If Simba's been living rent free in your head since 1994, there's a soft little version of him linked below. Grabbing one is an easy way to support the channel while I keep these coming. But the real question though, does Mufasa's death still get you as an adult, or does it hit different now?
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Fun fact, the stampede scene takes place in a dry river bed. An early sign of the drought taking effect.

Reminds me of the guy whose people were starving but were refusing to eat a certain crop (potatos? Cabbages? Something they considered 'low class') so he made a huge field of the crop and posted guards, made it look seriously off limits. But the guards were told to intentionally look the wrong way and let the people steal.

Territorial boundaries do exist in nature. It's not just a human, nor modern thing.

this is just hamlet with too many extra steps. and in reverse.  xD

15:47 I interpreted it as Scar lied about helping/feeding his army (maybe they had a short time of abundance) and HIS greed and mismanagement caused the lands to fail. Disney, as it does,  adds a element of nature itself getting sick from the negative energy. The message being if you upset one part of the balance, it can lead to collapse in ways you can't imagine. 🤷

I actually think it gets way more twisted when one knows some trivia about the way hyenas diet. Since we have spotted hyenas in the lion king we gotta stick with them and they are indeed mainly hunters, so for spotted hyenas it's unusual to not hunt when being hungry. What a strange dynamic... spotted hyenas also eat insects occasionally. Buuut they don't necessarily need water - they can eat certain plants for moisture, but also soft tissue from their prey does the job. They actually are extremely resilient and aren't as limited in their diet. Similar to us humans, we too can get the necessary nutritions in many different ways.
So I actually think the kingdom is spreading false propaganda to paint hyenas as the main cause of their problems, when in reality it's very unrealistic and doesn't even make much sense... but for that one would have to actually learn about hyenas, no?

In that way not only the animals in the lion king fall for the propaganda, but also the audience- I mean how many of us dislike hyenas mainly because we are biased due lion king? Besides their somewhat ugly appearance they are so fascinating and I mean many of us also like other animals that aren't exactly pretty.

@1:11 since I was like 2 years old I thought he was saying "pooches"...

I can’t believe this channel is only a year old. I’ve been binging these videos and while I was scrolling through the channel I was so surprised that I had already watched most of them and multiple times on top of that. it feels like this channel has been alive and thriving for longer than that. Keep it up !!

Poggy has absolutely zero chill!  Good vid as usual.

Huh, until this day I had heard this line as "Slobbering, mangy, stupid pooches."

Now, all of a sudden; the Hyena are Robin Hood's merry men LoL

Matpat in the big 2026?
Matpat in this economy?!

19:28 I'm curious how animals like this Cheetah play into the whole system, like, it needs to eat too, so is it a poacher? or does it have some kind of hunting permit?

we are teached to see the hyenas as evil but somehow timon and pumba that equal eat without care for their prey are the funny good guys, just because they eat insects the movie defines as nonsentient for the movies purpose. so lions, hyenas, birds etc are sentient but insects are somehow not? looks very selective worldview here!

Dude, your videos are so good... the whole Jungle is a king free, food is an economy and the doctrine of the circle of life is basically a religion is awesome.

7:17
I miss James Earl Jones… that man could shake your very bones with his thunderous voice….😭😭😭😭

While they are using human terms like "boundaries, borders, kingdom" etc.. lions do have territories they wouldn't allow outsiders in irl. Sarabi mentions the herds moved on, which implies the herbivores aren't being forced to stay in the pride lands. Likewise mufasa ignores anything happening outside his territory, as long as his pride isn't involved. The hyenas aren't forced to stay in the elephant graveyard. They can go anywhere they want, besides the pride lands.

The movie blames scar and the hyenas for the famine because it is their fault. Scar took over, and opened the border for lack of a better term. Even though the lionesses are doing the hunting, instead of doing the hunting to feed maybe a couple dozen lions, they're hunting to feed those couple dozen lions, and hundreds of hyenas. (I also doubt hyenas refused to do anything themselves. Bonzai was more than happy to grab his own wildebeest from a herd) the job probably fell to the lionesses specifically as food dwindled and more speed, power and skill was required. An influx of hundreds of predators all needing food and water naturally scared off the prey.

The drought is a metaphor, but also droughts just happen. When that happens there are "water laws" or whatever they may be called. A peace treaty so all the animals can continue to live with what little water is available. Something mufasa would enforce but scar likely ignored. Though that is all speculation.

The lion king didn't invent invasive species, which is what the hyenas are to the pride lands. Obviously the circle of life is just a straight line, all the animals understand it. Herbivores accept that they may die sometimes, lions keep their hunting to a minimum, not taking more than they need to survive, and the abundance of food and water in the pride lands makes the risk worth the reward for prey animals. It's all balanced. Even if things work in favor of the lions. Which is also how royalty works

Edit: I'd also note hyenas are "poachers" to them, because they're scavengers. If a lion kills an animal, it is its kill. The lion owns that carcass. Hyenas will try to steal, or poach, said carcass, or pieces of it, for themselves.

Very interesting to call the hyenas poachers.
In the wild, they actually are very important. They eat the leftovers that other animals hunt and leave behind when they are done.
They laugh when frustrated and fight over scraps.

Also, very nice touch from Disney that Shenzi is the leader. Hyenas are a strict matriarchal society.
(And yes, I am aware it's a movie about sentient animals and based on Hamlet.)

Bambis mother enters the studio and stands in your chest, staring you in the eye... "Whos death was the first death we witnessed?"

after watching the whole video i understand it quite well
the better the ruler, the less suffering there will be and the more their land will thrive
a simple lesson hidden behind a super complex analysis but an important lesson nonetheless