The Lion King: Disney's Animal Kingdom

I grew up watching and loving everything Disney, still do to this day, and became obsessed with multiple films. I remember being a child and always wanting to watch “The Lion King” whenever I got the chance. My family would take me down to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, in Florida, every year just so I could see them perform this live. My inner child was elated to learn that I would have the chance to see “The Lion King” live. Multiple people told me how wonderful the show is and I couldn’t wait to see this for myself. I kept thinking this would be like how they performed the show that is down in Animal Kingdom, but was I totally wrong. They recreated a Disney masterpiece in a way that did not disappoint the audience and want them to come back for
more. The actors did a phenomenal job re-creating something that is loved by so many people leaving the audience in awe. Everything came together beautifully, but the things that stood out to me were the costumes, acting, and script. As soon as the show started, I was completely blown away by the different costumes used for the animals in the musical number of the “Circle of Life.” Trying to recreate animals on stage and making them so life like I can assume is a hard task. They had men on these gigantic stilts walking around as giraffes making them as life like as possible. The artwork on the giraffes was astounding and how intricate the Broadway Company made everything could not be matched. I found all of the animals costumes whether it was the gigantic elephants to just the small gazelles they all were wonderfully designed and as close to making them look like the real thing. I personally found Scars costume to be one of the most intricate ones and one that fell in love with. They made his costume fit him amazingly and as close to the cartoon as they could. It was very easy to tell how much work they put into the costumes and if these weren’t in here or as well made the show would not of been the same.
One of my favorite characters whose costume they didn’t make me really love would have to be Zazu. In the Disney cartoon he is blue, but for Broadway they made him white and the person holding him was all blue. I personally loved Zazu being all blue like in the cartoon, but I feel that with him being all white, it gave him more of a real life aspect. Not a human aspect, but one of real life and more towards what that type of bird would look like. I did not mind him being this color I would have just rather seen him as the same blue from the cartoon.
While the costumes added a lively feel to the performance, the acting made this feeling go one step further. “The Lion King” would not have been so amazing without the actors who were performing. They handled their roles exceptionally and knew exactly the kind of motions to make their characters come to life. Each of the actors moved in a very animalistic way and carried this throughout the entire show. The audience still needed to take everything with a degree of imagination even though the actors tried there hardest to create the most animal-like creatures. Out of all the actors I thought that the guy who played Scar was the best. He had his voice, throughout the whole play, very dynamic and was shifting all the time to best fit what the scene was like. I felt that by him having his voice like this it gave the audience the feeling of how mischievous the character really is. The guy who played Scar was amazing on every level and he was the perfect fit to play him.
One actor who I was not the fondest of would have to be, the baboon, Rafiki who was played by a woman. I grew up with Rafiki being a male and I always thought this is how it should be. The woman playing the character was very loud and at some points I found her irritating. I knew that Rafiki was supposed to be a very outgoing and in the movie I found him funny from the things he said and did. I personally did not think she fit the character well, but she had certain aspects that made that character come to life.
While the costumes and actors made the show very dynamic, the final element of script really tied everything together.
If the script were not written then there would not be a need for the actors and costumes. The script followed the classic Disney film very closely and most of the time it was word for word. I feel that the writers were doing this because “The Lion King” is an acclaimed film that has been loved by many different people and they are trying to draw attention to the cartoon on a live action level. They added different parts to the play and I feel this was because they could not have the play to be only an hour. The scene that was added though confused me because it was not really needed to explain the story as a whole. It showed how arrogant Simba was a cub, but it was only needed to make the production longer.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience seeing “The Lion King”. I can say that parts of the film were really well done and I loved it and then there were other parts that could have been changed or not added in. The show as a whole was entertaining and kept the audience engaged the entire time. I recommend the show to anyone who wants to be entertained, wants to have a show for their first Broadway experience or just a lover of Disney. I am hoping to get the chance to see the show again and see what things that changed over the years of
performing.