taught by humans

[Farren]

[quote="SimbasGuard"]And my own opinion is, that animals actually CAN feel pain, jealousy, joy and loss. I have cats at my place, and I recognize some of their emotions, and what I know about wild lions, they have family bonds, they can get angry, sad or scared, and they even can have joy like us humans.[/quote]

Oh, of course they do! It's not just an opinion but a fact that animals feel pain and form bonds with one another. True, some species are more social than others but all animals are capable of feeling...and I for one feel they "talk" too, but in their own language (it's a fact that many animals use body language to communicate; wolves are a good example) which most of us humans are incapable of understanding. That being said, the lions in TLK are clearly more "anthro" with human expressions and since the movies are geared towards kids they couldn't be totally realistic since some laws of nature would scare the youngsters.