Mainstream Grief: Childhood Bereavement in The Lion King

An analysis of the importance of well-researched and creative storytelling in teaching children and adults about childhood bereavement, using the case study The Lion King.

Introduction:

The Childhood Bereavement Network states that 1 in every 29 5-16 year olds, have been bereaved by a parent or sibling (UK death & bereavement statistics, 2020). The complexity of childhood bereavement is often multiplied and longer lasting than adult bereavement due to cognitive limitations and a lack of knowledge to the process of death and grief (Graham, Yuhas and Roman, 2018). The complexities of childhood bereavement are further evidenced by Osterweis et al, who said, “Unlike adults who can sustain a year or more of intense grieving, children are likely to manifest grief-related affects and behaviour, on an intermittent basis, for many years after loss occurs; various powerful reactions to the loss normally will be revived, reviewed and worked through repeatedly at successive levels of subsequent development.” (1984) Koocher concluded that, “adult literature on death and dying is not relevant to the child in most cases.” (1974, p404) Death is also a tricky topic to discuss and only 48% of parents believe death should be taught as part of the compulsory school syllabus (UK death & bereavement statistics, 2020). The lack of understanding and literature on childhood bereavement means it is important to find new and accessible ways to introduce children to these themes.

Taking these factors into consideration, I am going to analyse how The Lion King (1994), generated new forms of knowledge and understanding of childhood bereavement to both its primary target audience, being children and adolescents, and its secondary audience, being adults. Adults are an ethically important target for the filmmakers, because as Harju described, “Westerners are not really well schooled in their responses to death. This is partly because most adults tend to put off discussions of death and bereavement with their children. They often think that their child cannot relate to or comprehend these issues in their early life.” (2009, p17) Therefore, making the role and responsibility of the filmmakers even more important when portraying childhood bereavement.

Why The Lion King is important when compared to other children films:

Research found that 57 children films produced by Disney and Pixar resulted in 71 character deaths (Tenzek and Nickels, 2017). These deaths were broken down into three categories:

• Implicit: The audience assumes the character is dead (54.9% of deaths)

• Explicit: The audience see’s the character is dead by showing a motionless body / a physically damaged body / the act of being killed (33.8% of deaths)

• Sleep: A state of prolonged sleep (11.3% of deaths)

Of the 71 characters, there are two key deaths resulting in a bereaved child, being Mufasa (explicit) and Bambi’s mother (implicit). Both deaths are ground-breaking, popular (critically acclaimed / high-grossing films) and iconic. However, Bambi (1942) largely avoided the theme of grief, whereas The Lion King’s main narrative is based on Simba processing his father’s death. The 2019 remake of The Lion King is the highest grossing animated film of all time which also makes the story relevant to a new generation of children (The Lion King - Box Office Mojo, 2019). Therefore, based on viewership, The Lion King could be seen as the most important and well-known childhood bereavement story.

Using a Disney film to portray childhood bereavement:

Similar to The Lion King, cartoon-like formats incorporating animals have often been an effective and focused way to ease children into discussions about difficult subject-matters; including themes such as death, drugs, and sex. Brown and Brown use this format in their book, When Dinosaurs Die: A Guide to Understanding Death (1998). Brown and Brown remain focused on the objective of teaching children about death, by using cartoon animals to soften the imagery. This is used alongside carefully chosen factual words to help explain stages and emotions that children may experience, including answering questions about funerals, cancer, suicide and, ‘Why do we die?’. While this is an effective method providing support and knowledge to families experiencing grief, the mainstream appeal and readership figures are small. In large due to the niche objectives of the book, and the difficult themes it covers. Constraints also include, fewer storytelling opportunities, smaller word counts, and the inability to use vocals, music and animation.

In contrast, The Lion King was always going to appeal to a larger audience partly due to the prestige of Disney and Disney’s accessibility to advertisement. The filmmakers, who have different motivations to the authors of children literature such as When Dinosaurs Die, understand that they need to develop layered storytelling that would result in an enjoyable film. Another advantage of creating a feature-length film meant there is a longer duration to explore themes. Yamamoto, K et al state that, “Across cultures the loss of a parent is consistently rated as one of the most difficult experiences that a child will endure.” (1996) Therefore, The Lion King being 90 minutes meant there was an extended timeframe to explore Simba’s grief by having the opportunity to deliver a deeper and more emotional level of storytelling.

The power of the Explicit Death:

Tenzek and Nickels catagorised Mufasa’s death, where he is brutally crushed by a stampede, as an Explicit Death (2017). The sequence is followed by a grief-stricken Simba pawing at his deceased father in what, still to this day, is one of the most emotional and risky scenes in children’s film history. On the death of Mufasa, Co-Director Rob Minkoff, said, “We were trying to test the boundaries of what was possible in an animated movie, a family movie, a Disney movie.” (Frank, 2019) The decision to showcase an explicit death and the subsequent grief in a mainstream film caused conflict within the filmmaking team, as crew members thought the death could traumatise children, with one commenting that, “Killing Mufasa was a horrible thing to do.” (Frank, 2019) Analysing the potential responses from the target audience, shows that the filmmakers were aware of their audience and the responsibility they had in delivering it carefully.

Simba and The Five Stages of Grief:

Before concluding it is important to analyse the accuracy of Simba’s grief in using The Lion King as a method of teaching children. It is also necessary to understand that grief is an individual process, and therefore this study will use the respected Kubler-Ross model, ‘The Five Stages of Grief’ (1969). Kubler Ross and Kessler revisited the Kubler-Ross model when they discussed the importance of the people surrounding a grieving child (2004, p160). This is relevant in terms of reaching The Lion King’s secondary audience, being parents and guardians, because Simba in key moments of dealing with grief is surrounded by older characters who want to help him through his experiences.

Simba’s anger and denial are portrayed in contrasting ways to similar stories of different genres. In Hamlet for example, Hamlet is visibly angry and aggressive towards Ophelia coinciding with openly wanting to kill Claudius. In the film, This is England (2006), the bereaved child Shaun, who lives in an opposite social environment to the royalty of Simba and Hamlet, turns to violence, defaces buildings and partakes in racist attacks after losing his father. Hamlet and This Is England are reaching different audiences, and Hamlet and Shaun’s anger and ‘acting out’ are more apparent and destructive. Simba’s anger is shielded from the audience because he is a good character in a children’s film, and therefore cannot stray too much into the destruction of others around him at the risk of becoming a misunderstood and dislikeable character. For example, Simba’s denial is showcased in the upbeat and seemingly positive song, Hakuna Matata, where the message is, ‘There ain’t no worries for the rest of your days’. This is Simba showing he is denying his father’s existence and his grief, by distancing himself from his true feelings. Simba’s anger, albeit sparse compared to the destructive nature in Hamlet and This is England, is powerfully portrayed in this short phase of dialogue:

Nala: What’s happened to you? You’re not the Simba I remember.

Simba: You’re right, I’m not, now are you satisfied?

Nala: No, just disappointed.

Simba: You know, you’re starting to sound like my father.

Nala: Good, at least one of us does.

Simba (Aggressive): Listen! You think you can just show up and tell me how to live my life!

The interaction is short because the film is showing that Simba is struggling, but due to the audience, the short dialogue is the peak of Simba’s anger, because the audience aren’t prepared to see Simba self-destruct. However, when breaking down the imagery from the beginning of Hakuna Matata to Simba snapping at Nala, Simba has aged significantly. He is no longer the equivalent of a child, instead he is now in his late adolescence, which means he has buried his grief since he was a child by using the ‘no worries’ as his life mantra. By having Simba snap at Nala, the audience can see that he is struggling because he is angry, therefore showing that he does care about his life. Raphael classified this grief as, ‘supressed bereavement,’ connecting it with the process of ‘acting out’ to cover pain (1983). Simba’s ‘acting out’ by not worrying about anything, could be compared to Shaun from This is England when he is fighting and causing destruction. It can also be compared to real life events including a bereaved child in their teenage years turning to alcohol and drug abuse, failed relationships and friendships, and self-harming, in an attempt to avoid sympathy and mask being known as the ‘bereaved child’ (Spiegel, R, 2018).

The complex level of storytelling will in most cases be misunderstood by children, as children will remember the upbeat song and Simba briefly snapping at Nala. However, as discussed by Kubler and Kessler, “In today’s culture there are so few models of grief. It is invisible to the untrained eye. We don’t teach our children how to cope with loss.” (2014, p228) At this point The Lion King has targeted both its primary and secondary audience. It has combined a catchy popular song, with an in-depth and complex level to Simba’s grief that in general, adults would see and children would not. There is hope that this would encourage discussion between adults and children about the process of death and the subsequent grief.

Simba’s supressed bereavement is further confirmed during his ‘Acceptance’ stage of grief when Mufasa appears to him as a ghost:

Mufasa: You have forgotten me.

Simba: No, how could I?

Mufasa: You have forgotten who you are, and so have forgotten me. Look inside yourself Simba, you are more than what you have become.

Simba at this moment has overcome his supressed bereavement as he has accepted his father’s death, whilst recognising he has lost his way. The scene, along with the rest of the film, is powerfully portrayed because of the success of the vocals, the intimate yet self-reflective dialogue and the beauty of the animation, made possible with the combination of carefully chosen actors, well-researched writing and a talented animation team consisting of over 600 members (IMDB). The level of detail and preparation show that the filmmakers cared significantly about their characters and their journeys, which was apparent at the beginning of the project when the team conflicted over Mufasa’s death. However, one negative argument, is that Mufasa reappearing could be ethically problematic to the realistic nature of death. Worden and Silverman worried that the scene could potentially lead children to believe that loved ones can reappear after they have died which could have a negative long-term effect (1996).

However, as previously mentioned, a key element of helping children after bereavement is discussion between adults and children. Taking this into consideration, it could be argued that Mufasa reappearing could be explained as a metaphor to children for Simba working through his grief. Silver and Wortman, described this type of resolution as, “Accepting the loss emotionally. Emotional acceptance is thought to be reached when the person no longer feels the need to avoid reminders of the loss in order to function.” (1989, p353) If compared with human nature, or other types of storytelling, Mufasa reappearing to Simba, could be a young adult finally being able to look at a picture of their deceased parent, and for the first time since the death, as discussed by Parkes & Weiss, the bereaved child can recall the deceased individual without intense emotional pain (1983). Finally, in terms of storytelling, as Cox et al discussed, the writers of the scene; knowing it’s a children film, are wanting to create a sense of happiness and closure, showcasing that even after your loved ones leave you, they still can be a part of you, which can have a positive effect on the acceptance of death (2005).

Finally, as Kubler Ross and Kessler state, “Children do not have the resources or experience to integrate loss into their own world. In their minds they often fill gaps with thoughts like, It must be somehow my fault.” (2004, p160) Both bargaining and depression are portrayed in the same scene after Simba has worked through his anger. Simba’s sadness and guilt are made clear when he blames himself saying, “It’s me. It’s my fault.” His overwhelming feeling of guilt could be related to his cognitive limitations, where he believes his actions resulted in his father’s death. Kubler felt that children, even years after experiencing bereavement, can hold irrational guilt stemming from ideology such as connecting actions that led to their parent’s death, which further shows how important in-depth research is to delivering an accurate representation of grief.

Conclusion:

The expectation of a Disney film will generally mean they aim to be revolutionary in terms of animation and producing musical scores, as well as expecting to reach large audiences and receive critical success. However, 26 years after its release, The Lion King is arguably the most popular Disney film of all time based on critical acclaim, revenue, and producing a remake. It still resonates with audiences because it focuses heavily on timeless themes such as death and grief which was ground-breaking for mainstream children’s films upon its release. Seibert and Drolet discuss, "Through seeing small deaths, children practice being able to bear unpleasant feelings, which is a precursor to mastering grief.” (1993) The film manages to generate new forms of understanding by introducing death and grief to children to those who are yet to experience it, whilst offering a hero’s journey to support those who are going through grief. It achieved this by using powerful and memorable music, stunning animation, and a straight-forward, recognisable story structure. However, because the filmmakers carried out in-depth research in delivering a complex level of detail with Simba’s grief, it makes The Lion King the perfect film to introduce grief to children by reaching both its primary and secondary audiences in different yet effective ways.

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