Childhood Gem

Rating: 10/10 (16 December 2010)

Is there anyone who didn't love this film? Besides the one sentence/one-star reviews that always bring a film down these days? Probably one of Disney's greatest animated films ever, easily surpassing the many before it and many after it. The story is dynamic and much more involving than alas "Cinderella", "Beauty and the Best", and plenty of others that I not need say. Many Disney films seem to me oh so similar in premise and characters, this one stand s out as a truly unique and very different tale. And with the voice talents of Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, Whoopi Goldberg, Rowan Atkinson, plus many, many others, the characters seemed much more human to me than the repeated after repeated princess in distress who is best friends with nature as well.how dull! And to think these are merely anthropomorphic animals, how ironic. In my humble opinion, this also Matthew Broderick's best performance ever.
And as if having Hans Zimmer score the film wasn't a grand achievement in itself, Elton John and Tim Rice add to the score beautifully. The end result is a tale so epic if you look at it from a glance it evokes the scope of a Greek tragedy. In fact, amongst the many over-rated Disney Renaissance era films, this is one of the few where I can watch it again and again without ever tiring of it.