Yesterday, I was scrolling through Disney+ after watching the new Beyoncé visual album Black Is King and I noticed Disney+ added a category simply called 'Celebrating Black Stories'. Me being interested in what Disney films they would consider 'black', I scrolled through and noticed that The Lion King (the new one) is in there.
Now to me, this feels like total nonsense. The Lion King is a story written by a bunch of white men, directed by a white man and based on a story written by one of the most famous white storytellers. The main characters are animals, not people (even though they are clear analogues for people) and its themes aren't about black issues.
The only reasons I can even think of why The Lion King (and specifically this version of The Lion King) would be in there because it's set in Africa and features a lot of black actors. However, to me, that doesn't make The Lion King a 'black story'. Nothing about the story or the visuals are specifically 'black'. The movie doesn't deal with any racial issues (or when it does, it does so in the most tonedeaf way possible) and the characters aren't even black (nor white, they're animals). Then all you are left with is the setting, which isn't enough IMO. After all, if I would make a random movie set in Russia, that movie wouldn't suddenly be a 'slavic story'.
To me, a black story would be a story that specifically deals with black identity, history or themes and/or is at least made by black creatives. Framing The Lion King as a 'black story' feels to me like Disney is trying to claim something as inclusive while hardly doing the work necessary to make it work. But I'm not black nor am I American and my ideas about what may or may not be a 'black story' might be influenced due to this.
So I was wondering what the consensus about this was on ERA. Can a story that isn't primarily made by or for (or even about) black people be a 'black story'? Or am I right in thinking that framing The Lion King as such devaluates actual black stories and black storytellers?
Now to me, this feels like total nonsense. The Lion King is a story written by a bunch of white men, directed by a white man and based on a story written by one of the most famous white storytellers. The main characters are animals, not people (even though they are clear analogues for people) and its themes aren't about black issues.
The only reasons I can even think of why The Lion King (and specifically this version of The Lion King) would be in there because it's set in Africa and features a lot of black actors. However, to me, that doesn't make The Lion King a 'black story'. Nothing about the story or the visuals are specifically 'black'. The movie doesn't deal with any racial issues (or when it does, it does so in the most tonedeaf way possible) and the characters aren't even black (nor white, they're animals). Then all you are left with is the setting, which isn't enough IMO. After all, if I would make a random movie set in Russia, that movie wouldn't suddenly be a 'slavic story'.
To me, a black story would be a story that specifically deals with black identity, history or themes and/or is at least made by black creatives. Framing The Lion King as a 'black story' feels to me like Disney is trying to claim something as inclusive while hardly doing the work necessary to make it work. But I'm not black nor am I American and my ideas about what may or may not be a 'black story' might be influenced due to this.
So I was wondering what the consensus about this was on ERA. Can a story that isn't primarily made by or for (or even about) black people be a 'black story'? Or am I right in thinking that framing The Lion King as such devaluates actual black stories and black storytellers?