The Lion King
1994 Directed by Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff
Synopsis
Life's greatest adventure is finding your place in the Circle of Life.
A young lion cub named Simba can't wait to be king. But his uncle craves the title for himself and will stop at nothing -- even killing his own brother -- to get it.
Cast
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Watching this movie for the first time in over 5 years has probably been the biggest nostalgia trip of my entire life. Thousands of childhood memories came racing back to me -- both good and bad. Every scene, every song bringing back long-forgotten memories from my past, consistently reminding me of a time when everything in life was simpler. Watching it again I found myself much more moved by what I was seeing than ever before. As a kid, it was just a fun animated movie with some catchy songs. I could never have predicted that it would be so deeply moving to me as time passed by. The amount of times this movie gave me the chills totaled somewhere…
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Hakuna Matata (no worries) with this one, seeing this again I knew it was not going to be a let down considering the last time around was 17-18 years ago and I loved it.
The songs, animation still look amazing and having revamped it into 3D really brings you into the depth of the film.
The first 5mins of this film has got to be one of Disney's best opening's with the song 'Circle Of Life' ripping through the speakers. In fact the entire soundtrack sounded amazing (7.1 DTS).
With a great story and a collection of great actor's voices (Jeremy Irons needs to do more,his voice was perfect) brought together this is one of my favourite Disney films.
Top marks to the King of Disney. -
Three things I immediately noticed:
1) This looks immaculate on bluray.
2) What an incredible musical score, beyond just the classic songs. Again, the bluray helped here too - plus the nice sound system.
3) I can't believe how fast everything happened - so much crammed into 88 minutes!I guess a #4 would be the casting choices, as the voices are just perfect.. or maybe they're just so engrained in my head at this point from loving it as a kid? James Earl Jones as Mufasa, Jonathan Taylor Thomas / Matthew Broderick as Simba, Nathan Lane & Ernie Sabella as Timon & Pumbaa, and especially Jeremy Irons as Scar - all were fantastic. Would it be terrible to mention Whoopi Goldberg…
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For me, the movie was far too short, they should have legnthened Mufasa within the movie, considering Mufasa was an integral part to Simba's life, he was not there long enough. Not enough of the Animal Kingdom when Scar had ruled it; There was only a 3 minute scene with Scar and Zuzu showing when Scar was King. It stats that Rafiki is a good friend with Mufasa but they never spoke in the movie. They also should of accentuated the plot more. Far too much based on Simba and his lifestyle; when in fact the plot is on Scar's betrayal on his brother and ruling the Animal Kingdom, and Simba re-discovering himself.
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The hand-drawn animation is as eye-popping as it gets (the "I Just Can't Wait To Be King" sequence is one of the most visually stimulating things I've ever seen), but it's the universal themes of growing up and taking responsibility, the Shakespearean power struggle at the film's center, and the overall emotional effect of the story that make The Lion King the ostensible pinnacle of Disney's output.
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Man, it must've been 15 years since I last saw this wonderful film. Nostalgia overload! This is the first time watching it in English, though (which is why I wasn't able to sing along to all of the songs..).
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Just awesome! One of my favorite movies ever.
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Disney's messy but popular flick rips off Japan's Jungle Emperor and over-humanizes the animals to the extent that their species are incidental.
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So funny, emotional and exciting! The Lion King is one of the greatest animated films ever made, in MY opinion.
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One week during a local book fair I came across a Shakespeare for Kids booth and thought to myself: However is that possible? How could the tragic stories of Macbeth or Hamlet possibly be made kid friendly?
Well here's one of the answers. 1994 brought us 'The Lion King.' It's a beautiful tale of a young lion (Simba: Matthew Broderick & Jonathan Taylor Thomas) avenging his father and taking his rightful place as king of pride rock, therefore freeing the lands of the evil Scar (Jeremy Irons) and bringing peace and wonderment once more.
The songs are beyond memorable. The characters are funny, deep and exist in a world bigger than the movie. The art is bright and colorful when need…
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Africa is saved
By a pig, rat and lion
That's how Disney works -
hay algo muy conmovedor en luchar por un reino en ruinas.* más: scar, voz y trazo, es cagadísimo, la estampida está hermosamente telegrafiada y ejecutada. ah, y salud por las hienas.
peeeero:
esta vez sí me costó mucho trabajo aguantar las redundancias (ok: es para niños y hay que enfatizar pero el mensajito de que estamos en un círculo viviente lo cantan, lo dicen tal cual varias veces y, pa que no se olvide, lo subrayan formalmente), las canciones, especialmente la pomposidad de 'circle of life' y la vil mamada de 'i just can't wait to be king', y la voz infumable del tal jonathan taylor thomas como simba cachorro. puagh.
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* nota. siempre que pienso en simba dispuesto…
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Perhaps the most archetypal modern animated feature, its utter banality and total ideological reprehensibility are somehow both alleviated and aggravated by the production's slick professionalism. Tonally and narratively incoherent, it nevertheless moves ahead with such a breathless commitment to providing TOTAL ENTERTAINMENT that it results in a film that is simultaneously obnoxious and strangely compulsive. (As with SUCKER PUNCH, I'm at a loss when it comes to giving this monstrosity a star rating.)
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Jungle Hamlet!
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The best thing about this movie? How streamlined the story is.
I sincerely thought this was longer than 90 minutes before putting it in. I mean it's The Lion King, it's epic: death of a father, a jump of like 10 years halfway through, amazing music. It had to be at least 2 hours right?
Yet somehow, they managed to pack all of that in into 89 minutes. There's nothing superfluous about this film.