Animation Celebration Saturday - The Lion King (1994)

Disney, 1994
Voices of Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, and James Earl Jones
Directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff
Music by Elton John; Lyrics by Tim Rice

With the CGI remake having been released into theaters yesterday, I thought this was the perfect time to revisit the original. Disney didn't expect much of it when it was in production; they were as surprised as anyone when it became the biggest hit of 1994 and a touchstone with many children who grew up in the mid-late 90's. How does this movie roar nowadays? Let's join a crowd of animals as they make their way across the African savanna to witness the birth of a ruler and find out...

The Story: Young Simba (Johnathan Taylor Thomas) is indeed the prince of Pride Rock, a pride of lions who rule over the African savannas. He's thrilled and a little cocky about it, despite his love and admiration of his father Mufasa (Jones). Mufasa's brother Scar (Jeremy Irons) does not admire his brother. He was next in line to be king before Simba was born. He first tries to get Simba and his friend Nala (Niketa Calame) lost in the shadowy Elephant Graveyards, where they're attacked by the hyenas who think of him as their meal ticket. Mufasa manages to save them then, even forgiving his son. Simba's not so lucky when he's lured into the canyons. Scar lets Mufasa be trampled by a stampede of wildebeasts, but convinces Simba it was his fault.

The horrified lion cub flees into the jungle, where he befriends Timon (Lane) and Pumbaa (Sabella), a wisecracking meerkat and good-natured (if smelly) warthog. They convince Simba to forget his troubles and more-or-less raise him to adulthood. A now-grown Nala (Moira Kelly) comes around to hunt, but the older Simba (Broderick) fights her off before realizing who she is. They fall in love, but he's afraid to come back and is worried that everyone will think he killed his father. It takes the wise council of baboon Rafiki (Robert Guillame) to make Simba realize that, as Rafiki puts it, "oh, the past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it...or learn from it."

The Animation: Disney put a lot of work into making these cartoony animals look as realistic as they could and still be expressive. It mostly works, especially with the background animals, like those wildebeasts in the stampede or the animals in the opening sequence. There's some magnificiently lush backgrounds as well, from the "Circle of Life" opening to the dark and dusty elephant graveyards, to the rich rosy-gold flames in the finale.

The Song and Dance: For the most part, this still holds up pretty well. The story was Disney's first stab at something original and not based after a fairy tale or children's book, and as such, is fun and really quite touching, even mature in parts. Jones made such a majestic and warm Mufasa, he was one of the few voices from the animated film retained for the CGI version. Irons is an appropriately smarmy villain; the hyenas are really kind of creepy, especially in the elephant graveyard and towards the end, when they realize Scar hasn't quite delivered on his promises. Lane and Sabella were so well-received as Timon and Pumbaa, they got a spin-off TV cartoon based around them.

Favorite Number: It's hard to top "The Circle of Life," with the kneeling animals gathering around the rock and the light shining on Rafiki revealing the new king. It's probably one of the ten best opening numbers in film musicals. Timon and Pumbaa may not have been happy with Simba and Nala falling in love during the hit ballad "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," but the sequence is appropriately romantic, with the lions playing against the backdrop of the moonlit savanna. Timon and Pumbaa get to have more fun explaining their "trouble-free philosophy," "Hakuna Matata," to the young Simba. Simba also gets to have fun with the more cartoony "I Just Can't Wait to Be King."

Trivia: This one wasn't in development as long as some of Disney's other movies of the 90's, having only been conceived around 1988.

It was the biggest hit film - live-action or animated - of 1994. The Broadway stage show, done with African-style puppets and dance, was an equally huge hit in 1997 and at press time is still running at the Minskoff Theater. Timon and Pumbaa's TV show, The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa, was also popular, running three years. A show for younger children, The Lion Guard, debuted on Disney Junior in 2016. There were two direct-to-video sequels, The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride and The Lion King 1 1/2, that I will likely review somewhere down the line as well.

A theatrical re-release and the 2003 Platinum Edition DVD added an additional song for Zazu (Rowan Atikson), "The Morning Report."

What I Don't Like: Not all the animals are portrayed accurately, especially the hyenas. Some of the sequences may be a little too scary for younger kids, and others may get restless with the savanna politics with Mufasa and Scar. Honestly, the opening is so strong, it can be hard for some of the other numbers to live up to it. Jeremy Irons isn't that great of a singer, and I always found his villain song, "Be Prepared," to be more than a little awkward.

The Big Finale: I like this a lot, but don't worship it the way a lot of people who grew up in the mid-late 90's do. I suspect a lot of it has to do with nostalgia. I was a teenager in '94, and it didn't connect with me the way the earlier Beauty and the Beast or later Hunchback of Notre Dame did. That said, it's still an excellent movie, one of Disney's better ones of their 90's "Renaissance." If you have older kids who love animals and can handle the darker sequences, they'll probably go wild over this one.

Home Media: Disney re-released this one on most major formats about two years ago. I have the original 2-disc Platinium Edition, but it's so hard to navigate (it took me 10 minutes to find the original theatrical edition, rather than the Special Edition), I'd go for the newer Signature Edition or the Blu-Ray.

DVD
Blu-Ray
Amazon Prime (buy only)