The Lion King
Mufasa, Simba's father
The Lion King is the Walt Disney Company's 32nd animated film. It was released on June 15, 1994.
The movie is about a young lion cub named Simba who learns about his place on the throne of Pride Rock and his role in the circle of life. Unlike previous Disney animated films, much of the voice acting work was done by well-known actors, including James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, Matthew Broderick, Whoopi Goldberg, Rowan Atkinson, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and Nathan Lane. It is a musical; the songs have music by Elton John and lyrics by Tim Rice.
The Lion King features no human characters. Robin Hood featured only anthropomorphized animals, while Bambi featured only unseen human characters; whether this makes The Lion King Walt Disney's first "animals-only" or "non-human" film is open to interpretation.
Computer animation was used extensively in the creation of the movie, especially during the "Circle of Life" and stampede sequences.
During production, this film was considered a secondary project compared to the next film scheduled, Pocahontas. However, as the film was being marketed, the studio noticed that the released teaser which consisted of the entire opening sequence featuring the song, Circle of Life, was getting a strongly enthusiastic reaction from audiences. Furthermore, when the film was in limited release in two major theatres, the film did very impressive business which suggested that this "secondary project" promised to be popular. Upon general release, the film more than confirmed that suspicion by becoming the most successful film of the year and the most successful animated feature film of all time.
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2 Key Characters 3 Sequels and spin-offs 4 Controversies surrounding The Lion King 5 Quotations 6 See also |
Simba's father Mufasa, the Lion King, is murdered by his own brother and Simba's uncle, Scar, who then convinces Simba that Mufasa's death was Simba's fault and encourages the young cub into self-imposed exile ("Run away, Simba. Run... Run away and never return."). Scar becomes king, and overruns the Lion Kingdom with his gang of vicious hyenas.
After wandering in the desert, the young cub befriends a meerkat named Timon and a warthog named Pumbaa. After growing up with Timon and Pumbaa, Simba's friend Nala eventually finds him. She urges Simba to return to Pride Rock and to retake his rightful throne, but he refuses. After Rafiki the baboon shows Simba that Mufasa's spirit lives inside him Simba goes back to Pride Rock to defeat his uncle Scar and the hyenas so he can reclaim his kingdom.
The movie was remastered and, on October 7, 2003, released as The Lion King 2-Disc Special Edition DVD.
The movie has had its share of controversy.
There was some criticism from the gay community regarding a perceived effeminate undertone to the movie's villain, Scar.
In one scene of the movie it appears as if animators had embedded the word "sex" into several frames of animation -- the intention, however, was the letter combination "SFX" (for "special effects").
And there was dispute over the origin of the story, as it bears a striking resemblance to a Japanese animated television show Kimba the White Lion, so much so that apparently even some animators thought they were doing a remake.
In the musical remake there was a scene removed from the American version when Mufasa dies where the lionesses cry over his dead body but had appeared to be more comical as it had looked like they were crying out toilet paper, which had caused the audience to laugh at the innappropriate moment. Actually, they were re-enacting a Japanese puppet mourning ceremony where ribbons would flow out of the eyes to symbolize tears. The section is still in the Australian version and receives the same amount of laughter as in the original.
Also there was controversy in the Australian version when the two child leads of Simba and Nala were fired due to bad acting, lack of singing talent and inconsistent American accent.
Warning: Plot details follow.
[Simba burps off-screen.]
(To find out why they really did the diversion, see The Lion King 1 1/2.)
Plot synopsis
Warning: Plot details follow.
Key Characters
Sequels and spin-offs
The Lion King was so successful that Disney created a direct-to-video sequel called and a spin-off television series called Timon and Pumbaa. A second direct-to-video sequel, The Lion King 1 1/2, was released on February 10, 2004.Musical
The movie was also adapted into an award-winning stage musical with the same title. The stage show first opened on November 13, 1997 in New York City, and was an instant and tremendous success. A version later opened London, England, and another in Toronto, playing there until January 2004. It is also now playing in Sydney, Australia.Controversies surrounding The Lion King
Quotations
[Drumbeats]
[Timon and Pumbaa scream and run off, chased by the hyenas.]
[He stuffs Zazu in a mini-volcano vent.]
[Zazu screams as he is launched like a rocket.]
[He is about to leave when Shenzi stops him.]
[Banzai shows up before them.]
[Ed makes noises and points to where Simba, Nala and Zazu are.]
See also