I'm an odd one, I watched it as a child on VHS (I may have been taken to see it in the cinema, but I can't remember it all, I would have been 3 or 4 when it came out :( ) and I never cried at this scene, I felt sorry for Simba no doubt, but it never made me cry like Bambi's mother's death did.
Nowadays it's the other way around, it seems that as I've gotten older I've come to appriciate music and how it sets a mood, not to mention now realising fully just how manipulative Scar really was, the scene made me cry when I first re-watched the film and as I said still does on some viewings.
I now find it more upsetting than Bambi's mom as while that is depressing, Mufasa we actually knew quite well and...yeah. ;_;