The Lion King

The idea for The Lion King is widely disputed.[11][12][13] According to Charlie Fink (then-Walt Disney Feature Animation's vice president for creative affairs), he had approached Jeffrey Katzenberg, Roy E. Disney, and Peter Schneider with a Bambi in Africa idea with lions. Katzenberg balked at the idea at first, but nevertheless encouraged Fink and his writers to develop a mythos to explain how lions serviced other animals by eating them.[14] Another anecdote states the idea was conceived during a conversation between Jeffrey Katzenberg, Roy E. Disney, and Peter Schneider on a plane to Europe during a promotional tour.[lower-alpha 11] During the conversation, the topic of a story set in Africa came up, and Katzenberg immediately jumped at the idea.[16] Katzenberg decided to add elements involving coming of age and death, and ideas from personal life experiences, such as some of his trials in his career in politics, saying about the film, "It is a little bit about myself."[17]

On October 11, 1988, Thomas Disch (the author of The Brave Little Toaster) had met with Fink and Roy E. Disney to discuss the idea, and within the next month, he had written a nine-paged treatment entitled King of the Kalahari.[18][19] Throughout 1989, several Disney staff writers, including Jenny Tripp, Tim Disney, Valerie West and Miguel Tejada-Flores, had written treatments for the project. Tripp's treatment, dated on March 2, 1989, introduced the name "Simba" for the main character, who gets separated from his pride and is adopted by Kwashi, a baboon, and Mabu, a mongoose. He is later raised in a community of baboons. Simba battles an evil jackal named Ndogo, and reunites with his pride.[20] Later that same year, Fink recruited his friend J. T. Allen, a writer, to develop new story treatments. Fink and Allen had earlier made several trips to a Los Angeles zoo to observe the animal behavior that was to be featured in the script. Allen completed his script, which was titled The Lion King, on January 19, 1990. However, Fink, Katzenberg, and Roy E. Disney felt Allen's script could benefit from a more experienced screenwriter, and turned to Ronald Bass, who had recently won an Academy Award for his screenplay for Rain Man (1988). At the time, Bass was preoccupied to rewrite the script himself, but agreed to supervise the revisions. The new script, credited to both Allen and Bass, was retitled King of the Beasts and completed on May 23, 1990.[20]

Sometime later, Linda Woolverton, who was also writing Beauty and the Beast (1991), spent a year writing several drafts of the script, which was titled King of the Beasts and then King of the Jungle.[21] The original version of the film was very different from the final film. The plot was centered in a battle being between lions and baboons with Scar being the leader of the baboons, Rafiki being a cheetah,[17] and Timon and Pumbaa being Simba's childhood friends.[22] Simba would also not leave the kingdom but become a "lazy, slovenly, horrible character" due to manipulations from Scar, so Simba could be overthrown after coming of age.[23] By 1990, producer Thomas Schumacher, who had just completed The Rescuers Down Under (1990), decided to attach himself to the project "because lions are cool".[21] Schumacher likened the script for King of the Jungle to "an animated National Geographic special".[24]

George Scribner, who had directed Oliver & Company (1988), was the initial director of the film,[25] being later joined by Roger Allers, who was the lead story man on Beauty and the Beast (1991).[16][11] Allers worked with Scribner and Woolverton on the project, but temporarily left the project to help rewrite Aladdin (1992). Eight months later, Allers returned to the project,[26][27] and brought with him Brenda Chapman and Chris Sanders.[28] In October 1991, several of the lead crew members, including Allers, Scribner, Chapman, Sanders, and Lisa Keene took a trip to Hell's Gate National Park in Kenya, in order to study and gain an appreciation of the environment for the film.[29][30] After six months of story development work, Scribner decided to leave the project, as he clashed with Allers and the producers on their decision to turn the film into a musical, as Scribner's intention was of making a documentary-like film more focused on natural aspects.[16][25] By April 1992, Rob Minkoff had replaced Scribner, becoming the new co-director.[9][28]

Don Hahn joined the production as the film's producer because Schumacher was promoted to Vice President of Development for Walt Disney Feature Animation.[31][24] Hahn found the script unfocused and lacking a clear theme, and after establishing the main theme as "leaving childhood and facing up to the realities of the world", asked for a final retool. Allers, Minkoff, Chapman, and Hahn then rewrote the story across two weeks of meetings with directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, who had finished directing Beauty and the Beast (1991).[32] One of the definite ideas that stemmed from the meetings was to have Mufasa return as a ghost. Allers also changed from the character Rafiki from a more serious court advisor into a wacky shaman.[33] The title was also changed from King of the Jungle to The Lion King, as the setting was not the jungle but the savannah.[16] It was also decided to make Scar and Mufasa brothers since the writers felt that it was much more interesting if the threat came from someone within the family.[34] Allers and Minkoff pitched the revised story to Katzenberg and Michael Eisner, to which Eisner felt the story "could be more Shakespearean"; he suggested modeling the story on King Lear. Maureen Donley, an associate producer, countered, stating the story had resembled Hamlet.[35] Continuing on the idea, Allers recalled Katzenberg asking them to "put in as much Hamlet as you can", to which they did. However, they felt it was too forced, and looked to other heroic archetypes such as the stories of Joseph and Moses from the Bible.[36]

Not counting most of the segments from Fantasia (1940), Saludos Amigos (1942), The Three Caballeros (1944), Make Mine Music (1946) and Melody Time (1948); and The Rescuers Down Under (1990) (a sequel to The Rescuers (1977)), The Lion King was the first Disney animated feature to be an original story, rather than be based on pre-existing works and characters. The filmmakers have said that the story of The Lion King was inspired by the lives of Joseph and Moses, from the Bible, and William Shakespeare's Hamlet,[34] though the story has also drawn some comparisons to Shakespeare's lesser known plays Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2.[37]

By this point, Woolverton had left the production to work on the Broadway musical adaptation of Beauty and the Beast.[9] To replace her, Allers and Minkoff met with numerous screenwriters, including Billy Bob Thornton and Joss Whedon, to discuss writing the new screenplay.[35] During the summer of 1992, Irene Mecchi was hired as the new screenwriter, and months later, she was joined by Jonathan Roberts. Mecchi and Roberts took charge of the revision process, fixing unresolved emotional issues in the script and adding comedic situations for Pumbaa, Timon, and the hyenas.[38][9] Lyricist Tim Rice worked closely with the writing team, flying to California at least once a month because his songs needed to work in the narrative continuity. Rice's lyrics—which were reworked up to the production's end—were pinned to the storyboards during development.[39] Rewrites were frequent, with animator Andreas Deja saying that completed scenes would be delivered, only for the response to be that parts needed to be reanimated because of dialog changes.[40]

The voice actors were chosen for how they fit and could add to the characters—for instance, James Earl Jones was cast because the directors found his voice "powerful" and similar to a lion's roar.[41] Jones commented that during the years of production, Mufasa "became more and more of a dopey dad instead of [a] grand king".[42]

Nathan Lane auditioned for Zazu, and Ernie Sabella for one of the hyenas. Upon meeting each other at the recording studio, the actors, who at the time both co-starred in Guys and Dolls, were asked to record together as hyenas. The directors laughed at their performance and decided to cast them as Timon and Pumbaa.[41][43] For the hyenas, the original intention was to reunite Cheech & Chong, but while Cheech Marin accepted to play Banzai, Tommy Chong was unavailable. His role was changed into a female hyena, Shenzi, voiced by Whoopi Goldberg, who insisted on being in the movie.[22] The English double act Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer auditioned for roles as a pair of chipmunks; according to Mortimer, the producers were enthusiastic, but he and Reeves were uncomfortable with their corporate attitude and abandoned the film.[44] In a 2018 episode of the Peopletv series Couch Surfing, Rowan Atkinson revealed that he was initially uninterested in the studio's offer to voice Zazu, stating that "voice work is something I generally had never done and never liked [...] I'm a visual artist, if I'm anything, and it seemed to be a pointless thing to do". His fellow Mr. Bean writer and actor Robin Driscoll eventually convinced him to accept the role, and Atkinson expressed that The Lion King became "a really, very special film".[45]

Matthew Broderick was cast as adult Simba early during production. Over the three years, he only recorded with another actor once, and only discovered that Moira Kelly voiced Nala at the premiere.[46] English actors Tim Curry, Malcolm McDowell, Alan Rickman, Patrick Stewart, and Ian McKellen were considered for the role of Scar;[47] the role went to English actor Jeremy Irons.[48] Irons initially refused the role, as he was uncomfortable going to a comedic role after the dramatic performance as Claus von Bülow in Reversal of Fortune (1990). His performance inspired the writers to incorporate more of his acting as von Bülow—adding one of that character's lines, "You have no idea"—and inspired animator Andreas Deja to watch Reversal of Fortune and Damage (1992) to incorporate Irons's facial traits and tics.[42][49]

The development of The Lion King coincided with that of Pocahontas (1995), which most of the animators of Walt Disney Feature Animation decided to work on instead, believing it would be the more prestigious and successful of the two.[34] The story artists also did not have much faith in the project, with Chapman declaring she was reluctant to accept the job "because the story wasn't very good",[50] and Burny Mattinson telling his colleague Joe Ranft: "I don't know who is going to want to watch that one."[51] Most of the leading animators either were doing their first major work supervising a character, or had much interest in animating an animal.[17] Thirteen of these supervising animators, both in California and in Florida, were responsible for establishing the personalities and setting the tone for the film's main characters. The animation leads for the main characters included Mark Henn on young Simba, Ruben A. Aquino on adult Simba, Andreas Deja on Scar, Aaron Blaise on young Nala, Anthony DeRosa on adult Nala, and Tony Fucile on Mufasa.[9] Nearly 20 minutes of the film, including the "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" sequence,[22] was animated at the Disney-MGM Studios facility. More than 600 artists, animators, and technicians contributed to The Lion King.[25] Weeks before the film's release, the 1994 Northridge earthquake shut down the studio and required the animators to finish via remote work.[52]

The character animators studied real-life animals for reference, as was done for Bambi (1942). Jim Fowler, renowned wildlife expert, visited the studios on several occasions with an assortment of lions and other savannah inhabitants to discuss behavior and help the animators give their drawings authenticity.[53] The animators also studied animal movements at the Miami MetroZoo under guidance from wildlife expert Ron Magill.[54] The Pride Lands are modeled on the Kenyan national park visited by the crew. Varied focal lengths and lenses were employed to differ from the habitual portrayal of Africa in documentaries—which employ telephoto lenses to shoot the wildlife from a distance. The epic feel drew inspiration from concept studies by artist Hans Bacher—who, following Scribner's request for realism, tried to depict effects such as lens flare—and the works of painters Charles Marion Russell, Frederic Remington, and Maxfield Parrish.[55][56] Art director Andy Gaskill and the filmmakers sought to give the film a sense of grand sweep and epic scale similar to David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Gaskill explained: "We wanted audiences to sense the vastness of the savannah and to feel the dust and the breeze swaying through the grass. In other words, to get a real sense of nature and to feel as if they were there. It's very difficult to capture something as subtle as a sunrise or rain falling on a pond, but those are the kinds of images that we tried to get." The filmmakers also watched the films of John Ford and other filmmakers, which also influenced the design of the film.[9]

Because the characters were not anthropomorphized, all the animators had to learn to draw four-legged animals, and the story and character development was done through the use of longer shots following the characters.[22]

Computers helped the filmmakers present their vision in new ways. For the "wildebeest stampede" sequence, several distinct wildebeest characters were created in a 3D computer program, multiplied into hundreds, cel shaded to look like drawn animation, and given randomized paths down a mountainside to simulate the real, unpredictable movement of a herd.[57] Five specially trained animators and technicians spent more than two years creating the two-and-a-half-minute stampede.[9] The Computer Animation Production System (CAPS) helped simulate camera movements such as tracking shots, and was employed in coloring, lighting, and particle effects.[22]

The Lion King had a limited release in the United States on June 15, 1994, playing in only two theaters, El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles and Radio City Music Hall in New York City,[75] and featuring live shows with ticket prices up to $30.[76]

The wide release followed on June 24, 1994, in 2,550 screens. The digital surround sound of the film led many of those theaters to implement Dolby Laboratories' newest sound systems.[77]

When the movie was first released in 1994, it numbered 28 versions overall in as many languages and dialects worldwide, including a special Zulu version made specifically for the movie in South Africa, where a Disney USA team went to find the Zulu voice-actors. This is not just the only Zulu dubbing ever made by Disney, but also the only one made in any African language, other than Arabic.[78][79] The Lion King marks also the first time a special dubbing is released in honor of a Disney movie background, but not the last: in 2016 the film Moana (2016) received a special Tahitian language version,[80] followed in 2017 by a Māori version,[81] in 2018 by a Hawaiian version;[82] and in 2019 the film Frozen II (2019) was dubbed into Northern Sami, even though Frozen (2013) was not.[83][84] By 2022, 45 language adaptations of the film had been produced.[85] The special Zulu dubbing was made available on the streaming platform Disney+ in October 2022, together with the Māori dubbing of Moana, and the special Arapaho dubbing of Bambi.[86]

Following the success of the Māori dub of Moana, a Māori version of The Lion King was announced in 2021, and released theatrically on 23 June 2022 to align with the Māori holiday of Matariki.[87][88] Much of the production team, including producer Chelsea Winstanley, director Tweedie Waititi, and co-musical director Rob Ruha had previously worked on the Māori language version of Moana.[89] The Lion King Reo Māori is the first time a language adaptation has translated Elton John's "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" for the ending credits.[85]

The Lion King was first released on VHS and LaserDisc in the United States on March 3, 1995, under Disney's "Masterpiece Collection" video series. The VHS edition of this release contained a special preview for Walt Disney Pictures' then-upcoming animated film Pocahontas (1995), in which the title character (voiced by Judy Kuhn) sings the musical number "Colors of the Wind".[90] In addition, Deluxe Editions of both formats were released. The VHS Deluxe Edition included the film, an exclusive lithograph of Rafiki and Simba (in some editions), a commemorative "Circle of Life" epigraph, six concept art lithographs, another tape with the half-hour TV special The Making of The Lion King, and a certificate of authenticity. The CAV laserdisc Deluxe Edition also contained the film, six concept art lithographs and The Making of The Lion King, and added storyboards, character design artwork, concept art, rough animation, and a directors' commentary that the VHS edition did not have, on a total of four double sided discs. The VHS tape quickly became the best-selling videotape of all time: 4.5 million tapes were sold on the first day[91] and ultimately sales totaled more than 30 million[92] before these home video versions went into moratorium in 1997.[93] The VHS releases have sold a total of 32 million units in North America,[94] and grossed $520 million in sales revenue.[95] In addition, 23 million units were shipped overseas to international markets.[96] In the Philippines, the film was released on VHS in March 1995 by Magnavision.[97] The film sold more than 55 million video copies worldwide by August 1997, making it the best-selling home video title of all time.[98]

On October 7, 2003, the film was re-released on VHS and released on DVD for the first time, titled The Lion King: Platinum Edition, as part of Disney's Platinum Edition line of DVDs. The DVD release featured two versions of the film on the first disc, a remastered version created for the 2002 IMAX release and an edited version of the IMAX release purporting to be the original 1994 theatrical version.[99] A second disc, with bonus features, was also included in the DVD release. The film's soundtrack was provided both in its original Dolby 5.1 track and in a new Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix, making this one of the first Disney DVDs so equipped.[100] This THX certified two-disc DVD release also contains several games, Timon and Pumbaa's Virtual Safari, deleted scenes, music videos and other bonus features.[101] By means of seamless branching, the film could be viewed either with or without a newly created scene – a short conversation in the film replaced with a complete song ("The Morning Report"). A Special Collector's Gift Set was also released, containing the DVD set, five exclusive lithographed character portraits (new sketches created and signed by the original character animators), and an introductory book entitled The Journey.[93] The Platinum Edition of The Lion King featured changes made to the film during its IMAX re-release, including re-drawn crocodiles in the "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" sequence as well as other alterations.[99] More than two million copies of the Platinum Edition DVD and VHS units were sold on the first day of release.[91] A DVD box set of the three The Lion King films (in two-disc Special Edition formats) was released on December 6, 2004. In January 2005, the film, along with the sequels, went back into moratorium.[102] The DVD releases have sold a total of 11.9 million units and grossed $220 million.[103]

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the Diamond Edition of The Lion King on October 4, 2011.[104] This marks the first time that the film has been released in high-definition Blu-ray and on Blu-ray 3D.[104][105] The initial release was produced in three different packages: a two-disc version with Blu-ray and DVD; a four-disc version with Blu-ray, DVD, Blu-ray 3D, and digital copy; and an eight-disc box set that also includes the sequels The Lion King II: Simba's Pride and The Lion King 1½.[104][105] A standalone single-disc DVD release also followed on November 15, 2011.[104] The Diamond Edition topped the Blu-ray charts with over 1.5 million copies sold.[106] The film sold 3.83 million Blu-ray units in total, leading to a $101.14 million income.[107]

The Lion King was once again released to home media as part of the Walt Disney Signature Collection first released on Digital HD on August 15, 2017, and on Blu-ray and DVD on August 29, 2017.[108]

The Lion King was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray and 4K digital download on December 3, 2018.[109]

The Lion King grossed $422.8 million in North America and $545.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $968.5 million.[2] After its initial run, having earned $763.4 million,[110] it ranked as the highest-grossing animated film of all time, the highest-grossing film of Walt Disney Animation Studios,[111] and the highest-grossing film of 1994.[112] It was the second-highest-grossing film of all time, behind Jurassic Park (1993).[5] The film remained as the second-highest-grossing film until the spot was taken by Independence Day (1996) just two years later.[113]

It held the record for the highest-grossing animated feature film (in North America, outside North America, and worldwide) until it was surpassed by the computer-animated Finding Nemo (2003). With the earnings of the 3D run, The Lion King surpassed all the aforementioned films but Toy Story 3 (2010) to rank as the second-highest-grossing animated film worldwide—later dropping to ninth, and then tenth, surpassed by its photorealistic CGI remake counterpart—and it remains the highest-grossing hand-drawn animated film.[114] It is also the biggest animated movie of the last 50 years in terms of estimated attendance.[115] The Lion King was also the highest-grossing G-rated film in the United States from 1994 to 2003 and again from 2011 to 2019 until its total was surpassed by the computer-animated Toy Story 4 (2019) (unadjusted for inflation).[116]

During the first two days of limited release in two theaters, The Lion King grossed $622,277, and for the weekend it earned nearly $1.6 million, placing the film in tenth place at the box office.[117] The average of $793,377 per theater stands as the largest ever achieved during a weekend,[118] and it was the highest-grossing opening weekend on under 50 screens, beating the record set by Star Wars (1977) from 43 screens.[119] The film grossed nearly $3.8 million from the two theaters in just 10 days.[120]

When it opened wide, The Lion King grossed $40.9 million—which at the time was the fourth biggest opening weekend ever and the highest sum for a Disney film—to top the weekend box office. It displaced the previous box office champion Wolf.[25][121] At that time, it easily topped the previous biggest 1994 opening, which was the $37.2 million earned by The Flintstones during the four-day Memorial Day weekend. The film also produced the third-highest opening weekend gross of any film, trailing only behind Jurassic Park (1993) and Batman Returns (1992).[122] For five years, the film held the record for having the highest opening weekend for an animated film until it was surpassed by Toy Story 2 (1999).[123] It remained the number-one box office film for two weeks until it was displaced by Forrest Gump, followed by True Lies the week after.[124]

In September 1994, Disney pulled the film from movie theaters and announced it would be re-released during Thanksgiving in order to take advantage of the holiday season.[125] At the time, the film had earned $267 million in the United States.[2][126] Following its re-release, by March 1995, it had grossed $312.9 million,[2] being the highest-grossing 1994 film in the United States and Canada, but was soon surpassed by Forrest Gump.[127] Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 74 million tickets in the US in its initial theatrical run,[128] equivalent to $812.1 million adjusted for inflation in 2018.[129]

Internationally, the film grossed $455.8 million during its initial run, for a worldwide total of $768.6 million.[110] It had record openings in Sweden and Denmark.[130]

The film was re-issued on December 25, 2002, for IMAX and large-format theaters. Don Hahn explained that eight years after The Lion King had its original release, "there was a whole new generation of kids who haven't really seen it, particularly on the big screen." Given the film had already been digitally archived during production, the restoration process was easier, while also providing many scenes with enhancements that covered up original deficiencies.[69][131] An enhanced sound mix was also provided to, as Hahn explained, "make the audience feel like they're in the middle of the movie."[69] On its first weekend, The Lion King made $2.7 million from 66 locations, a $27,664 per theater average. This run ended with $15.7 million on May 30, 2003.[132]

In 2011, The Lion King was converted to 3D for a two-week limited theatrical re-issue and subsequent 3D Blu-ray release.[104][133] The film opened at the number one spot on Friday, September 16, 2011, with $8.9 million[134] and finished the weekend with $30.2 million, ranking number one at the box office. This made The Lion King the first re-issue release to earn the number-one slot at the American weekend box office since the re-issue of Return of the Jedi (1983) in March 1997.[114] The film also achieved the fourth-highest September opening weekend of all time.[135] It held off very well on its second weekend, again earning first place at the box office with a 27 percent decline to $21.9 million.[136] Most box-office observers had expected the film to fall about 50 percent in its second weekend and were also expecting Moneyball (2011) to be at first place.[137]

After its initial box-office success, many theaters decided to continue to show the film for more than two weeks, even though its 3D Blu-ray release was scheduled for two-and-a-half weeks after its theatrical release.[136] In North America, the 3D re-release ended its run in theaters on January 12, 2012, with a gross of $94.2 million. Outside North America, it earned $83.4 million.[138] The successful 3D re-release of The Lion King made Disney and Pixar plan 3D theatrical re-releases of Beauty and the Beast, Finding Nemo (2003), Monsters, Inc. (2001), and The Little Mermaid (1989) during 2012 and 2013.[139] However, none of the re-releases of the first three films achieved the enormous success of The Lion King 3D and the theatrical re-release of The Little Mermaid was ultimately cancelled.[140] In 2012, Ray Subers of Box Office Mojo wrote that the reason why the 3D version of The Lion King succeeded was because, "the notion of a 3D re-release was still fresh and exciting, and The Lion King (3D) felt timely given the movie's imminent Blu-ray release. Audiences have been hit with three 3D re-releases in the year since, meaning the novelty value has definitely worn off."[141]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 93% with an average score of 8.4/10, based on 130 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Emotionally stirring, richly drawn, and beautifully animated, The Lion King stands tall within Disney's pantheon of classic family films."[142] It also ranked 56th on their "Top 100 Animation Movies".[143] At Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the film received a score of 88 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[144] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare "A+" grade on an A+ to F scale.[145]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of a possible four and called it "a superbly drawn animated feature". He further wrote in his print review, "The saga of Simba, which in its deeply buried origins owes something to Greek tragedy and certainly to Hamlet, is a learning experience as well as an entertainment."[4] On the television program Siskel & Ebert, the film was praised but received a mixed reaction when compared to the previous Disney films. Ebert and his partner Gene Siskel both gave the film a "Thumbs Up", but Siskel said that it was not as good as Beauty and the Beast and that it was "a good film, not a great one".[146] Hal Hinson of The Washington Post called it "an impressive, almost daunting achievement" and felt that the film was "spectacular in a manner that has nearly become commonplace with Disney's feature-length animations", but was less enthusiastic toward the end of his review saying, "Shakespearean in tone, epic in scope, it seems more appropriate for grown-ups than for kids. If truth be told, even for adults it is downright strange."[147]

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly praised the film, writing that it "has the resonance to stand not just as a terrific cartoon but as an emotionally pungent movie".[148] Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers praised the film and felt that it was "a hugely entertaining blend of music, fun, and eye-popping thrills, though it doesn't lack for heart".[149] James Berardinelli from Reelviews.net praised the film saying, "With each new animated release, Disney seems to be expanding its already-broad horizons a little more. The Lion King is the most mature (in more than one sense) of these films, and there clearly has been a conscious effort to please adults as much as children. Happily, for those of us who generally stay far away from 'cartoons', they have succeeded."[150]

Some reviewers still had problems with the film's narrative. The staff of TV Guide wrote that while The Lion King was technically proficient and entertaining, it "offers a less memorable song score than did the previous hits, and a hasty, unsatisfying dramatic resolution."[151] The New Yorker's Terrence Rafferty considered that despite the good animation, the story felt like "manipulat[ing] our responses at will", as "Between traumas, the movie serves up soothingly banal musical numbers and silly, rambunctious comedy".[152]

In 2008, The Lion King was ranked as the 319th greatest film ever made by Empire magazine,[173] and in June 2011, TIME named it one of "The 25 All-TIME Best Animated Films".[174] In June 2008, the American Film Institute listed The Lion King as the fourth best film in the animation genre in its AFI's 10 Top 10 list,[175] having previously put "Hakuna Matata" as 99th on its AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs ranking.[176]

In 2016, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Screenshot from an early presentation reel of The Lion King that shows a white lion cub and a butterfly.

Certain elements of the film were thought to bear a resemblance to Osamu Tezuka's 1960s Japanese anime television series, Jungle Emperor (known as Kimba the White Lion in the United States), with some similarities between a number of characters and various individual scenes. The 1994 release of The Lion King drew a protest in Japan, where Kimba and its creator Osamu Tezuka are cultural icons. 488 Japanese cartoonists and animators, led by manga author Machiko Satonaka, signed a petition accusing Disney of plagiarism and demanding that they give due credit to Tezuka.[200][201] Matthew Broderick believed initially that he was, in fact, working on an American version of Kimba since he was familiar with the Japanese original.[202]

The Lion King director Roger Allers claimed complete unfamiliarity with the series until the movie was nearly completed, and did not remember it being ever mentioned during development.[26] Madhavi Sunder has suggested that Allers might have seen the 1989 remake of Kimba on prime time television while living in Tokyo. However, while Allers did indeed move to Tokyo in 1983 in order to work on Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989), he moved back to the United States in 1985, four years before the 1989 remake of Kimba began airing.[9][203] Co-director Rob Minkoff also stated that he was unfamiliar with it.[204][205] Minkoff also observed that whenever a story is based in Africa, it is "not unusual to have characters like a baboon, a bird, or hyenas."[204]

Takayuki Matsutani, the president of Tezuka Productions which created Kimba the White Lion, said in 1994 that "quite a few staff of our company saw a preview of The Lion King, discussed this subject and came to the conclusion that you cannot avoid having these similarities as long as you use animals as characters and try to draw images out of them".[206] Yoshihiro Shimizu of Tezuka Productions has refuted rumors that the studio was paid hush money by Disney and stated that they have no interest in suing Disney, explaining that "we think it's a totally different story". Shimizu further explained that they rejected urges from some American lawyers to sue because "we're a small, weak company... Disney's lawyers are among the top twenty in the world!"[207] Tezuka's family and Tezuka Productions never pursued litigation.[208]

Fred Ladd, who was involved early on with importing Kimba and other Japanese anime into America for NBC, expressed incredulity that Disney's people could remain ignorant.[209][205] Ladd stated there was at least one animator remembered by his colleagues as being an avid Kimba fan and being quite vociferous about Disney's conduct during production.[209] Animators Tom Sito and Mark Kausler have both stated that they had watched Kimba as children in the 1960s. However, Sito maintains there was "absolutely no inspiration" from Kimba during the production of The Lion King, and Kausler emphasized Disney's own Bambi as being their model during development.[210][206]

The controversy surrounding Kimba and The Lion King was parodied in The Simpsons episode "'Round Springfield", where Mufasa appears through the clouds and says, "You must avenge my death, Kimba... I mean, Simba."[211]

The alleged "SEX" frame

Protests were raised against one scene where it appears as if the word "SEX" might have been embedded into the dust flying in the sky when Simba flops down,[212] which conservative activist Donald Wildmon asserted was a subliminal message intended to promote sexual promiscuity. Animator Tom Sito has stated that the letters spell "SFX" (a common abbreviation for "special effects"), not with an "E" instead of the "F", and were intended as an innocent "signature" created by the effects animation team.[213]

Hyena biologists protested against the animal's portrayal, though the complaints may have been somewhat tongue-in-cheek. One hyena researcher, who had organized the animators' visit to the University of California, Berkeley, Field Station for the Study of Behavior, Ecology, and Reproduction, where they would observe and sketch captive hyenas,[214] listed "boycott The Lion King" in an article listing ways to help preserve hyenas in the wild, and later "joke[d] that The Lion King set back hyena conservation efforts."[215][216] Even so, the film was also credited with "spark[ing] an interest" in hyenas at the Berkeley center.[216]

The film has been criticized for race and class issues, with the hyenas seen as reflecting negative stereotypes of black and Latino ethnic communities.[217][218][219]

The first Lion King–related animated project was the spin-off television series, The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa, which centers on the characters of Timon and Pumbaa, as they have their own (mis)adventures both within' and outside of the Serengeti. the show ran for three seasons and 85 episodes between 1995 and 1999. Ernie Sabella continued to voice Pumbaa, while Timon was voiced by Quinton Flynn and Kevin Schon in addition to Nathan Lane.[220] One of the show's music video segments "Stand By Me", featuring Timon singing the eponymous song, was later edited into an animated short which was released in 1995, accompanying the theatrical release of Tom and Huck (1995).

Disney released two direct-to-video films related to The Lion King. The first was sequel The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, released in 1998 on VHS. The film centers around Simba and Nala's daughter, Kiara, who falls in love with Kovu, a male lion who was raised in a pride of Scar's followers, the Outsiders.[221] The Lion King 1½, another direct-to-video Lion King film, saw its release in 2004. It is a prequel in showing how Timon and Pumbaa met each other, and also a parallel in that it also depicts what the characters were retconned to have done during the events of the original movie.[222]

In June 2014, it was announced that a new TV series based on the film would be released called The Lion Guard, featuring Kion, the second-born cub of Simba and Nala. The Lion Guard is a sequel to The Lion King and takes place during the time-gap within The Lion King II: Simba's Pride,[223] with the last 2 episodes of Season 3 taking place after the events of that film. It was first broadcast on Disney Channel as a television film titled The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar in November 2015 before airing as a series on Disney Junior in January 2016.[224][225]

In September 2016, following the critical and financial success of The Jungle Book, Walt Disney Pictures announced that they were developing a CGI remake of The Lion King by the same name, with Jon Favreau directing.[226] The following month, Jeff Nathanson was hired to write the script for the film.[227] Favreau originally planned to shoot it back-to-back with the sequel to The Jungle Book.[226][228] However, it was reported in early 2017 that the latter film was put on hold in order for Favreau to instead focus mainly on The Lion King.[229] In February 2017, Favreau announced that Donald Glover had been cast as Simba and that James Earl Jones would be reprising the role of Mufasa.[230] The following month, it was reported that Beyoncé was Favreau's top choice to voice Nala, but she had not accepted the role yet due to a pregnancy.[231] In April 2017, Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen joined the film as Timon and Pumbaa, respectively.[232] Two months later, John Oliver was cast as Zazu.[233] At the end of July 2017, Beyoncé had reportedly entered final negotiations to play Nala and contribute a new soundtrack.[234] The following month, Chiwetel Ejiofor entered talks to play Scar.[235] Later on, Alfre Woodard and John Kani joined the film as Sarabi and Rafiki, respectively.[236][237] On November 1, 2017, Beyoncé and Chiwetel Ejiofor were officially confirmed to voice Nala and Scar, with Eric André, Florence Kasumba, Keegan-Michael Key, JD McCrary, and Shahadi Wright Joseph joining the cast as the voices of Azizi, Shenzi, and Kamari, young Simba, and young Nala, respectively, while Hans Zimmer would return to score the film's music.[238][239][240][241][242] On November 28, 2017, it was reported that Elton John had signed onto the project to rework his musical compositions from the original film.[243]

Production for the film began in May 2017.[244] It was released on July 19, 2019.[245]

In June 2020, Parkwood Entertainment and Disney announced that a film titled Black Is King would be released on July 31, 2020, on Disney+. The live-action film is inspired by The Lion King (2019) and serves as a visual album for the tie-in album The Lion King: The Gift, which was curated by Beyoncé for the film.[246] Directed, written and executive produced by Beyoncé, Black Is King is described as reimagining "the lessons of The Lion King for today’s young kings and queens in search of their own crowns".[247] The film chronicles the story of a young African king who undergoes a "transcendent journey through betrayal, love and self-identity" to reclaim his throne, utilizing the guidance of his ancestors and childhood love, with the story being told through the voices of present-day Black people.[248] The cast includes Lupita Nyong'o, Naomi Campbell, Jay-Z, Kelly Rowland, Pharrell Williams, Tina Knowles-Lawson, Aweng Ade-Chuol, and Adut Akech.[247]

Along with the film release, three different video games based on The Lion King were released by Virgin Interactive in December 1994. The main title was developed by Westwood Studios, and published for PC and Amiga computers and the consoles SNES and Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. Dark Technologies created the Game Boy version, while Syrox Developments handled the Master System and Game Gear version.[249] The film and sequel Simba's Pride later inspired another game, Torus Games' The Lion King: Simba's Mighty Adventure (2000) for the Game Boy Color and PlayStation.[250] Timon and Pumbaa also appeared in Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games, a 1995 PC game collection of puzzle games by 7th Level, later ported to the SNES by Tiertex.[251]

The Square Enix series Kingdom Hearts features Simba as a recurring summon,[252][253] as well as a playable in the Lion King world, known as Pride Lands, in Kingdom Hearts II. There the plotline is loosely related to the later part of the original film, with all of the main characters except Zazu and Sarabi.[254] The Lion King also provides one of the worlds featured in the 2011 action-adventure game Disney Universe,[255] and Simba was featured in the Nintendo DS title Disney Friends (2008).[256] The video game Disney Magic Kingdoms includes some characters of the film and some attractions based on locations of the film as content to unlock for a limited time.[257][258]

Walt Disney Theatrical produced a musical stage adaptation of the same name, which premiered in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 1997, and later opened on Broadway in October 1997 at the New Amsterdam Theatre. The Lion King musical was directed by Julie Taymor[259] and featured songs from both the movie and Rhythm of the Pride Lands, along with three new compositions by Elton John and Tim Rice. Mark Mancina did the musical arrangements and new orchestral tracks.[260] It is worth noting that the show celebrate the African culture background the story based on, there are 6 indigenous African languages sung and spoken throughout the show: Swahili, Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Tswana, Congolese.[261] The musical became one of the most successful in Broadway history, winning six Tony Awards including Best Musical, and despite moving to the Minskoff Theatre in 2006, is still running to this day in New York, becoming the third longest-running show and highest grossing Broadway production in history. The show's financial success led to adaptations all over the world.[24][262][263]

The Lion King inspired two attractions retelling the story of the film at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. The first, "The Legend of the Lion King", featured a recreation of the film through life-size puppets of its characters, and ran from 1994 to 2002 at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World.[264] Another that is still running is the live-action 30-minute musical revue of the movie, "Festival of the Lion King", which incorporates the musical numbers into gymnastic routines with live actors, along with animatronic puppets of Simba and Pumbaa and a costumed actor as Timon. The attraction opened in April 1998 at Disney World's Animal Kingdom,[265] and in September 2005 in Hong Kong Disneyland's Adventureland.[266] A similar version under the name "The Legend of the Lion King" was featured in Disneyland Paris from 2004 to 2009.[267][268]