Disney Movie Challenge
The Lion King (1994)
WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 58 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Frozen II in 2020.
1994 saw a lot of classic films hit theatres and a pretty stacked year of Oscar Best Picture nominations. Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, and The Shawshank Redemption all consistently rank near the top of the IMDB Top 250 films. Another classic film that tends to get overlooked is The Lion King. I think if they nominated more than just 5 films The Lion King would have got a nomination, as it is it got 4 nominations in the music category and won 2, Best Song for “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”, and Best Score. If you were alive in 1994 you could not escape the music from this film, it was everywhere.
The movie is about Simba, a young lion cub voiced by Jonathon Taylor Thomas. As soon as he is born he is being groomed to be the next king of the Pride Lands. But his uncle Scar (Jeremy Irons) wants to be king and devises a plan that will have him rule the kingdom. Scar causes a stampede that he hopes will kill Simba and his dad Mufasa (James Earl Jones). When the stampede fails to kill Mufasa, Scar must take matters into his own hands. He kills Mufasa by dropping him over a cliff and then gaslights Simba into thinking it was all his fault his dad died. Simba, fearing he has committed an unforgivable offence, runs away. Scar then takes over as king. While away Simba meets Timon and Pumba two other outcasts that teach him how to live without a care in the world. Meanwhile Scar rules the Pride Lands like a tyrant and it dissolves into a hellscape. Eventually Simba’s childhood friend Nala finds him and with the help of the monkey Rifiki convinces him to return to fight Scar and take his rightful place as king.
Reading the development of this movie on the Wikipedia page will make your head spin. So many people were involved that it's hard to tell who actually did what (there was one draft where it was about a war between lions and baboons). When a script passes through so many hands it usually gets worse not better. The original director was supposed to be George Scribner, but he wanted to make a more naturalistic documentary style version and when it was decided to turn it into a musical he left the production. Rumor has it that even as the animators were doing their drawings the story was constantly changing. For the music they asked Tim Rice who had done the lyrics for Aladdin to come back for The Lion King but Alan Menken wasn’t available to write the music so Rice first asked the band Abba to write the music but they turned it down. He then moved on to Elton John who was eager to write “ultra pop songs” hits that kids and adults would love. For the actual score they went with Hans Zimmer who had done other African set scores.
I have always thought that The Lion King was overrated. I wasn’t sure if it’s because in 1994 I was having my mind blown by Pulp Fiction so I didn’t take “kids movies” seriously or if there was something else. For that reason I was looking forward to this rewatch. Turns out this movie still doesn’t work for me. I think the biggest thing for me is how annoying Simba is in the beginning of the movie. He just comes across as a brat and after that I stop caring what happens to him. Even, after joining Timon and Pumba and accepting the “Hakuna Matata” lifestyle he doesn’t seem to learn any lessons but after a pep talk from Rafiki and his dead dad he goes to fight Scar (he also leaves without telling his friends). A few other things that just didn’t work for me was the singing and Jonathon Taylor Thomas and Matthew Broderick just never felt right as the voice of Simba.
Now that I got that off my chest let's get into what is good about the movie. First the music is undeniably catchy. Elton John and Tim Rice cooked up some fun songs that are easily some of the best in any Disney animated films. Plus you got everything from love songs to a silly song that has a fart joke in it. And even the underrated “Be Prepared” isn’t as bad as I remembered although the Nazi imagery took me by surprise. Second, the animation looks good. The opening animation to “Circle of Life” is absolutely amazing. It’s no wonder they used that entire scene as the first trailer. The stampede scene used CAPS (Computer Animation Production System) and took three years to get right. As one of the most important scenes in the film they really nailed the sense of dread and impending doom.
Overall: Obviously The Lion King is a movie that connected with a lot of people. Unfortunately it just doesn’t work for me. Simba is just a bratty kid that never really learns anything. And while the movie has a nice lesson about respecting nature it almost feels like the song “Hakuna Matata” teaches the wrong lesson of not learning from your past and ignoring your responsibilities.
Random Facts
First Disney animated film with an original story. All others are based either on books or fairy tales.
Second highest grossing film in the U.S. in 1994 behind. Forrest Gump.
The Lion King was made at the same time as Pocahontas. Many of the top animators chose to work on Pocahontas because they felt it would be prestigious.
Pumba is the first character in a Animated Disney film to fart.
Controversy and allegations of plagiarism surrounded the film on release because of similarities to the Japanese Anime Kimba the White Lion. While the plots are entirely different there are some similarities in character design. Disney has always alleged there was no wrongdoing and the Japanese studio never tried to sue.
