The Lion King - Opening Analysis

Institutional information 
The lion king is a children's animated, musical film about a young lion cub who has to succeed his father as king of the pride, and deals with the traumatic event of his father's death. The movie was directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and was released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is an American production and was released in June 1994. It was created on a budget of $45 million and produced $987 million at the box office worldwide. The film was a massive success, it received good critical response and two academy awards for its achievements in music along with a golden globe for best motion picture. It is currently the second highest grossing animated film of all time. 

Genre and Target Audience
The lion king is a G rated family and kids animated film. It is targeted at a young audience and does well to appeal to them through it's attractive animation, lovable, funny characters and catchy songs. However the film has also successfully branched out to older audiences through its emotional pungent storyline and beautiful animation. 
The lion king is an animated musical drama, as it combines the story of the hardships of this young king with a combination of musical numbers. 

Opening Credits
There are no opening credits used in the beginning of this film. The first scenes that are played are that of the iconic 'circle of life' sequence. The title of the film does not appear until 3.45 into the movie. 'The Lion King' is presented in a formal font, with red text on top of a black background. The use of red in the title connotes royalty, blood, love and death; all of which are important aspects of the overall story. It also links to the red dye applied to Simba's head as he is presented to both the characters and the audience as the successor to the throne

Location and Atmosphere Representation
We are first introduced to the film with an extreme long shot of an African plane at sun rise. This clearly sets the scene for the film as a rural land, uninhabited by humans. A cross-cutting editing technique is then used to combine a series of shots introducing the different wildlife and showing their shared goal of reaching pride rock in order to see the presentation of the new heir. The first sequence of shots have an orange and red tone to them signifying that it is dawn but also connoting change as the animals bask in the glow of the red light; a colour that coincides with their new king as it implies the idea of birth and royalty. The colour red is present in almost every opening scene in some way and is the colour of the text in the title, therefore highlighting its importance as it connotes danger, power, love and death. 
The camera tracks a bird in deep focus as it flies over the landscape and we see that all of the differing types of animals are being brought together beneath a tall podium made of stone, above which stands a male lion. This highlights both the significance of the lion and of the stone structure of which he stands upon, and shows to the audience that this is an important location in the story. 

Narrative
It becomes clear in the opening sequence that the story will be told through the animals and it will not be a human account of events as no humans are present in the planes of Africa. This provides an interesting narrative for the story as it is told through an animal point of view, a voice that, to us, is never heard.
The opening of the film presents the idea of hope and new beginnings. We are brought into the story at a significant event as all he animals of Africa unite in order to welcome their new king into the world. This sets a pleasant tone to the beginning of the film as the story appears optimistic and bright. Once again, this tone is presented through the emotions of the characters; for example when we see a close up shot of the king and queen smiling over their new born son and of the animals bowing to the new heir.
With the orange and red tones that are displayed over almost every scene in the opening, the tone of the film appears to be warm and comforting. This sets a pleasant nature to the film that will appeal to it family and child audience.
Also the non-diegetic music that is added over the top of the opening scenes has a calming effect. It works well with the opening images as the beginning of the song is slow and tranquil; coinciding with the start of the new day for the animals as they slowly wake and make there way to pride rock. The music then builds up to a climaxing point, which is when Simba is held above the animals, which helps to translate this as a very important moment. 

Character Representation 
The first significant character that we are introduced to is Mufasa, Simba's father. He is first presented through a long tracking shot as the camera follows a bird over the landscape. The deep focus on the bird is then transferred onto the lion and from the low angle of the shot and his height over the other characters, his dominance in the story is established. 
Simba is later introduced and his significance to the story becomes clear through a long shot of him being held up and presented to the kingdom. The low angle of this shot from the other animal's perspective, shows Simba's extreme dominance over the other characters in the story. Also, a ray on sunlight on a cloudy day, falls directing upon Simba, reflecting his Godly presence and obvious importance to the story. This use of light suggests a natural hierarchy; as if the new king has been chosen and accepted by nature itself. 
An eye line match editing technique is also used to refer back and forth between the animal's excitement and respect for what they are seeing and then back to Simba to show that he is the reasoning for this behaviour, again showing this significance in his character. 

Conclusion 
I believe that this is a highly effective opening to an animated film. The shots and music used are effective in enticing the films targeted audience as the images that are displayed are both beautifully animated and conform to the typical conventions of a children's animated film. This abides by the typical conventions of this genre, as it provides an interesting narrative and a light hearted story that would not occur in real life; the fantasy of this story being that the animals of Africa would all unite under one lion king and would all live harmoniously together.