Remembering The Lion King (1994)

When I was a child, there was a VHS rental store a little way down from where I grew up. I remember it fondly because we used to go there once a week to pick out any VHS or Playstation 1 game that we loved. Something that I always remember renting was Disney’s 1994 animated feature The Lion King. As a small child I enjoyed lions, cartoons, and music, so what could be better.

You ever see addiction in a child before? That was me with this movie. And Warheads sour spray. That shit slaps.

Growing up, this was my favorite Disney film. It was nice to have the male character (technically a prince I guess) feel sad and scared, even when he was a full adult. This was almost as needed as the lead female character not being a damsel in distress every waking moment. Even though the movie wasn’t supposed to do well in comparison to the rest of Disney’s lineup, it completely outshined animated films at the time due to its traumatic story, themes, and excellent animation. Combined with an opening number of

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

and audiences were hooked from the start.

I can hear this image.

I don’t recognize too many faults within this film; it is a tonal roller coaster and if you read anything about “Kimba the White Lion,” you’ll be a little pissed off, but out of a lot of Disney films, this is the one that was damn near perfect. At this point in time, Disney was making quite a change. Emerging from the dark ages with The Little Mermaid (1989), Disney started presenting narratives that offered quite a bit of weight, such as Pocahontas (1995), Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), and Mulan (1998). These films bent their source material A LOT, but still tried to invoke messages of oppression, feminism, segregation, and environmentalism. Disney couldn’t have just made this transition without The Lion King. When you look at it, The Lion King has everything that made The Little Mermaid or Beauty and The Beast (1991) so iconic, but started presenting not only dark visuals, but seriously twisted character motives and actions. It also presented us with a Disney film that made the love story second to the main character’s intention. This is a great storytelling element that’s still recurring in Disney films today. Thank you, The Lion King, for preparing audiences for the next wave of Disney films.

Overall rating: 9 Zazus out of 10

I’m not going to lie, when I heard about the 2019 remake, I wasn’t too excited. I was eager that the cast was racially correct, as well as the musical talent brought onboard for the cast (and the re-casting of James Earl Jones of course), but this could easily fall into the bucket of Disney remakes being boring, uninventive, unoriginal, and sickly auto-tuned. Most people don’t want anything changed in these remakes, and I understand the appeal of a shot-for-shot retelling of a story, but let’s not rely on nostalgia when we discuss what a remake should be. If the remakes are exactly the same, there was no point in making the film in the first place, other than generating revenue. I don’t want a shot for shot remake of The Lion King, because I already have the one I loved. We don’t need political correctness or heavy social parallels in these films, but something other than the same old thing would be nice.

So not the same. Got it.

All that said and done, I will most likely see the remake, as I can’t help but wonder what they’ve done new and what they’ve kept the same. I feel obligated, not as a fan of the current Disney (because I’m not lol), but as a fan of The Lion King, to see this film.

I guess that makes me part of the whole nostalgia tactic. At least it won’t be set in the 80’s.

As always, in regards to the 1994 version, if you haven’t seen this film (how) go watch it, and if you have, go watch it again. Expect to see a review of the remake at some point in the near future, however tame or angry it may be. Have a good one.