the lion king actually seems like a perfect movie to remake because the uncritical view we are presented about the hyenas appears both internally inconsistent (from a "circle of life" perspective) and morally wrong (from a real life person who hears "we need to stop desperate hordes at our borders taking what is ours!" every day perspective). the hyenas are starving because they are not allowed to go where the food is. a movie that acknowledged that could be interesting
let me be clear i don't actually expect the lion king remake we're getting to be interesting. the trailer makes it look like a shot-for-shot remake with hyperrealistic CG. i don't necessarily trust movie marketing, but disney is not exactly a company that takes a lot of risks with its classic properties
the ideal remake of the lion king would need to take an overt political position on a divisive issue, which i frankly do not believe disney would allow
@wolfteeth the hyenas and Scar were handled as such a white supremacist daydream.
The minority must be portrayed strong enough to be a threat, but can’t ever be acknowledged as actually smart and hard working (that makes oppression look unjust) so clearly someone who passes must sell them out, so they can Fuck Our Women. Disney practically says “Blacks,” “Jew” and “Queer” here.
Given what I and my friends are, I fucking resent that movie even without liking hyenas.
@wolfteeth I’m old so I was an adult when it came out, and I really adored the hyenas *despite* knowing this was problematic. I feel ashamed of this, as now with how fucking blatantly racist my country is now, it’s like saying “I really enjoyed Birth of a Nation and Triumph of the Will.”
@Leucrotta i wouldn't necessarily go that far. it's definitely problematic, but i don't think it was _intentionally_ promoting racism like those films, at least. doesn't necessarily make it forgivable, just trying to preserve the context. i do still love those hyenas though
@Leucrotta yep. i always loved that movie as a kid, but nowadays it's obvious that the subtext (and some of the text) is pretty insidious