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The Lion King, Essay Example

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Introduction

Animated films, especially those produced by Disney such as  The Lion King,  function as cultural texts that can be analyzed through an anthropological prism. Wells (1998) contended that “The idea that animation is an innocent medium, ostensibly for children, and largely dismissed in film histories, has done much to inhibit the proper discussion of issues concerning representation” (Wells, 1998, p.187). Anthropologists can discern the contested values and beliefs that pervade American culture by elucidating the cultural politics ingrained in Disney’s animated films. Such a process of uncloaking necessitates exploring beyond the surface for any and all cultural messages that evince undergirding tensions and persistent contradictions and paradoxes. Doing so enables anthropologists to ascertain counter-hegemonic tropes and themes, particularly related to the intersectionality of class, gender, sexuality, race, ability and the nation (Harris, 1994).  The Lion King  was released in 1994 and experienced cataclysmic success, as it was quite popular among children, ascertaining alternatives to the hegemonic understanding of the film such as how the film represents ideas about masculinity and femininity as well as the various representation of race, especially how black people are limned and how such renderings evince racists stereotypes.  As a result, rather than proffering an authentic portrayal of African culture,  The Lion King  reflects various stereotypes attached to race and gender in western societies in order to pander to western audiences so that it could achieve blockbuster status even as an animated film in various markets.

The Lion King is an animated film produced by Disney as the thirty second feature film in the classic Disney films. It takes place in Africa in the kingdom of the lions, clearly conveying various biblical and literary influences. The film narrates the story of a young lion named Simba who is supposed to succeed Mufasa, his father, as the ruler over this kingdom. Unfortunately, greed overtakes Scar, Simba’s uncle, who murders Mufasa at the beginning of the film and therefore usurps the throne. Simba, still very young, is manipulated into believing that he is responsible for the murder of his father, which is why he flees into voluntary exile as a result of his angish, humiliation, shame, and deep-seated despair. Simba thus grows up alone and comes of age residing with two wastrels free of worries, which the motto “hakuna matata” translates to. Simba gains significant insight and perspective from Nala, who is his friend since childhood, and Rafiki, his shaman, before he returns to the kingdom of lions to challenge the authoritarian rule of Scar. After a violent scuffle between Simba and Scar and his hyenas, Simba assumes the throne of the kingdom, which had deteriorated in Simba’s absence. Pride Rock thus returns to its former greatness, enable the circle of life to persist.

The representation of gender: patriarchal mores

The Lion King  portrays a gender order that is steeped in patriarchal leadership and family, as the characters who ruled over Pride Rock are all males. The lionesses, conversely, are all forced to accept a more secondary and subjected role to their male counterparts, and hunting is the only way they could become somewhat stronger than the lions. Nonetheless, the lions demand that the lionesses go hunting, which thereby strips the lionesses of their autonomy. Following Mufasa’s death and Scar’s ascendance to the throne at his own behest, the lionesses had the opportunity to get rid of Scar if they decided to do so, yet their identity throughout their entire lives was demarked by dependency. as a result, the lionesses have no sense of independence or ability to resist the hegemonic patriarchal order firmly embedded in the portrayed culture. While this construction of femininity is aligned with traditional renderings of gender in western cinema, it is interesting to assess how masculinity is constructed within the portrayed culture. In  The Lion King,  masculinity is a socio-cultural construction in a world where manhood is something that is learned and performed rather than being biologically intrinsic. At the outset of the film, Mufasa, Simba’s father, is killed when Simba is still very young. As a result, Simba must grow up without a father or strong, male influence, away from his mother. As a cub who grows up alone, it appears that Simba is vulnerable to harm, yet he finds solace in his friendship with Timon and Pumba. When he reaches adulthood, Simba exactly resembles his father, who is viewed as a paragon of masculinity demarked by his power and muscularity. At the end of the animated film, Scar and Simba get into an explosive altercation, which conveys that masculinity in this portrayed culture is represented through animals anthropomorphically (Wells, 1998, p. 190). The lions assume the stance of bipedal humans, as they are upright on their two hind feet and attack each other in the same way that humans do when they are in a fist fight.

The representations of femininity and manhood in The Lion King is quite problematic due to the fact that it clearly privileges patriarchy, as only sons of kings were able to inherit the throne and reign over the kingdom. Feminist critics point to the fact that such a depiction eschews how lions actually behave in their natural habitat, as lionesses occupy the most important roles in how lions societies are actually structured. The film diminishes the potent role of lionesses by merely framing them as the love interests of the male characters, such as Nala and Simba. Other female characters seemingly cease to exist in the portrayed world. The title of the film itself intimates that male lions are supreme and that male authority is at the apex of the kingdom, and male lions as kings emerge as patriarchal tropes.

The representation of race: reinforcing western racial scripts

Another significant anthropological representation in  The Lion King  is that of race and how Disney pandered to western audiences by perpetuating various stereotypes that are intrinsically racist. Although the cultural fabric in the Western world during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries promote multiculturalism, films provide cultural texts in which criticism about the construction of race has germinated. Disney has taken concerted efforts to portray race in an authentic and healthy manner, yet  The Lion King  perpetuates racist stereotypes that have pervaded western discourses for many centuries. The presence of the hyenas becomes problematic as they viewed as members of indigenous or subaltern cultures who are bottom feeders and appear mangy bullies who torture Simba. These hyenas are portrayed by non-white actors, which intimates that Disney, while perhaps done intentionally, limn African Americans and other members of subaltern races not as humans but as animals. Indeed, the hyenas resemble a feckless street gang that reflects the nefarious intentions of minorities such as Hispanics and African Americans. Such notions pervade western discourses about members of subaltern races, especially those of African descent. In addition, the antagonist of the film and Simba’s sinister uncle, Scar, has dark-colored fur, unlike the other lions who have bright golden fur. This seemingly irrelevant observation nonetheless suggests that darker colored skin people–i.e. Africans and African Americans–are cast as evil and are the villains not only in fictive narratives but also in real life.

“The Circle of Life,” which is the opening song of this animated film and its lyrical content demonstrate Disney’s incapacity to depict Africa in an authentic manner and covers up the overt unwillingness to portray black people, especially Africans, as human beings (Byrne & McQuillan, 1999, p. 101). Indeed, this theme song commences with clearly African vocals, yet the instruments are not African in origin. Rather, they sound quite western and was devised by white musicians. The scenery in the opening scene does not look authentically African, as there are very few signifiers of African culture and geography, especially since English is the language used throughout the film rather than any African dialect. Despite portraying African culture, American actors and the English language are deployed in the film, which subtly accentuates the hegemony of American culture and society over Africa. Benshoff & Griffin (2009) argue that the baboon, Rafiki, shares a likeness with the African deity Eshu who is charged with the responsibility of safeguarding travelers and is blamed for the misfortunes or fortunes that creatures endure (Benshoff & Griffin, 2009). Although Rafiki is a lauded character in the animated film. he nonetheless comports himself in a half-crazed, reckless, foolish, and bizarre manner. These traits are often used to describe Africans and African Americans in western discourses. There is also overt disrespect and denigration of African cultures and tradition. When Zazu reminds Simba that his friend Nala would eventually become his wife, Simba retorts that once he assumes the kingship, that custom will be nullified. Although it is hard to discern whether such racial representations were intentional or not by Disney production members, as progenitors of cultural products, hyper vigilance must be adopted because audience members are only exposed to the final products rather than the intentions of the producers.

Various epochs are always stigmatized by particular discursive representations of gender and race, among other critical cultural constructions. The Lion King continues to be highly criticized for its representation of gender and race, as it reproduces western stereotypes and scripts through its portrayal of African culture and society. Patriarchy and a strenuous form of manhood is presented as ideal in his film, which eschews the actual behaviors of Africans and the prominent role of African lionesses in their social structure. More poignantly, the representation of race in the film is problematic for reproducing pejorative western stereotypes about Africans and African culture, especially in the portrayal of African characters as animalistic rather than human.

Benshoff, H. & Griffin, S. (2009).  America on film: Representing race, class, gender, and sexuality at the movies . Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Byrne, E. & McMullan, M. (1999). D econstructing Disney . London: Pluto Press.

Harris, J. E. (1994). Stereotyping for fun and profit.  Christopher Street.

Sweeney, G. (1995) ?What Do You Want Me to Do, Dress in Drag and Do the Hula??: Pumbaa and Timon’s alternative lifestyle dilemma in Disney?s  The Lion King . S eventh Annual  Society of Animation Conference , University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Wells, P. (1998).  Understanding animation . London: Routledge.

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Updated 10 June 2022

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Category Family ,  Literature

Topic Character ,  Children

The Lion King and the Heroic Journey

The plot and themes, saga of simba, the betrayal, life in exile, reunion with nala, simba's inner journey, the return and the final battle, the final showdown, reflection on the human journey.

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Fiction | Novel | Early Reader Picture Book | Published in 1994

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Production Analysis of The Lion King Essay

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Introduction

Progress of technologies seen in the film, emotional impact of the movie, works cited.

Animate film The Lion King from 2019 is a remake of the popular same-name hand-drawn cartoon. The action of both films takes place in the African savannah. They tell the story of a lion cub named Simba, who lost his father Mufasa because of his evil uncle Scar and was expelled from the pride. Years later, he returns to restore justice and regain the throne. In spite of the fact that the remake features spectacular photorealistic scenes made with the help of computer animation, it lacks emotional richness.

Researchers note that over the last two decades, digitalization and visual effects used while making animated films have developed greatly providing film-makers with a set of new opportunities (Bruckner et. al. 6). In this respect, The Lion King (2019) is a milestone from a technological perspective (Seitz). Jon Favreau, the director, who is good at creating the feeling of realness in animated films and his crew make the viewers feel like in the movie, not digitally created lions, monkeys, and other animals but real ones are shown (Seitz). According to Seitz, “this might be his best-directed film, if you judge purely in terms of how the scenes and sequences have been framed, lit, and cut together” (Seitz). So, the film-makers managed to create an animated film that looks like it has been shot with a camera.

The magnificence of the savannah is conveyed through employing long shots from the bird’s eye’s view and the high angle at the beginning of the film. Researchers note that shots of this kind are widely used by directors when they want to place a premium on the environment and show the position of the characters in it (Prince 9). Close-ups, on the contrary, emphasize the characters rather than the setting (Prince 9).

The Lion King 2019 features quite a lot of close-ups letting the “camera” (for it is a digitalized movie) follow the animals while they roam in water and rain or run through the meadows. The light reminds of the natural light of savannah which makes this motif different from the one of the original (Seitz). Plain, drab colors chosen are also true-to-life, therefore, the audience is, on the one hand, excited to see such a detailed representation of reality (Seitz). On the other hand, all these tools make people feel like they are watching rather a documentary film about nature than a fictional animated movie.

Although the technical components of The Lion King might deserve a high grade, it is possible to note that “the question becomes not if animators can create realistic animation, but if they should” (Greer 2). Actually, the faces of highly detailed digital characters look stiff and can hardly express the range of emotions required (Prince 13). That is why in the movie under analysis realistic animals are not capable of having proper facial expressions.

As a result, all the episodes that, according to the plot, should involve plenty of emotions, in fact, do not. Mufasa’s death, Scar’s monologues and other fragments of the remake which are intended to be highly affective fall flat on the spectators. Moreover, the vocal performances taken from the original movie do not correspond with the unemotional faces (Seitz). In the film, the sounds of the wild nature can be heard which aggravates the similarity of the film with a documentary.

To sum up, in The Lion King from 2019, greater emphasis is placed on the realistic representation of animals and nature not only in pictures but also in sounds. With the use of the latest visual effect and tools, the film-makers have achieved impressive realness. However, as for the emotional component, the movie might be not deep enough due to the technical inability to make digitalized characters convey proper emotions.

Bruckner, Franziska, ‎et al. Global Animation Theory: International Perspectives at Animafest Zagreb . Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.

Greer, Sarah. Simulating Life: Reimagining Realism in the Art of Animation . 2019. Web.

Prince, Stephen. Movies and Meaning: An Introduction to Film 6 th ed. Pearson Education, 2013.

Seitz, Matt. “ The Lion King Movie Review and Film Summary. ” rogerebert . 2019. Web.

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Lion King at 30: the global hit that Disney didn’t believe in

Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning, Sheffield Hallam University

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Thirty years ago audiences were introduced to the epic story of one little lion’s journey to find himself and his family. Little did Disney know what a roaring success the Lion King would be when it was released in 1994. In fact, they fully expected it wouldn’t be.

In the 80s and 90s, the movie studio experienced huge hits with the animated films The Little Mermaid (1989) and Beauty and the Beast (1991). This left many of the creatives at the Disney studio keen to continue making princess stories . Disney executive and Hollywood stalwart Jeffrey Katzenberg was banking on Pocahontas (1995) to be their next hit.

Therefore, the Lion King’s development was undertaken by artists and storytellers who were expected to produce something that would only ever be second best. It’s this underdog feeling that resulted in a hungry and competitive creative team producing this original hit story (it’s not a direct retelling of Hamlet , as some might think).

Taking heed of its immediate film predecessors, Disney ensured the movie put music at the forefront of its storytelling, teaming up film scorist Hans Zimmer (Rain Man, Gladiator) with lyricist Tim Rice (Aladdin, Jesus Christ Superstar) and acclaimed international pop star Elton John. This combination of talent resulted in a soundtrack that won the film two Oscars in 1995 ( best score and best original song for Can You Feel The Love Tonight? ). The songs and music have played a critical role in the cultural and commercial impact of The Lion King. While some elements might change, in nearly every adaptation the songs have remained.

The measure of success often used for movies is box office revenue, and the film’s 1994 total was US$763 million (£603 million) worldwide. Compare that with Disney’s previous great successes, The Little Mermaid US$84 million worldwide and Beauty and the Beast US$249 million . Pocahontas, the great hope, also failed to outperform The Lion King bringing in US$142 million .

Its success spawned direct-to-video sequels, including The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride. In 1997, the film was adapted into a musical theatre production , which, as well as touring globally, is a permanent fixture in the West End of London and on Broadway in New York. Then in 2019, Disney released a live-action remake . And now, as the original celebrates its 30th anniversary, the prequel, Mufasa: The Lion King , will hit cinemas.

Disney has cleverly followed the fans with these iterations. The 1997 stage adaptation tapped into the late 90s resurgence in live musical theatre . Since its debut the musical has received 70 major arts awards, including the 1999 Grammy for best musical show album and the 1999 Laurence Olivier awards for best choreography and best costume design.

Then 25 years after the original’s release, Disney decided to remake The Lion King (following other hits such as Beauty and the Beast remake in 2017) – but the social environment had changed. In 2019, the “live action” remake of the movie ensured that this story set in Africa was rightly cast with majority Black performers . The cast introduced new names, but also attracted huge stars, including Beyoncé Knowles-Carter who voiced the character Nala.

After The Lion King’s early success, Disney’s subsequent movies (including Pocahontas) did not live up to commercial expectations. From the mid-90s, Disney’s dominance at the animated movie box office was overtaken by Pixar and their hits, including Toy Story.

Disney experienced inconsistent success until 2010 when they embraced CGI 3D animation as the primary production technique for their movies. This new style was applied to their tried-and-tested format of retelling classic fairytales and placing music at the heart of the storytelling, leading to hits such as Tangled (2010) and Frozen (2013).

The Lion King’s enduring success should be a stand-out moment of clarity for Disney: with a focus on good quality animation and solid music storytelling, even the unexpected can become a roaring success.

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The Lion King at 30: The Disney Movie 'No One Was Supposed to Care About'

The tale of a team that defied the odds - and doubts from disney itself - and created an all-time classic..

If I ask you what comes to mind when I say “The Lion King,” you may think, as I do, that it is one of the greatest movies to ever roar onto the big screen. You may think of ’Circle of Life’ or ’Hakuna Matata,’ or maybe a tear falls when Mufasa’s death replays in your head. What you may not think of, however, is a movie that no one was supposed to care about.

In celebration of The Lion King’s 30th anniversary, we spoke to some of the members of the original team that defied the odds – and doubts from Disney itself – and collectively built one of the most beloved stories that remains as powerful and resonant today as it did when it debuted on June 24, 1994.

The Movie No One Was Supposed to Care About

Our story begins back in the late 1980s and early 1990s when The Lion King was in a much different and far less musical form and was known as King of the Jungle. It was also a very interesting time for Disney, as the company was evolving after the unprecedented success of developing and releasing such classics as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. Most Disney animators had previously been able to work on every project at the studio, but now there was too much going on that teams were now being split more than ever before.

“A lot of people were looking ahead to working on Pocahontas, but I knew that Pocahontas wasn't on my horizon and that King of the Jungle was,” supervising animator for Young Simba and soon-to-be Disney Legend Mark Henn told me. “I thought this looked very interesting, and I think a lot of us did. We thought it really could be the equivalent of Bambi for the previous generation. This could be our Bambi.”

As Henn mentioned, Pocahontas was the sure-fire hit that Disney was putting everything behind at the point, including the most experienced animators, and The Lion King was a bit of an unknown quantity. According to Alex Kupershmidt, the supervising animator for the Hyenas, “the way we talked about it, it was an A and B production type of situation. Pocahontas was the big, prestigious kind of piece, and The Lion King was on a B-rail, so to speak."

So, why was this the case? Well, as I hinted at before, the movie was in a much different place. In the early days of the film’s development, Oliver & Company director George Scribner was leading the charge and was pushing a more naturalistic, National Geographic-style approach. The story centered around a war between lions and a Scar-led group of baboons, Rafiki was a cheetah, and Timon and Pumbaa were Simba’s childhood friends.

The movie was much more serious and wasn’t instilling the most confidence at the studio. It was around this time that famed lyricist Tim Rice, who was also working on Aladdin with Alan Menken, was working with Disney to find a songwriter to team with him on The Lion King. Menken was busy, so Rice suggested ABBA. When that didn’t work out, he pitched Elton John even though he had little hope they’d be able to get him aboard. As we all know now, they did.

Scribner was not happy. They were trying to make a movie about Africa and he didn’t understand how Elton John could fit into that equation. That didn’t go over too well with Disney and Scribner was shortly thereafter taken off the project. In his stead, Roger Allers, who was already working alongside Scribner, became co-director with Rob Minkoff.

What's your favorite Disney animated movie from the 1990s?

The pair were working together for a couple of months and then former head of Walt Disney Studios Jeffrey Katzenberg called a breakfast meeting with the crew of The Lion King and Pocahontas. As recalled by Minkoff in The Lion King: A Memoir, Katzenberg’s words pretty clearly confirmed Pocahontas was still the favorite.

“Pocahontas is a home run,” Katzenberg said. “It’s West Side Story, it’s Romeo and Juliet with Indians, it’s a hit! The Lion King, on the other hand, is kind of an experiment and we don’t really know if anyone is really going to want to see it.”

“Jeffrey took us all to the garden terrace and told us if the movie did more than $50 million, he’d get down on his hands and knees. No one had any faith in that movie,“ executive producer Tom Schumacher added in The Lion King: A Memoir. Luckily for Disney, that wasn’t entirely true, as the team on The Lion King took that challenge as a badge of honor.

The Decisions That Led to a Prince Becoming King

So what was it that turned The Lion King from an “experiment” that nobody was supposed to care about to one of the defining films of our age? For one, it became a story infused with some of the greatest works of art from our history while forging its own unique identity. Many know that Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a huge inspiration for The Lion King, but there are so many more stories the team drew from

From Joseph growing up as royalty and then being banished before returning years later to Moses receiving wisdom from the burning bush, many parallels can be drawn between past literary works and The Lion King. However, at the core of these stories lies timeless themes we can all relate to in our lives, including betrayal, redemption, responsibility, fitting in, family, community, growing up, loss, love, and more.

Alongside that, the work of Elton John, Hans Zimmer, Lebo M, and all the other musicians who worked on The Lion King became another turning point for a lot of the crew in believing they were on to something special.

The 25 Best Disney Animated Movies

Elton John and Tim Rice created the song “Circle of Life,” but Hans Zimmer was the one who had the idea to infuse African vocals into it. He had a friend named Lebo M who he had worked with on the film The Power of One and knew he’d be perfect for the role, but Lebo M was now working as a valet driver and wasn’t easily reachable.

“I had this idea for this chant, but I could I not find Lebo,” Zimmer said in The Pride of The Lion King. “I mean he had gone completely AWOL. The directors were going to come at 3 or whatever in the afternoon and at 2:30 there was a knock on my door and it was Lebo. He comes in and I put some headphones on him and go, ‘Ok, start singing!’ So, what you hear from the opening is literally take one, the only take, I think, of this.”

With that, the defining song of The Lion King was created in roughly 15 to 30 minutes, according to Zimmer, and it would go on to spark the inspiration for the opening of the film. That opening, which is undoubtedly one of the most memorable intros in the world of entertainment, was perhaps the biggest turning point for the project as it led to a decision that began to change the minds of those inside and outside of Disney that this B-tier film may have the makings of greatness.

When we imagine trailers from the 90s, what comes to mind is a deep voice narrating over a ton of clips from random parts of the movie that revealed way too much. For The Lion King, however, Disney chose to buck that trend and just release the opening song. To say it was one of the most important decisions of the company's history is even an understatement.

"To me, the most defining moment of the project was when they released that trailer, as it was basically unprecedented," Henn said. "They just released that opening sequence, and even talking about it gives me goosebumps up and down my back. When we all watched that trailer on the big screen and the 'Boom!' happened, we all knew this was going to be very, very special."

“I remember the first time I heard ‘Circle of Life’ and it was just Elton and the piano, and you're like, ‘That's a nice song! That's okay.’ However, it didn't wow me or do anything crazy to my brain,” Rachel Bibb, in-betweener for the Hyenas told me. “But when we heard the Hans Zimmer and Lebo M orchestration of it, there was something so special about that. And when that first trailer came out where it was just that song and it ends with that boom, I remember we all got chills. ‘This is big. Now, we have to make a movie that lives up to that feeling.’”

The opening moments of The Lion King and that trailer may have set the tone for everything going forward, but there was also another moment that was equally as important to the film’s success, and that was Mufasa’s death.

“It was really brave,” Bibb said. “I still, to this day, am so amazed that we allowed Mufasa's death scene to play out as it did with Simba there, that moment where he's with a dead body on screen and it's so visceral. I remember the first time we even saw it on the storyboard, we were like, 'there's no way this will make it.' Then it would get animated and we said, ‘Oh, this will never come to clean up. It'll get cut.’ Then it went to clean up, then it went to color. We kept waiting for every single screening for that scene to get cut. Disney's very sensitive to the audience that is watching its movies, and we just kept expecting that to get cut, but we knew it was so important to it and so pivotal, that it was our Bambi moment, and it stayed. I will always applaud the bravery of that decision.”

Henn then revealed a heartbreaking detail about Mufasa's death, which he was able to animate and the one he says he is most proud of. As the proudest dad in the world and someone who lost his father five years ago, this one hit me right in the heart.

“I knew going into Mufasa’s death scene how important it was to not have it be insincere, sugary, or manipulative,” Henn said. “I wanted it to be very genuine. And the thing I kept thinking about was the fact that Simba had never dealt with death before and he didn't know what was going on. That's why he initially went through the thought process of, ‘Oh! Dad's just asleep, so I'm going to push on him, tackle him, pull on his ear, and do the things that I normally do.’ And this was all set up early in the film when he's doing the same thing waking him up for their outing, which was a much happier moment.”

The team’s goal was to not skirt the issue of death, as it is part of that great circle of life, but embrace it and show how we can move on and grow and find our place without leaving the memory of our loved ones behind. There was also the very Shakespearean choice to, as producer Don Hahn said in Pride of The Lion King behind-the-scenes documentary, “put the death of a parent side-by-side with a flatulent warthog.” It was the classic combination of offsetting tragedy with comedy, with the filmmakers making sure we would never fall too deeply into despair while watching.

And what was more hopeful than Mufasa’s story not ending with his death? His presence is felt throughout the rest of the film and he remains by Simba’s side as the young lion works to find his rightful place and become the king he’s meant to be.

Changing Animation, and Disney, Forever

Simba’s perseverance echoes the work of The Lion King team who, despite those who doubted the project, kept believing and guiding this movie forward to what would become one of the biggest box office openings and successful films of all time.

Per Box Office Mojo, The Lion King earned $968.7 million at the global box office on a budget of $45 million and remains the highest-grossing traditionally animated film of all time. Furthermore, it changed Disney and the perception of it for the wider audience. Sure, Disney had been a household name for many years and produced countless classics, but this was different.

“What I could feel was a sense that we weren’t just making kids movies, but these were the kinds of films that everybody in Hollywood made, frankly for most of the 20th century,” animator Marlon West told me. “They were intended for general audiences for everybody to go see. And I really felt that post-Lion King, that we wanted a date movie that people went to see over and over again, and the expectation was that we were making films that were running right alongside Star Wars and James Bond or whatever the biggest blockbusters of the time were.”

“The success of The Lion King was so overwhelming that it went well beyond just, ‘Oh, we made so much money.’ It was as if after The Lion King, the animation industry just exploded,” Kupershmidt said. “When we were doing it, we were pretty much the only kid in town. However, it also had a huge impact on the wider creative community, from Broadway to the music industry to the voice-acting industry, as it stopped being a niche thing for the rest of Hollywood.”

Speaking of Broadway, The Lion King’s stage show also took the theatrical world by storm and has grossed over $8 billion since it debuted in 1997. Besides that, there have been multiple spin-offs, a live-action/animated remake, and we’re gearing up to learn more of the story of The Lion King in the prequel film Mufasa on December 20, 2024.

Aaron Pierre, who is playing the younger Mufasa in the upcoming prequel and credits James Earl Jones as one of his greatest inspirations, says that even 30 years later, the legacy of The Lion King is as strong as ever.

“My goal and my objective from the very beginning of this process has been to honor and champion and celebrate the original story and the power and the greatness of those original portrayals,” Pierre told me. “The best way I can do that is to really deeply dive into what I imagine this young lion's adolescence would've been like, what this young lion's childhood would've been like, what his journey to that pinnacle of his life would've been like. Because I feel like to become that great, you have to overcome certain obstacles, you have to overcome hardships, and you have to have a lot of really challenging conversations with yourself regarding your belief system and your identity.”

Pierre’s words epitomize the journey of The Lion King. It was a project that existed in the shadow of Disney greats which was overlooked and undervalued, but one that found itself thanks to the hard and dedicated work of a ragtag group of talented individuals that wanted to tell a great story that mattered.

Much like Simba, that story was just waiting for the perfect moment to become king.

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.

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