The Lion King (1994)

VERDICT:
9/10 Circles of Life

If Beauty and the Beast never happened, this might be the best Disney movie out there.

The Lion King is about a lion cub growing up in the wilderness of Africa under the watchful eye of his father who reigns in harmony over the animal kingdom. Everything’s going swell for the curious young cub and his parents, but then there’s his power-hungry uncle who decides to take matters into his own paws now that his right to the throne has been passed down to his nephew. Before long, the evil uncle decides to put his plans into action, tragedy strikes, and because sometimes uncles just suck, he convinces his innocent little nephew that it was all his fault. Guilt-ridden and devastated, the cub runs away in shame while his uncle has his way with the kingdom. Years go by, the cub grows up with his new jungle friends, and when his old life tracks him down, the young lion is forced to face his demons and return to the life he left behind.

The first time I saw this movie was in a theater with my mom in 1994. I liked it, she loved it, we bought the soundtrack, and it didn’t leave our car’s CD player for the next three months. The second time I saw this movie was last Friday with 3D glasses on and a 17-year age difference amidst a gaggle of kids who were quoting and singing the thing verbatim. I have absolutely no idea why it took me so long to revisit this movie, but it probably had to do with a teenage misconception that Disney movies are for kids. Although the upside of the bias is that I’d pretty much forgotten everything about this movie aside from a bunch of the songs that I couldn’t forget if I tried. It wasn’t quite the same experience as watching Beauty and the Beast for the first time in two decades, but it sure made me feel stupid for taking so long.

On that note, the great thing about movies like these is that they don’t cater to a demographic. If you don’t like musicals, just wait ’til “Hakuna Matata” starts up. If you equate animation with child’s play, then just wait ’til those tears start a-flowin’ when Scar gets down to business. Sure, I doubt there were many adults who nudged their kids and said, “Can we go see that?!” when they first saw the trailer, but this is right up there with Back to the Future in terms of movies that will please regardless of who’s watching. And it’s hard to point to one aspect of this movie and say, “That’s why adults like it,” because when every aspect is as phenomenal as the next, you might as well keep that finger up the whole damn time.

For the sake of not rambling, the artwork and visuals are stunning, each new song is as memorable as the next, and the voice acting is top notch (even if I’m still not sure about Matthew Broderick). And for an experience that was always envisioned in two dimensions, it does happen look great in 3D, even though it doesn’t really add much to what made it great to begin with. But the one thing that really blew my mind is the way it drops some serious knowledge in deceptively simple ways. The one scene in particular is when Rafiki smacks grown-up Simba with his stick because Simba’s too afraid to return home. When Simba rubs his head and asks, “What was that for?,” Rafiki responds, “It doesn’t matter, it’s in the past.” Simba says, “Yeah, but it still hurts,” to which Rafiki replies, “Oh yes, the past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it.” Rafiki then swings at him again with the stick, but Simba dodges it this time.

Lesson learned, Simba sprints back to the Pride Lands to start taking care of business.

I’m not usually one to quote scenes ad nauseum, but that was a freaking epiphany for me. 99 times out of 100 I could walk out of a movie involving humans and never learn anything as profound and true-to-life as that ten second exchange between a lion and a monkey. Yes, there are a lot of lessons to be learned from this movie, but it’s rare that one actually teaches you something and makes a light switch go on. That’s like Yoda from Empire stuff.

And come on, it’s a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. How legit is that for a “kid’s movie?”

So the story, the music, the knowledge, the characters – they’re all top-notch. But alas, the only reason this isn’t a perfect 10 is that it doesn’t tap into its full potential until Timon and Pumbaa show up 30 minutes in. It’s still great up until that point, but once the comic relief gets thrown into the mix, that’s when I realized how well this had aged. That’s when I started laughing out loud, tapping my foot to the songs, and savoring every minute thereafter with an ear-to-ear grin. Maybe it’s my affinity for Beauty and the Beast and the way I still laugh my ass of at the “Gaston” song that came in right early and left me with a cracked rib, but with a movie like this that has to win over the adults from the get-go to stand any chance of breaking the mold, you need to get the adults laughing just as much as the kids. The good thing is that it totally gets there, it all comes together, and it keeps hitting all the right notes once it does, but I wish it had gotten there earlier is all.

I’ve already said a lot, but The Lion King is one of those rare movies that really speaks for itself. Right from the unbelievable opening sequence at Pride Rock to its final moments of redemption as it comes full circle, I can’t imagine anyone walking out of this without being affected by everything it brings to the table. Folks, it’s just great to watch a movie and have your biggest complaint be that it should have kept going for another 90 minutes. If you never got the chance to enjoy it in theaters with hundreds of other kids in age and kids at heart, you don’t know what you’re missing.

And I can’t be the only one who loved the Sega Genesis game of this, right?