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Anthropomorphism
"ANTHROPO-what?"
Animal Stories and Folklore
'The Lion King' continues a tradition of storytelling that is centuries old: anthropomorphism, or giving animals human speech and feelings. In her book Animal Land: The Creatures of Children's Fiction (William Morrow & Company, NY,1975), Margaret Blount writes, "Talking animals seem to be as old as man; and folklore tales read like Man's remotest dreams." Every culture has its own animal stories. When we tell stories about animals acting like humans, we are better able to see ourselves in the Circle of Life.
'The Lion King' is very much in the great Disney tradition of
using allegories with animals for storytelling purposes. In the
early days, Walt adapted many of Aesop's fables for animation and
used animal characters like Mickey and Donald to tell his stories.
Later Bambi, Lady and the Tramp and One Hundred and One Dalmations...
further explored the approach of telling stories about animals in
human terms and with strong moral themes."
Roy E. Disney, Vice Chairman of the Walt
Disney Company and head of Feature Animation.
