Simba is the next in line — the one who’ll take the top job when the leader leaves. English uses this well beyond royalty: in an office, the next in line is whoever gets the job when the boss goes.

Or, more formally, he is the heir — the same idea in a higher register, the word a newspaper or a lawyer would choose. Everyone expects Simba to be king one day, except Scar, Mufasa’s younger brother, who wants the throne himself.

A king has a duty — the things you must do because of your position, not because you feel like it. That second half is what makes the word difficult, and what makes it useful.

In practice, that duty is to look after the kingdom — to care for it and keep it safe. But Simba only hears the exciting part: one day, all this will belong to him.

He has to take responsibility — to admit that something was your decision, and accept the consequences. He doesn’t blame Scar. He admits he went there himself.

So Simba says it’s my fault — the phrase we use when we accept the blame for something bad. Except this time, it isn’t true, and he’s too young to see he’s being manipulated.

Simba obeys, as many of us do when a disaster feels too big to fix: he decides to run away from his problems — to avoid a difficult situation instead of dealing with it. He collapses in the desert, where Timon the meerkat and Pumbaa the warthog rescue him.

Their motto is hakuna matata, a Swahili phrase meaning “no worries”: forget the past, and just enjoy today. Notice what that idea is — the exact opposite of responsibility.

Because as Simba grows into an adult lion, hakuna matata becomes his excuse to run away from his past — to refuse to think about who he was. Note the difference from the phrase above: one avoids a situation, this one avoids an identity.

It’s time for him to take his place — to accept the role that’s really yours, the one others are waiting for you to fill.

Simba refuses, because he won’t face up to his past — to accept a difficult truth and deal with it, instead of pretending it isn’t there — and he’d rather stay in the jungle than go back to where his father died.

Remember who you are. It means: don’t forget who you really are, and your responsibilities, even when it’s easier to pretend otherwise.

And so it’s time for Simba to step up — to take on a difficult responsibility, usually when nobody else can.

What does Simba decide, and what happens when he finally confronts Scar? I won’t tell you here. What I can tell you is that the ending depends on whether Simba is willing to face the past — to look honestly at what happened, and stop hiding from it.

The words reviewers reach for are the five bonus words above. Mufasa is often called the most regal character Disney has ever animated — grand and dignified in every frame he is in — and the wildebeest stampede is one of the mightiest sequences ever animated.