Review: The Lion King

Takes a look at a lion pride from the point of view of Simba (voiced by Jonathan Taylor Thomas, with Matthew Broderick taking over as an adult), whose Machiavellian uncle Scar (voiced by Jeremy Irons) conspires with a pack of hyenas to orchestrate the death of Lion King and Simba’s dad, the regal and noble Mufasa (voiced by James Earl Jones), so that Scar can blame it on Simba and ascend the throne himself.

 

This enormously successful 1994 Disney animated movie from directors Roger Allers (“Open Season”) and Rob Minkoff (“Stuart Little”, “The Forbidden Kingdom”) is a little overrated. It’s an OK film, but quite slow, and basically a musical revamp of “Bambi” with a large helping of Shakespeare for good measure. The highlights of the film include a wonderful, “Bambi”-inspired opening showing all of the animals, as well as a helluva good stampede scene later on.

 

The voice cast is uneven, undeniably bolstered by the magisterial James Earl Jones as Mufasa, and one of the best things Jeremy Irons has ever done, as his villainous usurper, Scar. At times he reminded me of Sir Peter Ustinov in “Robin Hood”, and his every line reading is perfectly insincere. Rowan Atkinson, meanwhile, is an absolute hoot as Gilbert Gottfried in “Aladdin”. Oh, OK, that was a little unfair. Accurate, though. Atkinson’s Zazu gets the film’s funniest moment where he sings a very famous Disney song that Scar HATES. The seemingly vanished Jonathan Taylor Thomas is adorable as the voice of young Simba, but Matthew Broderick simply won’t do as his adult counterpart. He doesn’t bring much to the table at all.

 

I also think it’s bizarre that the film only gives us the expected Disney comic relief characters, Pumbaa and Timon almost an hour in. They’re fun, though, as voiced by Ernie Sabella and Nathan Lane, respectively. The hyenas I wasn’t so enamoured with, as voiced by the likes of Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin. It brings up a chief flaw with the film- it’s somewhat toothless, in pursuit of kiddie-friendly entertainment. “Pinocchio” was plenty scary, so I’m not sure why Disney felt the need to pull punches here. The hyenas are a bit fatuous, if you ask me, rather than menacing. They’re too comedic without actually being funny. But the whole film pussies out a bit, by not only making sure to hammer home the point that something bad is about to happen to Simba’s old man. “Bambi” didn’t need such foreshadowing. Even Scar gets softened somewhat by he and the hyenas not being the ones who actually kill Mufasa, merely orchestrating a stampede. As I said earlier, I think the film is a bit slow, to the point where Scar is forced to accuse Simba of murder and then confess to having committed the murder himself all in the same scene!

 

The soundtrack really is a mixed bag, largely because the Elton John songs are actually not sung by John himself in the film, for some bizarre reason. You have to wait for the end credits to hear Elton do ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight’. It’s his song for fuck’s sake, let him sing it in the damn movie! Meanwhile, Nathan Lane gets at least three songs too many, even if one of them is the awesome ‘Lion Sleeps Tonight’. I hate ‘Hakuna Matata’ with every fibre of my being, however. I think your uncle orchestrating your father’s murder is definitely worth worrying about, thanks. Also, JTT and Rowan Atkinson have a number together, and instantly show why no one has heard the song since.

 

It’s all a bit hokey and preachy, with an uneven soundtrack. “Bambi” kept it simple and is the much superior film, though this film certainly has much better animation, being one of the strongest Disney films of the period in that regard. The screenplay is by Irene Mecchi (“The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, “Hercules”), Jonathan Roberts (“The Hunchback of Notre Dame”), and Linda Woolverton (“Beauty and the Beast”, Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland”).

 

Rating: B-