Reviews for The Lion King


By JessKat

The Lion King is definitely one of Disney's best movies ever. It has memorable characters, incredible music score, great songs, a good story and fabulous animation.

The story is about a young lion cub named Simba who is to become the next Lion King after his father, Mufasa. But his evil uncle Scar is plotting with the hyenas against the royal family to take over the crown and to kill his brother and nephew. He succeeds in killing Mufasa and throws the blame on poor Simba who runs away filled with guilt. Scar lies to the other members of the pride that both Mufasa and his son were killed in a horrible accident. Meanwhile, Simba is nearly dead in a desert, when a meerkat named Timon and warthog called Pumbaa find and rescue him. Simba decides to follow their Hakuna Matata philosophy, which means "no worries". Later an old childhood friends of his, Nala, finds him and is delighted to see him alive. She convinces Simba to return to his homelands and to claim his rightful place as the king.

The movie can be described with one word: beautiful. The African landscapes are breath-taking, the sunrises and -sets, black velvet starry nights, lushful and green jungles and sunlighted fields, upon which no human foot has entered. The music score, conducted by Hans Zimmer, can go from heart-breakingly beautiful to intense and exciting to energetic and lively. With African choirs and Swahili and Zulu singers the music gives atmosphere. Elton John's songs each fit well in their own places, especially the hit song "Can you feel the love tonight" and the opening theme "Circle of Life". The characters are each great in their own way: anyone can relate with Simba who's insceure about himself, afraid of taking responsibility and wishes he could undo terrible things that already happened. Scar is one of the greatest Disney villains, he has style, he's sophisticated, sarcastic and just one bad kitty.;) Timon and Pumbaa are the comic relief of the story, but not ONLY that (this coming from a big Timon-fan ;)), they'd be ready to give their lives for their friend when he needs them. Nala is a very beautiful and strong lioness, going through all the tough times under Scar's reign. She's ready to stand by Simba and to support him to the end. And those are just some of the characters of the movie!

I recommend this movie to everyone. It has a message of accepting your responsibility and to learn that there's hope for everyone, and that our loved ones are never gone if we treasure their memories inside us. This movie is top notch of animation.



By Mario Spoilers

Am I the only one who seems to think that The Lion King just isn't "all that" anymore? Maybe the appeal has worn off on me over time. However, I still think The Lion King is one of Disney's more "above average" efforts. It suffers from having rather bland, almost recycled characters, very poor songs, and a noticably weak and shallow script. The usual Disney formula flaws are here, such as the rather annoying habit of interrupting bits of drama with wisecrack. In The Lion King, though, these flaws are amplified to a fault. The humor also doesn't age as well as in many other Disney movies, considering that in The Lion King, much of it isn't character driven. Don't get me wrong, though. I still think The Lion King is one of Disney's worthy efforts and is way better than average fair like Pocahontas, The Tigger Movie, and Aristocats. Despite its flaws, I could never give The Lion King a bad rating. It also helps that it has a cool soundtrack, great animation, a few memorable moments, and Mufasa, the only character with any substance in the movie. I rate The Lion King a respectable 4 out of 5.


By Jeff Spoilers

The Lion King was, at one time my most favorite Disney movie, and it's definitely not hard to see why. The film is full of very memorable characters, nice music, and beautiful animation. The characters themselves are developed well for the most part. I found the sidekicks rather cliche; however, basically because many of Disney's sidekicks are just over the top and they almost always stop the flow of the plot to sing a song or make weird faces and gestures to try and be funny. While the sidekicks are funny at first in The Lion King, their humor factor diminishes rapidly because their jokes can get stale and seem out of place. But for the most part, The Lion King is still one of Disney's better films out there.

The Lion King mainly centers on the life of young Simba and how he desparately wants to become king of Pride Rock. Of course, he has to go into a 3 minute musical number with his best childhood friend, Nala, to show his excitement by singing "Can't Wait to be King." This stops the general flow of the plot and seems more like filler time than anything, but it's still kind of a funny song. Simba adores his father, Mufasa, and was absolutely devastated when his father was killed by his evil Uncle Scar. But Simba didn't know his uncle was evil at the time. Simba was sent into exile and when he had just about lost hope of surviving in the desert, he was rescued by Timon (a meerkat) and Pumbaa (a dark warthog). They show him "Hakuna Matata," or a life without any cares or responsibilities and over time, he grows up to be a large lion like his dad.

When Simba reunites with his childhood friend, Nala, their friendship turns into an enduring love for one another, and soon after, Simba decides to return to Pride Rock and take back the land which rightfully belongs to him. After all, Simba is the original heir to Mufasa's kingdom and Scar wrongfully assumed the throne. Like most of Disney movie fates, Simba defeats Scar and becomes the rightful king of Pride Rock and the destruction done to the land by Scar and his hyena henchmen is reversed.

The Lion King definitely has more of a valuable essence and meaning to it than The Little Mermaid. Not only that, but the story is very uplifting. The instrumentals to the film are very effective and beautiful and there is a large amount of character development. Simba makes two major character changes in his life. One was from a fiesty but innocent cub to an adult with no cares, and finally to a lion who has accepted his responsibilities and who has faced and conquered the past which has haunted him for so long. With the exception of the sidekicks, The Lion King is definitely an above average film that will always be in high regard in my opinion. Although it's not my number one favorite film, it's up there in the top ten somewhere.


By Anna-mator Spoilers

Hamlet done by animals. Not my favorite movie for some reason, but great art direction. The CGI is done and matched with the traditional animation. The story is well thought-out and the final scenes are breath-taking.


By Ronin the Otter Spoilers

As I must agree with most of the good things said about this movie.. there's one rather big problem with it which I cannot ignore: I'm sorry to burst your bubble everyone, but this story was *stolen*. Disney took the story from a Japanese animated mini-series called "Kimba the White Lion" (notice that even the name is similar?) It's about a small baby lion whose father is killed by an evil relative. Kimba grows up and basically takes revenge over the course of the series. Becoming the new king of the lions in his father's place. The company that made "Kimba" has since gone kaput, so Disney had no one to try and stop them from using the story. I must digress however, and say that Disney did do an excellent job with this film, even though they plagiarized it. My favorite characters were Timon and Pumbaa... Nathan Lane was perfect: "What do you want me to do? Dress in drag and do the Hula??" For the most part, the characters were modestly interesting, with some truly excellent voice acting making up for the writing's shortcomings. (Cheech Marin, James Earl Jones, Whoopi Goldberg, etc etc etc) This film is one that I remember enjoying very much, but that good taste is soured by the fact that it was a case of a stolen idea.

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