10 Movies With Ridiculously Subtle Foreshadowing That Nobody Noticed
9. Mufasa's Circle Of Life Speech Gets Taken More Than A Little Literally - The Lion King
Given it's already been set up by an oddly catchy number, the audience of The Lion King listened up when Mufasa doled out his circle of life speech to Simba. But while it gave a good undercurrent to the film, highlighting what it is a king does and building the later essential father-son relationship, the key purpose of it probably went over the heads of many.
fter Mufasa dies in the stampede the sun sets and we don't see any natural light in the pride lands until Simba is king and the sun breaks through the cloud. The pathetic fallacy of it all is obvious, but it's a little more involved than that. It's an actual living out of Mufasas line in the earlier sequence: "one day, Simba, the sun will set on my time here, and will rise with you as the new king." It gets better; you can explain the light (both literally and tonally) of the Timon and Pumba sequence as an extension of this. Everything is a-ok for them because theyre outside where the light touches, so the rules of the kingdom don't apply.
The Lion King was resurrected Disney at its most creative, with the catchiest songs, darkest plots and striking visual themes, but it is little nods like this that push the screenplay into greatness.