by TheLionPrince » October 28th, 2014, 2:02 am
Not every adult is the same, so all of them would have a different opinion on it, but I'm sure it appealed to the majority of adult audiences given the box office reception and the critical acclaim it accumulated. They certainly were the ones paying the tickets for their children (and themselves) to see, and I wouldn't be surprised if families paid more than one time to see the movie at the theaters since The Lion King has a high rewatchability factor. I imagine some parents would be shocked that a Disney movie would feature a dead body onscreen, and were amazed at how dark and mature the film was given less than two years, Aladdin was pretty light and humorous in mood. Of course, they would most likely shed tears during Mufasa's death and be moved by the message to learn from the past rather than abandon it.
Other adults would have viewed the movie as a watered-down version of Hamlet and other mythical tales, a rip-off of Kimba the White Lion (a TV show they watched when they were young), found the movie to be littered with racial and gender stereotypes, or think the movie was good but not that good in comparison to Beauty and the Beast and the early classics.