Disney animated features: The rappel à l'ordre (1989-1994)

i mean this is a major beef of mine with plenty of their stuff, cf. Aladdin. just didn't know to expect it in this one, jeez.

designed lights for a junior prod of TLK opening tonight, tried to brecht it up as much as i could lol. the lionesses have a "hunting song" that ends w them bringing down an an antelope and feeding on it in a circle upstage (tossing plastic bones away etc); i hit them with a blood-red strobe and black out everything else for a few seconds before simba runs in like "hi mom!!" and lights return to normal daylight for mom turning around wiping her mouth; later when simba witnesses his father's murder it happens in the same blackout and the same strobe. more like the circle of death

and yet nothing i could think of or do could ever stand against the power of my own pale 1/1000th onstage imitation of

i did watch the opening scene of TLK on youtube recently and i wont lie it still gave me chills. you can just coast after an opening that good.

pure hi-tech propaganda. i argued for gaston upthread as most effective villain of this era (stand by this) but a huge point in scar's favor is the cut from the climactic timpani hit sealing off the monarchist ecstasy of this opening directly to scar relishing the first spoken line of both movie and show: "life's not fair, is it?"