Just how exactly did the lion king become as big as it did?

[Elton John]

Well, besides it being a fantastic movie.

Until last year I never knew just how "big" this movie was. According to boxofficemojo, it is number 20 in the top grossing films of all time. what makes this amazing is that most of the other top grossing films have been released fairly recently, have 3D tax, etc. It sits at nearly one billion dollars counting the re-releases.

Back in 1994, the movie was the second highest grossing film in america, but worldwide it was number 1. I remember reading that for many years it was the highest selling VHS tape, at over 30 million copies sold. That's a whole lotta simba!

If you know the story behind the movie, it's that almost nobody at walt disney animation studios wanted to work on it. After beauty and the beast got nominated for a best picture oscar most saw Pocahontas as being more prestigious movie.

The real underdog story. The team who made the movie almost nobody at WDAS wanted to work on is also one of their most critically acclaimed, one of the most beloved, the highest grossing traditionally animated movie, and one of the highest grossing films of all time.

[Captain Cupcake]

Other than just being a competently made film with all the right elements, part of its success was also the fact that Disney was making it big around that time, pumping out hit after hit. From The Little Mermaid's release came about a renaissance era of sorts, with Disney finding huge successes from their new broadway-style films.

Each film was consistently well-written, had innovative and top notch animation, and all of their songs were so ridiculously catchy that they stayed in people's heads for ages. Disney animated features pretty much ruled the family scene in cinemas. Heck, they still pretty much do with their CGI features today. Well, after suffering through a few financial disappointments after the renaissance peaked with the success of Tarzan, that is(not that there weren't a handful of decent and successful features here and their prior to this Disney resurgence caused by Tangled and succeeding films).

[Elton John]

Other than just being a competently made film with all the right elements, part of its success was also the fact that Disney was making it big around that time, pumping out hit after hit. From The Little Mermaid's release came about a renaissance era of sorts, with Disney finding huge successes from their new broadway-style films.

Each film was consistently well-written, had innovative and top notch animation, and all of their songs were so ridiculously catchy that they stayed in people's heads for ages. Disney animated features pretty much ruled the family scene in cinemas. Heck, they still pretty much do with their CGI features today. Well, after suffering through a few financial disappointments after the renaissance peaked with the success of Tarzan, that is(not that there weren't a handful of decent and successful features here and their prior to this Disney resurgence caused by Tangled and succeeding films).

I know that the little mermaid was the success WDAS's needed after walts death of well The big disney movie before the lion king was aladdin, but life to date totals are just shy of half the numbers of the lion king.

Aladdin, beauty and the beast, and the little mermaid were big. The Lion King was huge.

My conclusions are that

Combined with everything you mentioned

1: The movie appealed to males and females alike, instead of leaning more towards one gender for appeal in spite of the male characters getting the bigger focus.

2: The movie appealed to people of many different races and ethnicities.

3: The marketing campaign. Instead of showing a traditional trailer they showed the entire opening song. A song that many can still remember to this day

4; The story itself is timeless. It doesn't feel like a product of its era. It also didn't talk down to kids, toning down the themes or more mature elements. it treated kids like they had a brain and could use it.

[Captain Cupcake]

3: The marketing campaign. Instead of showing a traditional trailer they showed the entire opening song. A song that many can still remember to this day

Actually, aside from showing the Circle of Life segment, there were also a few promotional trailers too. And in typical '90s fashion, the theatrical trailer was hilariously spoiler heavy.

[Elton John]

3: The marketing campaign. Instead of showing a traditional trailer they showed the entire opening song. A song that many can still remember to this day

Actually, aside from showing the Circle of Life segment, there were also a few promotional trailers too. And in typical '90s fashion, the theatrical trailer was hilariously spoiler heavy.

lol

I must have forgotten about that

*watches it on youtube*

Oh my.......

[TheLionPrince]

You and Captain Cupcake covered most of the main points. I would also add that given the attention that was circulated around Robin Williams's performance as the Genie in Aladdin, The Lion King had an attractable cast such as Jeremy Irons and Whoopi Goldberg (who both won Academy Awards in 1991), James Earl Jones (famous for Darth Vader), Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller's Day Off was a popular movie at the time), and Rowan Atkinson (famous for Mr. Bean).

Disney marketed The Lion King as their first animated feature to not be based on any existing story, which attracted some attention, given Disney's long history of adapting fairy tales and classic novels. So, given the recent animated features at the time had been based on fairy tales, I imagine it was a breath of fresh air to see a movie not centered around so much magic. In the ancillary department, the movie had plenty of plush dolls and McDonald's toys for the kids, and that generated over $1 billion in merchandising sales, which I'd imagine was astronomical for an animated film.

Elton John co-writing the songs played a factor in the cultural uproar (pun intended) given a major music artist hadn't produced music for an animated feature. Billy Joel's participation in Oliver & Company wouldn't really count since his role was just voicing Dodger and singing "Why Should I Worry", which he didn't write. And like you both mentioned, the songs were memorable and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" spent weeks at number-one on the Billboard chart for adult contemporary singles in 1994. The Lion King soundtrack topped the Billboard 200 number-one album chart during its theatrical run, and once more in spring 1995.

[Elton John]

To add to that, the 90's seemed like a lightning in a bottle era for western animation.

a history lesson for the younger crowd.

Walt Disney had to push really hard for Snow White and the seven dwarves to get made. A feature length animated film was unheard of. When the movie came out it changed the way people thought of animation because it made people cry, instead of being slapstick comedy. Fleischer animation also helped out with their superman shorts which featured rotoscope animation, which helped create a realistic smooth effect for their shorts.

Animation wasn't always seen as a "just for kids" thing. Back in the 60's TV shows like the flinstones were on prime time TV, had cigarette advertisements, and was essentially a stoneage version of the honeymooners.

Then william hannah and joseph barbera started making cheap animated programming with little thought put into it which gave the stigma that cartoons are just a kids thing that unfortunately still lives on to this day.

I'm not going to sugarcoat this, most of the 80's cartoons I watched when I was young were nothing more than glorified toy commercials. Disney TV animation tried to change that with gummi bears, a show that had a bigger than average budget and storytelling that went beyond the norm at the time.

Don Bluth also helped usher in an era where western animation was taken more seriously TV and movie producers.

The 90's felt like a golden era for western animation for many reasons.

Animated superhero programming went beyond the superfriends and started having more emotionally complex stories. Batman the animated series was one of the big ones thanks to a brilliant man named bruce timm.

Disney TV shows were at their high point.

Cartoons like tiny toons, animaniacs and freakazoid had incredibly clever and mature humor. Rockos modern life also pushed the boundries for the kind of humor you could get away with.

The simpsons also helped change perceptions by being something adults would watch. It was clever, well written, well acted, and had a lot of heart.

Then after the little mermaid Disney tried new things to push the boundries of what you could get away with in a G rated movie with each new release while still including jaw dropping animation, sharp writing, and a lot of heart.


Then you also had genndy tartakovsky who worked on dexters laboratory, the powerpuff girls, and samurai jack. Cartoon network also had programming like courage the cowardly dog, which was honestly a very unsettling show but that's not a bad thing.

Then the early 2000's came. While you had your futuramas and justice leagues shows like family guy started getting popular because of how the shock value element and the creative team behind the simpsons started losing creative juice but the show went on because it was still popular.

Futurama was like the simpsons in that it had sharp writing, and moments that made people cry which is rare in any TV show. Most notable were the episodes jurassic bark and luck of the fryish

traditional hand drawn animation was slowly being phased out because of costs behind it. A lot of unsuccessful disney movies outside of lilo and stitch happened. Pixar had taken the magic Disney once had.

Then there was a show called drawn together which took the shock value of family guy and multiplied things by 10. It also managed to take what little heart and emotion family guy had and got rid of it.

Then there is a divise show called king of the hill, which lacked slapstick comedy and in your face shock value but had incredibly clever writing and nuanced characters to make up for it. It was probably the high point in smart animated programming.

South Park is half crass shock value and half clever, biting satire of current social events

It's why I respect my little pony friendship is magic. it took a show from the 80's that was little more than fluff for little girls and gave it characters and stories that went above and beyond what was made for a primarily young female audience.

Dreamworks started off making hand drawn movies such as the prince of egypt in the late 90's which were very good but weren't popular. Shrek came out which was a major success but until Kung fu Panda came out they were more of a me-too company where pixar lead the way and they followed with often inferior movies.

Maybe things will change, but as of now, animation is still *mostly* seen as childrens fluff when the medium could and should be a lot more respected.