Disney does Shakespeare, and not too badly either. Hamlet is the main source for this tale of a conniving uncle, murdered king and confused prince (all lions, of course). In 1994, on the heels of Aladdin and The Little Mermaid, it wasn’t out of bounds to mention Disney and Shakespeare in the same sentence – The Lion King would be the high point of the studio’s mini-renaissance. Most of the credit goes, unsurprisingly, to the original songs written by Elton John and Tim Rice, as well as a bold mix of animation that makes the menagerie on display delightfully anthropomorphic in some moments and necessarily feral in others. Add to this the pitch-perfect vocal casting, including James Earl Jones as Mufasa, the slain king; Jeremy Irons as Scar, his conniving brother; Nathan Lane as Timon, a chatty meerkat; and Ernie Sabella as Pumbaa, his piggish companion. Turns out Shakespeare’s timeless tale of familial tragedy, the weight of nobility and communal responsibility was missing something – a singing warthog.
