The Lion King

An animated film set on the African savannah. Simba is a lion cub and the king's son. His uncle Scar wants the throne. Scar sets a trap. A herd stampedes through a gorge, the king dies saving his son, and Scar tells the boy it was his fault. Simba runs. He collapses in a desert, two strangers find him, and that is where he grows up: a life with no responsibility and no past. From there the film is a return story. His childhood friend finds him, tells him what has become of the country, and he does not want to go. What the narrative is interested in is not the throne but escape: the whole second half rests on a young animal accepting that the story he has been telling himself is not true. The structure is very close to Hamlet, and that is not an accident. The stampede was a technical advance at the time. Thousands of animals were generated by computer and placed inside hand-drawn imagery; preparing the sequence took years. The studio treated the project as its second priority. Most of the animators chose a different film in the same period, and this crew was assembled from less experienced people. The songs are by Elton John and Tim Rice, the score by Hans Zimmer, and it won in two categories at the Academy Awards. It became the highest-grossing hand-drawn animated film worldwide and held that position for a long time. Matthew Broderick, James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, Nathan Lane and Whoopi Goldberg are among the voices. Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff directed. Who it is for: anyone who wants family animation with strong music. Who it is not for: anyone watching with very small children; the father's death is shown directly and it is hard.