The Lion King (1994)

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The Lion King (1994)

8/10

Directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff

Hakuna Matata, the catchphrase that this movie made many say for years, the movie is full of action and fun, that has made it one of the best 2D animation one could see, the movie dialogue is also intriguing and funny, the movie which seems to be in three parts, the first being Simba’s life in Pride rock, his life with Timon and Pumbaa where he loses some of his Lion instincts and the last part where he goes back to Pride rock to reclaim his throne.

The Lion King was the first Disney animated feature to be a total original story, all other animations before it have been based on an already existing work. The idea of the movie was conceived during the promotion of Oliver & Company, the idea was basic:  a story about animals that will be set in Africa.

The filmmakers, then went ahead to build the story taking ideas from the lives of Joseph and Moses (from the Bible) and William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

The movie production began during the time of the production of Pocahontas, many of the animators and directors at Disney felt that not many people will want to sit and watch a little Lion cub who is framed for murder (murder of his father) by his uncle, for that reason alone many of the animators wanted to work on Pocahontas instead, but to their surprise although both were financially successful, Lion King made more money (it has become the highest grossing 2D animation ever) and received more positive reviews.

The voice casting for Lion King, was full of stars from Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, Rowan Atkinson, Whoopi Goldberg (just to mention a few) and even Disney's long time voice artist Jim Cummings was also available in this unending list of star voice actors.

The movie plot of Lion king is about a lion cub named Simba who gets framed for murdering his father (Mufasa voiced by James Earl Jones) by his uncle Scar (Jeremy Irons). Simba runs away from his right as heir to the throne and meets and befriends a meerkat, Timon (Nathan Lane) and a warthog Pumbaa (Ernie Sabella). Things were going well but the past that Simba ran from found him where he was hiding and now Simba (Matthew Broderick) has to go back to Pride Rock to face his past.

Lion King is a nice animation to own and watch again. Two home video sequels were done of the movie, The Lion King 2 (not worth watching at all) and The Lion King 1¹/₂(good enough to be seen), and a series about Timon and Pumbaa was also done, which was amusing.