In her article, "What Do You Want Me to Do? Dress in Drag and Do the Hula?":
Timon and Pumbaa's Alternative Lifestyle Dilemma in The Lion King, Gael Sweeney
proposes four very provocative yet not very convincing dilemmas present in the
Lion King. Her argument is laid out very clearly and concisely, however, I feel
that many of her claims lack sufficient evidence to back them up and her claim
that Timon and Pumbaa are a gay couple is based on a very biased interpretation
of the film.
In her opinion, the main dilemma is that
“Timon and Pumbaa subvert the realistic” in this movie as they are not like all
the other animals in Pride Rock and are therefore gay partners. While I agree
that Timon and Pumbaa are definitely different from the other animals due to
their flamboyant personalities and unconventional lifestyles, I don’t think
they are any more unrealistic than any of the lions or hyenas. Talking animals
are an integral part of many Disney movies and are certainly not a realistic
portrayal of real life wild animals. Sweeney claims that Timon and Pumbaa only
wear the disguise of a meerkat and Warthog and that they have nothing to do
with Africa. However, Africa is in fact the natural habitat for these animals
in real life and both their diets predominantly consist of insects, fruit and
berries just like Timon and Pumbaa’s in the movie.
In
my opinion, Timon and Pumbaa’s role in the film was primarily to add some
comedic relief to the movie especially after the poignant death of Mufasa, as
the intended audience for the film was mainly children. People watch movies to
be entertained and to laugh and that is exactly what Timon and Pumbaa succeed
in doing. Personally, I think that Sweeney is reading too deep into the part of
the film where Timon dresses in drag; it was meant to be funny rather than be
an indication that Timon was gay. She evens argues that they are “obviously a
same sex couple” based on the fact that they sing, live together, raise Simba
together and work together.
Personally, none of these factors convince me that they are a gay couple.
Most college students live in a dorm with a roommate of the same sex, many of
us sing together in our car with our same sex friends on a daily basis, people
of the same sex work together all the time and yet do not identify or are not
viewed by society as being gay. While I acknowledge that they raise Simba
together like a foster family, I feel that the way they care for Simba is driven
out of protective animal instincts rather than their desire to be homosexual
parents and have a family. We are not given any indication in the film that
they longed to have a child, they simply woke up one morning and Simba was
lying on the sand beside them, they did not plan or discuss it but cared for
him as if he was their own. Sweeney also suggests that it is obvious that Timon
and Pumbaa are outcasts of their respective societies because they are gay.
They could be outcasts from their societies for a number of plausible reasons,
not exclusively because they are gay and I feel that this claim is very
presumptuous with very little concrete evidence to support it. It appears to me
that Timon and Pumbaa’s supposed dislike of Nala and Simba’s relationship is
born out of fear rather than out of distaste for heterosexual love as they feel
threatened by her presence and are afraid that they will lose their new
friendship with Simba.
Overall, I don’t think that Disney intended to
portray Timon and Pumbaa as gay characters but perhaps the personalities of the
voice actors played a significant role in any supposed “gay” characteristics or
mannerisms that Timon and Pumbaa convey. Lane and Sabella, the voice actors for
these two characters, were given the freedom to ad lib many of their lines,
unlike many other voice actors in Disney animations. Lane openly acknowledged
that he based his portrayal of Timon on himself and being a gay actor, likely
contributed heavily to any homosexual tendencies of Timon in the movie.
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