Lion King
As cliche as this choice may sound, the Lion King is a film that I hold very close to my heart. It is possibly the only movie that has made such a huge impact in my life while other movies have made subtle strides. I remember when I was six or seven years old and my parents told me to get ready because we were heading out to the local movie theatre in the Philippines. As I sat down in one of the chairs, Baby’s Day Out started playing and I asked my Mom what happened to Lion King and she said we would watch it next week.. FML. Wow. Tangent.
When I finally did see Lion King it taught me one of the most important life lessons you can ever learn and it was to never take anything for granted. Seeing Simba have everything and more - a loving family, friends, a great home and only to see these things suddenly being taken away from him at a blink of an eye (or should I say fall) .. it was definitely an eye-opener for me. The image of Mufasa falling to his death stayed with me for weeks on end. I always made sure from then on to always acknowledge my love to my family for fear of losing them just as Simba had. For a movie - a work of fiction - to do that to someone .. that is just amazing. It’s one of the reasons why I cherish the Lion King so much. It’s moral lesson is so powerful that it has literally changed my life while growing up.
I guess at the end of the day, Hamlet (in which the Lion King’s story is based on) is the work of fiction that I treasure and hold on to the most. But I digress, because the whole thought of an image of a floatting dagger changing my life does not sound appealing at all.
