Lion King Reading Response

            After reading the articles about The Lion King this week in class and listening to the discussion I have come to realize many interesting observations about the film that I had previously failed to notice. Sweeny's article included "dilemmas" that she believed the film possessed. The idea that Timon and Pumbaa were Disney’s first homosexual couple never crossed my mind until after reading Sweeny’s “ “What Do You Want Me to Do? Dress in Drag and Do the Hula?” Timon and Pumbaa’s Alternative Lifestyle Dilemma in the Lion King”. I always thought they were just best friends who did everything together. Some of Sweeny’s arguments were rather convincing. For example, the fact that they raised Simba together essentially as there own child is something that I did not really think much of until I recently re-watched the movie. I also did not notice that they lived on their own private oasis away from the rest of their own species or any other animals for that matter. Sweeny made the argument that this was because they were banished from their specie families and casted as outsiders. In her article, Sweeny referred to Timon and Pumbaa as “theatre queens” and claimed that just because the actors that provided the characters’ voices were gay, this automatically means that they are gay themselves. I think that this argument in particular was one of her weakest in the article.

I think at some points people can over analyze Disney films when in reality they are just simply meant to entertain little kids. When I was little I most definitely did not think that Timon and Pumpaa were dating. And I think that goes for every other little kid that watches The Lion King. I disagree with Sweeny’s argument claiming that Disney characters have sexuality. In my opinion I believe that Disney characters aren’t meant to have sexuality because that can just complicate things. I think a lot of the articles we have read in class so far this year have been written by authors who over investigate these Disney films and create arguments and critiques that are not actually there. I understand that in some cases there are underlying meanings to certain aspects of the movies and specific agendas created by Disney but in my opinion that idea that Timon and Pumbaa are a homosexual with one another is not valid. I do not think when creating The Lion King this was Disney intention. I think this is a prime example of an author over analyzing a subject and forming an argument out of nothing.