Disney's best animated film

Rating: 10/10 (26 February 2006)

While Lion King was shamelessly ripped off from Osamu Tezuka's "Kimba the White Lion", it is in my opinion the best animated film that Disney has ever released. It was well-paced, had excellent character development with a good mix of characters, a great plot, a believable and charming villain, and an absolutely stunning original score.
Unlike many of Disney's later animated films such as Atlantis, the Lion King's plot progress did not feel rushed (nor is it slow), and does not suffer from the bizarre and difficult to describe "caricature personality" that appears to be growing in popularity with many recent animated films and children's cartoon series.
The extended version mostly includes material which Disney was wise to omit from the original release. These new additions, for example, "Morning Report", were largely uninspired and I feel they actually detract from the movie. I would recommend that new viewers first see the original, "unextended" edition first, and draw their own conclusions.
While some disliked the movie for its use of all non-human characters, or for the use of "inter-family felicide", I would rate this a 10/10 and call it one of the 3 or 4 Disney films which truly deserve their over-used moniker of "masterpiece."