Review of The Lion King (1994) by Mrmoviebuff — 07 Jul 2015

When people talk about their favorite Disney film, 'The Lion King' is an answer that always comes up, no matter what generation of Disney you're talking about. The 1990s was a very strong decade for the Walt Disney Studios, as they came off a string of successes with 'The Little Mermaid' (1989), 'Beauty and the Beast' (1991) (this is MY favorite Disney film) and 'Aladdin' (1992).

Even after 'The Lion King', there were other films that were not appreciated by the critics mostly, but audiences loved anyway, 'Pocahontas' (1995) and 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' (1996) spring to mind.

'The Lion King' is essentially Hamlet, but with lions, it opens with the best opening sequence I've seen in any film, animated or live-action. "The Circle of Life" is an iconic song to open with an we see the sun rising and all the different animals of different breeds gather around to witness the birth of their new future king. A lion cub is lifted before them and the animals bow together. The lion cub is Simba and we witness his adventure in the movie.

We meet his uncle Scar (Jeremy Irons) who is jealous as he wants to be king, but the birth of Simba compromises his chances, and his brother Mufasa (James Earl Jones) tries to reason with Scar.

Simba gets into a predicament where Scar plans to kill Mufasa and tells Simba to run away. Unlike Disney's 'Bambi' (1942), the death of Mufasa happens on-screen and can be traumatizing to the younger audience.

As Simba has run away, he meets a meerkat and a warthog, Timon and Pumbaa who raise Simba from his teen years into his adulthood. But when Scar is king of Pride Rock, the entire group want Simba back and gain his status as the rightful king.

Of all the Disney films released in the 1990s, 'The Lion King' is the one people speak highly of the most, and for good reason as it is less sugar-coated than 'The Little Mermaid' and 'Beauty and the Beast' and less comical than 'Aladdin'. The movie tells a serious story with the occasional comedy to lighten up the mood for when the film gets too serious. The songs are catchy too and the story is not hard to follow, even for kids.

So why did I give this film a 9 instead of the perfect 10 everybody is rating it? Well, I do think that 'Beauty and the Beast' (1991) is actually the best film from Disney and 'The Lion King', for me, has some flaws that prevent it from being perfect. Everybody seems to over-praise this film, but here are my problems.

The songs for me, were a little disappointing, considering they are by Tim Rice and Elton John, I only loved "The Circle of Life" and "Be Prepared"...I found "I Just can't wait to be King" and "Hakuna Matata" a little annoying, even as a kid. "Can you feel the love tonight?" felt a little shoe-horned in the film, but the Elton John version is brilliant.

Certain things happen in the third act still make no sense to me, even as a child I didn't understand and still don't understand now. Let's just say that a certain character admits their faults and the film can end after that. I couldn't help but feel that the third act felt rushed just so it can get to the conclusion.

However, the positives do outweigh the negatives, the animation is still as beautiful as ever (particularly "The Circle of Life" sequence), the film tells a really good story and there is pure heart and emotion put into this picture.

I don't think 'The Lion King' is the best Disney film of all time, that title, for me, goes to 'Beauty and the Beast' (1991), but this is definitely in my top 10.