The Lion King

A re-view review. Animation: gorgeous, with an intense focus on naturalistic appearance (except during some sequences, particularly musical numbers, where something more stylized is more appropriate). Story: it’s Hamlet, for crying out loud. Can’t hardly complain there. Script: clever and funny when it wants to be, elegant and beautiful when it needs to be. Songs: among the best and most memorable in the entire canon. Characters: a set of possibly the best defined characters in all of the studio’s output. Put it all together and it’s no wonder this flick made a billion dollars (and probably continues, through various form, to fill the Disney vaults with lucre). There’s just a sliver of difference in how this particular viewer reacts to this film versus the previous two in the studio's sequence--probably just some personal quirk that leaves me preferring the others as just slightly better. It is certainly not any argument about the objective quality of this work that has me slotting it at number three of the bunch. Regardless, this is a worthy member of the triumvirate--a set of three films, released in sequence, that represent one of the most astounding achievements in the history of movies. They don’t make ‘em like this any more, nor did they make anything close to this before BATB rolled around and Aladdin opened up the whole new world. There is a reason--three of them, actually--why Disney came to rule the cinematic circle of life, and it’s apparent when you watch this movie. The PURR is almost loud enough to be a roar.