The Lion King

The Lion King; animated musical drama, USA, 1994; D: Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff, S: Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, Moira Kelly, Whoopi Goldberg, Rowan Atkinson

Africa. The lion king Mufasa gets a cub called Simba. Simba's evil uncle Scar realizes that he will never become king while they are alive, so he releases a stampede of animals at them in a valley. Mufasa dies, while Simba, plagued by guilt of his father's death, leaves the valley. In an oasis, he finds Timon and Pumba, a meerkat and a warthog, and becomes their friend. As years pass by, Simba grows into a lion and returns back to his home, taking the place as the king and replacing Scar who gets killed by hyenas. Simba and Nala also get a cub.

"The Lion King" was a huge surprise: although an animated film, it won numerous awards and was a huge success—it sold over 89,000,000 tickets at the North American box office, making it the 17th highest grossing film of the 20th century—cementing its status as the face of Disney Renaissance. It is a matter of a gentle allegory about greed for power and coming-of-age, a fine film despite some accusations of plagiarism of "Kimba the White Lion", "Epic of Sundiata" and "Hamlet", an ode to ethics and higher values of life, yet it still suffers from some typical Disney flaws and cliches that are hiding behind melancholy: unfortunately, the humor is rarely as sophisticated as the dramatic parts. It is a really strange mish-mash when the opening act establishes such high wisdom as the circle of life, only to be followed by such moments of low, corny-silly humor (the choreography of the song "I Just Can't Wait to be King" includes an infamous pyramid of elephants, hippos, ant-eaters and giraffes; warthog Pumba sings how everyone avoided him because of his fart; Timon and Pumba divert attention by disguising themselves in Hawaiian female clothes; the three dumb hyenas are especially annoying). Also, the story is rather thin—maybe it is just too compact, but it seems rushed and underdeveloped at times. It has a right to do it that way, yet the dramatic storyline is too simplistic and often disrupted. For instance, in the finale, Simba returns from exile, the old relationships are re-newed, the villain confesses his crime, and the kingdom is restored—all this is done in only one (!) sequence, in under 10 minutes, whereas the closing credits already start rolling before some time for the viewers to absorb what just happened. Nala is also a very underdeveloped character. Besides absolutely enchanting animation and Disney charm, the main highlight is Elton John's song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight", which is simply perfect, and deserves the most credit for giving the movie pathos and the impression of a bigger dimension.

Grade:++