The Lion King

Our board game, based upon the narrative of The Lion King roughly follows Propp’s narrative structure. We tried our best to incorporate parts of his theory into the game and also contemplated why we couldn’t use others.

Propp says that the characters also serve the narrative and help it to move along. For example, the story begins when the hero, Simba, is born. His father’s death by Scar (the villain) can be thought of as the dispatcher that sends the hero on his way. Scar also features in the board game, his actions result in the players having to move back spaces as he is an obstacle. His other role may be interpreted as the anti-hero because he wants to be the lion king instead of Simba, the rightful heir. Rafiki can represent the donor; he donates his wisdom and advice instead of an item. Timon and Pumba are the helpers along the journey; in the game they take him over the bridge that allows the player to skip spaces on the board. The princess is Nala, Simba’s childhood love, who he marries at the end of the game. This means that we have put seven of the eight character types into our game, the missing one being the princess’ father who doesn’t really feature in the story.

Vladmir Propp’s functions (31 in total) were taken into consideration when making the borad game. Of course it was too dificult ro put them all in the game but we added as many as we could so tht the theory would fit into our board game. Since we had to do this it is clear that not all of his fundtions apply to The Lion King and so it is not entirely true. However, some feature in almost all stories. In particular, the fourth sphere doesn’t feature much seeing as Simba is already home and he has already defeated Scar (as mentioned in the third sphere). Only “True hero recognised” and “Hero marries and ascends throne” apply to The Lion King.