released in june of 1994, this musical dramedyremains the highest grossing traditionally animated film of all time, with close to onebillion in proceeds. the all star cast of familiar voice-talent includes jonathan taylorthomas, matthew broderick, james earl jones, jeremy irons, nathan lane, whoopi goldberg,cheech marin, and rowan "mr. bean" atkinson. but let's not forget frank welker... hollywood'sgo-to-guy for animal sound effects, this underappreciated voice-actor has literally 700 film creditson his imdb page. the g-rated story follows the life of simba the anthropomorphic lioncub, who is forced to abandon his home and family after a tragic event, eventually forcedto face his responsibilities, remembering his father's sage advice, "i'm only bravewhen i have to be". during the up-tempo second-act,
when simba ages from kid to adult during asuper fun montage, he becomes friends with care-free sahara drifters timon and pumba:a lovable and hilarious duo who went on to star in their own video game, and cartoonshow: one that i just happened to watch every morning before school as a kid. the villainsare creepy and dastardly, and do a great job of setting the consequences for the finalbattle. although the exposition is ridiculous overt, with many of the characters ratherbluntly declaring their motivation and intentions in lieu of actual dialog: the characters andwriting here are largely fun, enjoyable, and layered. with three of its incredible songsnominated for academy awards, the musical numbers that drive the plot are all exciting,festive, and difficult not to sing along to.
while "hakuta mutata" is a personal favorite,elton john's oscar-winning "can you feel the love tonight" is emotionally moving, and beautifullyanimated... ramping this picture into a tense and exciting final act, that is unfortunatelya bit rushed. and honestly the curious pacing in this otherwise splendid 89-minute pictureis the only flaw: particularly a prolonged and drawn-out setup that takes nearly 40 minutesbefore arriving at the first major plot-turn. respectfully treating the animals like truecharacters, rather than a means to a joke - you won't find any goofy props or flintstone-stylegags, where the african landscape is treated as a weird american society analogy. instead,we're left with an inspiring, moving, charming, hilarious, and wonderfully animated classicthat is immensely enjoyable no matter how
many times you watch it. dealing with complicatedthemes of betrayal and redemption with ease, "the lion king", has "exciting action, music,and characters." now let's see what you had to say in the youtube comments. our scores for "the lion king" a double nine.unanimous praise was given to the songs and music, but overall scores were mixed, resultingin an awesome. if i had to choose, this is probably my favorite disney animated picture...its strong characters, and vibrant animation make it a timeless classic. but as i'm nolonger eight-year-old, i'll have to score it an awesome as well.
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