The Lion King (1994)

The Lion King (1994)

Directed by: Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff

Starring: Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons

Here I am, smack dab in the apex of Disney’s second renaissance, as they call it. The early to mid-90’s run of pretty good to really good movies. Basically, they did some good stuff for a few movies in a row, and they get a renaissance out of it. I want a renaissance.

The Lion King is a Hamletian story about a young lion prince who’s lion father/king gets murdered by his lion uncle, who then takes over the pride, along with his army of hyenas. Our hero, Simba, gets kicked out and grows up under the amazing tutelage of Nathan Lane and a pig. He eventually returns to kick out the bad guy and reclaim his lion throne.

The Lion King may have a simple, classic sort of story to it, but it’s not downplayed by songs or gags, it’s actually pretty well flushed out and you hit all the right points in the story at all the right places. It’s still Hamlet, but at least it doesn’t suffer from what a lot of the Disney films I’ve seen up to this point have, story-wise.

As far as the animation, well, it’s great. Looks beautiful. You don’t have to go back to the 30’s to have examples of why traditional animation like this still looks better than CGI. I mean, yes, there are CGI parts to The Lion King, but they don’t really look CGI, and that’s a double accomplishment seeing how this was made in 1994 and all.

I’m certain you don’t need me to tell you whether or not to see The Lion King. You probably already have, in fact. In any case, I think it’s a good kid’s story and it’s funny, what else do you need? Oh, and Jeremy Irons as Scar, the villain, is amazing. Of course. He’s doing a threatening Shakespearian villain who has to sing at one point, who else BUT Jeremy Irons would you get?