Clichéd story and passive central character make for a weak Disney entry

Rating: 3/10 (10 October 2014)

Unlike the majority of its Walt Disney brethren, The Lion King was written directly for the screen and does not find its roots in either a fairy tale or popular children's literature. It relates the story of the young lion Simba, who is destined to become king of the pride one day when his regal father Mufasa steps down. This does not sit well with Mufasa's villainous brother Scar, who concocts a scheme to eliminate Mufasa and then convince a guilt-stricken Simba that the death is his own fault and he should exile himself from the pride. Simba befriends the unlikely duo of a meercat and warthog and they become friends during his exile, until his childhood friend Nala arrives to apprise Simba of the ruin that Scar's villainy has left the pride and beg for Simba's return.
Although the plot is fairly familiar and clichéd for a new story, there is a lot that could be done here. Unfortunately, Simba is such a passive, uninteresting central character that it is difficult to care much about what happens. Other than Simba, Mufasa and Scar, the pride pretty much blurs together. Simba's mother is a virtual non-entity and Simba's female friend Nala is gone for so much of the running time that you nearly forget she is a character in the film. Other than the comical meercat and warthog team (well voiced by Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella), none of the supporting characters are especially memorable, and that duo has little to no impact on the climax. It also does not help that Scar (lazily voiced by Jeremy Irons) is a fairly dull villain. His first act number where he sings about his nefarious plans is disturbing, not only because of Irons horrendous singing, but because someone had the ill-conceived notion of having hordes of his hyena henchmen goose-stepping in the background like Nazi soldiers, which adds a heavy weight that this slight film cannot carry. The film also has a fair amount of dead spots between songs and fight scenes.
The animation is typically first-rate, but not as impressive or imaginative as that found in its predecessors, even as recent as Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. The vocal talent is a mixed bag as well. While Lane and Sabella are stand-outs and James Earl Jones provides the suitably dignified tones for Mufasa, Matthew Broderick is an incredibly bland choice to voice the adult Simba. Ditto, Moira Kelly is not much better as Nala. Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin are not particularly menacing as some of the hyenas.
Huge gaps in the story seem to smack of really lazy writing. Mufasa is supposed to be an insightful leader, yet is completely blind-sided by the evil plots of his nasty brother, whose perfidy is ridiculously blatant. Once Scar is king and demonstrates that he is terrible, the film would have us believe that not only are there no other male lions to challenge him, but that the lionesses would passively put up with him destroying the pride without any show of resistance. This, of course, sets up the scene for Simba to return as a savior and rescue the pride while facing down Scar, but there are several things wrong. First, the film never convinces us that there is a need for anyone to await Simba's return when the pride could have banded together themselves to challenge Scar and his minions instead of suffering. And second, Simba does nothing during the course of the film to demonstrate that he could be anyone's savior other than that he is Mufasa's son and the plot rather ham-handedly demands it of him.
I am also not a fan of the soundtrack written by Elton John. The film opens with the "The Circle of Life," which is a sequence that heralds the birth of Simba, introduces the main characters and sets the stage. Unfortunately, I find this song comes off like one of the worst examples of faux-inspirational Christian rock. "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" sung by the young Simba feels like a third-rate Michael Jackson riff. "Hakuna Matata" is probably the best of the songs, but it is surprisingly forgettable. And the less said about the dirge-like love ballad "Can You Feel the Love Tonight", the better. It is a horrible song badly shoe-horned into the film. Old childhood friends Simba and Nala rediscover each other and then immediately start fighting, then the film pauses for the love ballad, before they go back to fighting and parting. It is a clumsily staged sequence and one that more often than not has the little ones tuning out. Ironically, the song that sticks with the viewer after the film ends is "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", the old 1950s nutshell which gets a few bars sung in the film and easily outclasses John's pretentious and precious piffles.
Purportedly this is Walt Disney's biggest box office success, but it is hard to understand why or how given some of the landmark classics in animation that Disney has provided in the past. I don't find the film fun, or memorable, or particularly astonishing. In fact, barring the dreadful Hercules, I would rank this as one of the worst of the Disney films.