The two lionesses debate liberation from their own particular vantage points: The elder Safa, who remembers life in the wild for the brutality she suffered at the paws of others, at first refuses to leave the zoo, while the younger Noor, who barely recalls life outside captivity, is desperate to be free.

Vaughan avoids the whiff of condescension such characterizations might risk by remaining true to the simple constructions of the fable form; as in all fables, the lions' plight is, of course, a boiled-down, simplified version of human struggles. But Pride of Baghdad's familiar animal-story trappings—right down to visual quotes from The Lion King—help the tale resonate.