Scene Analysis #3: Scar’s Intro “The Lion King” · 11:07pm Jan 21st, 2023
Scene Rating Scale:
9/9: Flawless! Outstanding scene!
8/9: Great scene! Totally Rewatchable!
7/9: Pretty good. Not as perfect as I expected though.
6/9: Decent. Doesn’t ruin the movie/episode.
5/9: Mid.
4/9: Pretty bad. One of the weakest scenes of the movie/episode.
3/9: You hear that? It’s the wind of lameness.
2/9: One of the worst scenes of the film/episode.
1/9: Horrible, unwatchable, and unacceptable.
Hello, hello, hello, my wonderful friends! Mr. J is in the house with another scene analysis for tonight! This evening, I will be reviewing Scar’s introduction from the original “The Lion King”. I’m sure most of you know that Scar is my all-time favorite Disney villain, and for me, this scene perfectly explains why he is that good. Plus, it’s one of the few scenes in animation history that shows us how to introduce a villain and how good writing can pay off for an antagonist.
Let’s take a look here in the beginning of this scene: we see a little mouse wondering around, minding its own business. Then it looks up and sees this massive paw smack it down and grab it by the tail. Just imagine the jump scare the audience felt at a movie theater in 1994; Scar looks upon this mouse with feigned empathy. Mourning the loss of the throne, he toys with his food and flaunts his power over it before he attempts to eat it.
Let’s stop for a moment. So we see this lion basically express his jealousy toward Mufasa behind his back about being king of the Pride Lands, and what he just said to the mouse was a subtle foreshadowing of how he views everyone and how he will treat everyone once he does become king later in the film.
Now, from a first-time viewer’s perspective, we think, “Hmm, that guy has some issues. He’s jealous, isn’t he?” His first lines of dialogue have laid the foundation about his personality and his character. He thinks life isn’t fair to him only because he didn’t get what he craved for, giving the impression it’s the only thing he cares about.
Now we see Zazu talk with Scar with a casual rhetorical question. Seeing the way their conversation is written out, it’s obvious they have a history together, and they clearly don’t like each other.
Then we see Mufasa come in and confront him for missing out the ceremony of Simba. Throughout this scene, we have more and more clear information about Scar’s character and how he feels about Simba. He hates the fact that someone else from the royal family forever robbed him of being the ultimate successor to the throne, he doesn’t care that Mufasa is angry with him for being blatantly disrespectful and sarcastic, and he even subtly threatened to attack his own brother if he needed to. Now, if I were there, I would have definitely recommended therapy and counseling, but I doubt they have such things in the Pride Lands.
While I would love to highlight some memorable (and dare I say memeable) lines, I would be preaching to the choir at this point. This scene flawlessly sets Scar up as a villain, and it makes the audience be watchful for him the next time he appears on screen. I’ll give this a 9/9. It’s very important to set up your villains with more or little screen time and give them the right characterization so that we may know who they are, what their aim is, and why we should fear them as the antagonists.
Peace!
I agree with you on this.
This scene is one of my favorites from the film, and it’s a brilliant villain set-up too.