My Lion King Forum

Outside of the movie critics, who as we all know liked it, was this movie as big with adults as it was with kids back when it first came out? I only ask because I've noticed that the majority of adults who praise it nowadays are people who would've seen it back when it first came out. So, for anyone around here who was old enough to remember, was it popular with adults back in the 90's or moreso just with kids?

I'm very sure it appealed to adults even back then. I know for a fact that in my family, a relative who saw it had the reaction of along the lines of "The Lion King is a great movie, but do tell me, why is it considered a kid's movie?"

I've stated this elsewhere on the forum and other several times, but it is valid for this thread so here I go again.

I was 18 when I saw The Lion King in The Theater in 1994, so I've only ever related to it as an adult. The movie has retained a special place in my heart for 20 years now. However back in 1994 my older sister and my mother saw Lion King before I did. My sister told me that it was the best movie Disney had ever made. My mother told me I would love it. I quickly found that I agreed with both opinions.

I was 8 in 1994, so from my point of view Disney was for kids.. and as such adults wouldn`t enjoy it. Parents went to the cinema to watch the film with their kids, but I`m certain they enjoyed it just as much. I know I would have loved TLK if it had come out today, I`m still a kid at heart, lol! But seriously, I`ve learned as I`ve grown older that Disney is for everyone, not a specific age group.

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.

I am pretty sure that incorporating the Nazi goose stepping into a Disney film added to the mature appeal for certain people.