There’s No Need To Hide Your ‘Lion’ Eyes

Need something wholesome in your life? The Mouse has you covered. Over on Disney+, they’ve got a documentary, titled Lion, pulling on the heartstrings and making us feel like we’re part of the pride. Hakuna Matata, for real. There is even an interaction between the central Lion and a warthog — the warthog does not befriend him and go on adventures, sadly.

If you’re playing hooky because you’re “sick,” this is one of those perfect series to watch because the stakes aren’t skyward.

Lion is a four-part National Geographic natural-history series that follows a lion cub named Kio over four years as he grows from a vulnerable newborn into a contender for his own territory. (Cue, “Everything the light touches” quote from Lion King.)

Executive-produced by  Jon Favreau (who directed The Lion King 2019 remake) along with BBC Studios’ Mike Gunton, the series treats Kio’s life as a coming-of-age drama, following his family, his exile, his rivalries, and his fight for survival on the African savanna. From thousands of hours of footage from directors and creators Joe Treddenick, Faith Musembi, Claire Arthur, Georgina Ward they have crafted an epic story whose protagonist is never guaranteed to be alive in the next scene.

O.J. Lynch narrates, while Hans Zimmer, Niccolò Pacella and George Hutson Warren provide the score. Rather than jumping between animals and ecosystems, Lion stays tightly focused on Kio and his pride, using years of natural-history filming to tell one continuous story about what it takes for a lion to survive long enough to become king. (Cue more singing animals.)

What Lion does well is make you forget, for a little while, that you’re watching animals who do not care about narrative structure. And while everything burns around us, the distraction is just… nice.

Kio gets framed like the protagonist of a coming-of-age movie: he screws up, gets pushed around, learns where he fits, and has to figure out what kind of Lion he’s going to be. Kio did not sit down with a producer and discuss his character arc over an LA coffee or a power lunch. Still, the footage is strong enough that the storytelling never feels manufactured — even little lions eat other animals.

And the footage is ridiculous. Lions stalking through tall grass at sunrise, cubs tumbling over each other, entire prides sprawled out like oversized house cats. Disney and National Geographic know exactly what they’re doing here. Add Hans Zimmer underneath, and suddenly you’re emotionally invested in whether one very large cat figures his shit out. Talk about soothing television for the soul.

There are moments when Lion gets a little too cute with the Disneyfication of nature. These are still wild animals, and nature reminds you that the Circle of Life isn’t always pleasant — lions die and stuff gets mauled — but lions are out there killing stuff.

But the series knows when to back off and let the animals carry the story rather than forcing a lesson on them.

That’s probably why it works so well as comfort television. You learn a little, you look at some beautiful animals, you worry about Kio, and nobody spends four episodes explaining how civilization is collapsing.

Sometimes you just need to watch a lion be a lion.