Well, if you are reading this, then you must be a devoted Lion King fan... (or you were just curious to see how a movie could change somebody's life?) Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read it. :)
My story is not as moving and thrilling as some other stories I have read.
It is, in fact, very simple. But if you want to know about it, here goes
nothing.
When the Lion King came to the theaters here in Mexico, lots of
merchandazing was in sale, I could hear TLK propaganda almost everywhere,
on the radio, on TV, posters... It kind of bothered me. I even hated the
commercial at the radio saying "Have you gone to see the Lion Kiiiiiing?"
(Of course in Spanish, which was "¿Ya fuiste a ver el Rey Leooooooón?"
I could say I hated the movie itself. One day, in order to celebrate my
cousin's birthday, he and his family went to the movies to see TLK. When
they came back, they were talking and talking about the movie, they said
it was great and all... I didn't care. Like two days after, my cousin came
to me, running happily and showing me he had bought the soundtrack of the
movie, and he was even happier because it was the original English
soundtrack, not the one in Spanish. He told me the music was great and all.
"Cool", I think I said, but that was all. I wasn't interested in listening
to it.
Almost a year went by, and before I knew it, TLK was already on video, which meant more commercials on TV and such. I never looked closely at how nice the characters were drawn or anything, I never payed attention to the music either... Until one day, we went to Blockbuster to rent some movies, and my cousins went with us. They cried with joy when they found TLK cassette and grabbed it immediately, saying they wanted to see TLK. I looked for other movies, and finally we went home. My cousins, who live next door, went to their house to see TLK while I watched the other movies. When they were finished, dad suggested we exchanged movies with my cousins, and I even said, "Really? Do you feel like watching The Lion King?" My dad said yes, and I went to their house and asked for it. They lent it to me willingly, saying they had already seen it and they liked it as much as when they saw it first at the theater. I thanked them and returned home, with TLK cassette in my hands. I put it in the VCR, and we waited for the movie to start. When it finally did, I heard and African chant that sent chills through my spine. The music sounded really nice, and, even though mom was discouraged because she thought Elton John would be singing the song, I liked it a lot. When I first saw Mufasa standing on the promontory, I felt like saying "WOW!", though I remained silent. When Simba was held up in the air, I thought, "I think I might like this movie after all..." Then a lion appeared, a lion that looked like the bad guy of the movie. I didn't know that what he had in his left eye was a Scar, until my brother told me. (DOH!)The movie went on, I cried with Mufasa's death... I laughed a lot when Banzai fell into the brier patch... What I am trying to say is that I felt all kinds of emotions when I saw the Lion King, and I liked that a lot. When the movie was finished, it was too late to go and return the cassette to my cousins, so I decided I would return it next day. We went to eat dinner, while making comments on the movie. I finished eating as quickly as possible and went upstairs, fetched TLK cassette, rewinded it and watched the whole movie again. It was simply awesome! The next day I watched it again, and the next day and the next day. Every time it made me feel great. The music was really beautiful, and I asked my cousin for his soundtrack. Since I had seen TLK in Spanish, it was kind of fun to hear the music with the characters' voices in English. From that day on, the Lion King has been something special for me. It has captivated me. So now I say: THE LION KING IS A WAY OF LIFE! I just can't think on why did I hate the movie so much before seeing it... and I will regret all my life not going to see it at the theater when I had the opportunity. I must say I don't miss any Disney movie now, but neither Pocahontas or The Hunckback of NotreDame have made me feel the same way I felt when I saw the Lion King.
So this is my story. Thanks for reading it. :)
