Waiting to be King, an In-Depth Study 

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If there’s one message Simba is able to get across loud and clear in The Lion King’s first third, it’s that he just can’t wait to be king. While we’re usually not advocates for rushing through life, as it were, we’ve never been heir to a throne and can’t really fault a cub for planning his future. So we thought we’d take just a closer look at what waiting to be king is really like via the joyous–and extremely catchy–musical number in which Simba does just that.

From the start, Simba warns his enemies to beware.

He doesn’t know he has enemies at this point (cough cough Uncle Scar), so we accept this as the run-of-the-mill bravado that young men often participate in.

He asserts that he’s going to be the main event, like no king was before.

We appreciate the pun, but we wonder if Simba is starting to worry that his mane hasn’t grown in yet. He has to use leaves in its place, which doesn’t make him seem as ready to be king as he’d like us to believe.

Interestingly, Simba says he’s “brushing up on looking down.”

Looking down on his subjects? Well, quite literally yes he will be if he’s standing on Pride Rock. We like Simba and think this is what he’s referring to here and not the more metaphorical snobbery that this quote might suggest.

This we can wholeheartedly get behind. We imagine roars are very important if one is going to be a mighty king.

When Simba is king he imagines that no one will be able to tell him what to do.

We’ve watched enough British period dramas to know this is far from the truth, however Simba is a kid and he’s allowed to dream of a non-corrupt rule. In fact, he’s the kind of well-liked lion that just might be able to have both the people’s’ approval and that of his advisors.

He also thinks he’ll be free to run around all day.

There’s a certain amount of baby holding, and hand shaking, and general sitting involved in being king that we think would make this impossible, despite Simba’s best efforts.

Finally, Simba tells us that everywhere we look he’s standing in the spotlight.

Again, we assume this spotlight is metaphorical, though as king, Simba could hypothetically hire someone to literally shine a spotlight on him whenever he felt so inclined. These are the types of things that kids waiting to be king have to consider.

While Simba’s childish version of the monarchy might not be entirely accurate, it does sound really fun and we’ve sure had a great time over-analyzing it. What’s your favorite moment from “I Just Can’t Wait to be King?” Tell us in the comments!

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