Asante Sana

When I was 16 I was looking through our old videos at home and found the Lion King on tape from 1994. I took it to my room and watched it about once a week until I moved out when I was 18. It stayed in my room til we moved house 2 years later, and even now I think it is in one of my boxes that have put in the shed down in Halifax. It had always been my favourite Disney movie, along with the Fox and the Hound (wrongly underrated, just an FYI) but at that age it seemed to always make the outcast and depressive teenager in myself feel better. I got so obsessed with it that most my screen names and even my email address had "asante sana" in it. (Thank you in Swahili, and Rafiki sings it a lot). Which brings me onto my favourite thing about the Lion King. Ra-fricking-fiki. In my opinion a Disney character has never been so wonderfully constructed, so diverse, so symbolic. I genuinely love him more than any other character, in disney (yes even above Finding Nemo's Dory) and in films generally (even though my favourite film characters are all derived from books - Renton in Trainspotting; Richard in the Beach). There's just something about him that makes me happy, and I think that's what makes the film amazing for me.
FYI: I'm watching it right now and Mufasa is away to die *tears*


I may be 22 years old, but I guarantee that this will always be one of my favourite films. Ever noticed how it's a cartoon version of Hamlet but with Lions instead of people who speak funny? (I'm an English graduate, I do realise they're not speaking 'funny')

Anyway this was a pointlessish blog. Rafiki holds the answer to all life's questions. That's kinda all I wanted to say...