THE LION KING (1994)

THE LION KING
Directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff
Starring the voices of James Earl Jones, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Jeremy Irons, Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin, Robert Guillaume, and Rowan Atkinson.

Let it never be forgotten that the Walt Disney Corporation has money. I'm talking a LOT of money. As far as stocks go, the Walt Disney Company has a market cap of $64.41 billion. That's a lot of money. The bad thing about an entertainment and arts company having that much money is that it can effectively put blinders on the company when it comes to artistic integrity. Yet the good thing about having that much money is that the company is able to fully realize any artistic task they take on. With “The Lion King”, it is obvious that they spent a lot of money and took time to be perfectionists and not release a film that was anything less than exactly what they wanted! This is always a gamble, and sometimes ('Heaven's Gate') it doesn't pay off. In the case of “The Lion King” it paid off beautifully. Disney released one of the shining jewels in their collection of animated feature films and it went on to gross an incredible $783 million worldwide. At the time of this writing, it's the 23rd highest grossing film of all time in world wide box office and the 4th highest animated film.

“The Lion King” was the fourth in line of Disney films in their “New Golden Age”. It began in 1989 with “The Little Mermaid” and continued in 1991 with “Beauty and the Beast” and with “Aladdin” in 1992. Following “The Lion King in 1995 was “Pocahontas”, which I believe to be the beginning of the end for this mini golden era. “The Lion King” was so well received that there was even Oscar buzz about it following in “Beauty and the Beast”'s footsteps and being nominated for Best Picture. This didn't happen, and it was several years before the creation of the “Best Animated Feature” category, so the only nominations that “The Lion King” earned were the typical ones for animated movies, Best Score and Best Original Song. It was nominated three times for Best Original Song, for the songs “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” (Which won), “Circle of Life”, and “Hakuna Matata”.

The story of “The Lion King” is fantastic. Rather than base it on an existing fairy tale or children's book, “The Lion King” is an original story. Disney would go on to do this again but until they teamed up with Pixar they would never achieve the same success in original storytelling. While the story is original, many people have noticed obvious themes inspired by the William Shakespeare classics “Hamlet” and “Macbeth”. Mufasa is the king of the Pridelands. His younger brother, Scar, is insanely jealous because he will never be king. This is reinforced when Mufasa's son, Simba, is born. Scar hatches a plan to kill Mufasa and Simba with the help of the hyenas and take his place as king, which he does, except that Simba escapes and runs away. Under Scar's rule the Pridelands slowly die.

Meanwhile, Simba has met two friends. The first is a meerkat named Timon. The second is a warthog named Pumbaa. They raise Simba and teach him their philosophy of a life of “no worries”. Simba turns his back on his past until he runs into Nala, his best friend from childhood, who tells him what has happened to their home. Simba returns to fight Scar and assume his rightful place as king.

As I said before, the animation is stunning. This movie was made during the period where Disney was really beginning to learn how computer animation could enhance their films. The special effects were outstanding and give “The Lion King” a natural look, while never losing the animated quality. The voice performances are fantastic. The people responsible for casting this movie obviously spared no effort in assembling one of the best voice casts ever. James Earl Jones was powerful and controlling as Mufasa, Rowan Atkinson was delightfully sycophantic as Zazu, Nathan Lane could not have been better as Timon. The role of Simba was shared by two actors. Jonathan Taylor Thomas voiced Young Simba and Matthew Broderick voiced Adult Simba. I think it's fair to say that “The Lion King” is one of Matthew Broderick's top films.

The music in this film is just as amazing as all of the rest of it. As I mentioned before, three songs were nominated for Best Original Song Oscars. Elton John and Tim Rice collaborated on the songs for this movie and the result was a very memorable score filled with hummable tunes and deep meaning. “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” was the eventual winner. The two nominated songs that weren't from “The Lion King” were “Look What Love Has Done” from “Junior” and “Make Up Your Mind” from “The Paper”.

Hans Zimmer won his first, and so far only, Oscar for his sweeping score of this film. This score is so strong that when “The Lion King” was adapted to the Broadway stage themes from the score were turned into full-fledged songs. This is a truly epic score. I think it's one of the classic scores and it ranks up there with the best works of John Williams and Bernard Hermann. It will drive you to tears when Mufasa is killed and will haunt you when Scar ascends the throne. You will laugh at the antics of Timon and Pumbaa and quake with pride when Simba realizes his true place in life. Other nominees were “Forrest Gump”, “Interview With the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles”, “Little Women”, and “The Shawshank Redemption”.

This review was written on June 9, 2008