Review of The Lion King (1994) by Kendall I — 06 May 2013

This has to be my favorite Disney film of the '90s canon of films. This film's touching, emotionally deep, and just beautiful above all. This one shall forever remain a classic.

PLOT:Mufasa (James Earl Jones) is the king lion ruling over all of Africa. One day, Mufasa and his wife give birth to a son, which they name Simba (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), eliminating Mufasa's brother, Scar (Jeremy Irons), from taking the king's place on the throne. Mufasa tries to teach Simba everything he knows to be king one day, but Mufasa's life is cut short by a tragic accident caused by Scar. All Simba ever wanted to be for his dad was brave. Now, however, Simba is convinced by Scar that the best thing to do is to run away and never come back. Simba, down on his luck, is found by the two, loveable, careless outcasts, Timon (Nathan Lane) and Pumbaa (Ernie Sabella). Here Simba learns the life of no worries until he grows up to be an adult (voiced by Matthew Broderick) and his past comes back to haunt him, not even knowing how bad his former pride is actually doing. It's a great plot exected very well.

VOICES:The voice acting in this film is brilliant. All of the voices are entertaining, fitting, cartoonish, and all-star. The best voice performance had to have been by Matthew Broderick as the adult Simba. He performed his role best. James Earl Jones and Jeremy Irons also played excellent roles as Mufasa and Scar. The other shiners would be Nathan Lane as Timon, Ernie Sabella as Pumbaa, Rowan Atkinson as Zazu, Whoopi Goldberg as Shenzi, Cheech Marin as Banzai, Jonathan Taylor Thomas as young Simba, Moira Kelly as Nala, Robert Guillaume as Rafiki, and Jim Cummings as Ed. As you can see, there really wasn't a bad performance in the cast.

SCORE:The score was beautiful and very well done by the collaboration of Hanz Zimmer, Lebo M., and Elton John. Every song in the film is either fun or beautiful, including the score itself.

ANIMATION:The animation in here is also beautiful. The animation is realistic, rich, and shows evidence of a lot of effort. Disney didn't laze around on the job with this film.

OTHER CONTENT:This film is more than just a fun Disney animation. This film contains a bunch of touching, emotional twists as well as a realistic story (if you replace the animals with humans). This film can make you laugh, cry, and cheer more than most animated films nowadays. This film has all of the techniques and such needed to make a good film.

OVERALL,an epic Disney film with a great plot, brilliant voice acting, beautiful and fun score and soundtrack, beautiful and rich animation, many touching moments and emotional twists, a realistic story, and all of the elements a good film needs.