Orientalism in the Lion King?

I was a bit confused how the Lion King was orientalist, so I searched up other people's arguments for why it is. I found less than five people actually arguing it, but the main point seems to be that it depicts a false version of Africa, in which it is completely undeveloped, wild, and devoid of humans. I don't see how that is different than the version of North America given in Brother Bear, another Disney movie with a complete focus on the native animals. Not having humans was necessary for the story of the movie, as it is a rough adaptation of Hamlet and any presence of would either completely shift the tone of the move, or be unnecessary. Not to mention that are are actually places in Africa where no people live and are populated with different types of animals, such as the many nature reserves.

An actual argument for imperialism in the Lion King that I didn't see anywhere would be how the shadowlands, where the hyenas live, and Scar, the main villain, all share the motif of darkness while the good characters are all whiter. Even this however, doesn't stand very well to scrutiny as the theme of light=good and dark=bad is present in a wide variety of cultures, dating back to the ancient Middle East.

While I am not denying the existence of Orientalism in general, I think it isn't constructive to look for it where it doesn't exist, especially because so many actual examples exist.

There is a very good chance there are actually good points towards Orientalism being present in the Lion King, so if anyone has them I would love for them to leave a comment.