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The Lion King is one of my favourite movies of all time. I believe it was so popular and successful because no one had ever done anything like it before. It was also Disney's first original idea, and remains one of the few Disney animated films to not be fairy tale-oriented, or based on a fairy tale.

I am a fan of almost ALL Disney animated films. When you look at most of Disney's animated films from the 20th century, such as Snow White, Cinderella, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and even Aladdin, they all have one thing in common: they are based upon a popular fairy or folk tale. They also deal with similar themes, and feature one, if not all, of the following: magic, princesses, princes, true love, romance, true love's first kiss, mythical creatures, magic spells, and other fantasy-oriented subjects.

In The Lion King, some of these themes are still present (princes, romance) but they are less emphasized, making the film more identifiable to everyday humans. For example, we have all experienced loss (Simba losing his father at a young age), we have all experienced betrayal (Simba being betrayed by his once-trusted uncle Scar), we have all experienced feeling pressured (Simba feeling the pressure of being a member of the Royal Family), and we have all experienced self-doubt (Simba feeling he is incapable of following in his father's footsteps). This made more audiences want to go see The Lion King in theaters, especially hearing how it touched the hearts of many. Nothing had yet been done about a lion trying to find his place in life, while princesses and evil queens had been seen numerous times.

Here's a slightly different reason; The Lion King featured a very all-star cast of actors, musicians, and animators. However, this trend did not begin with The Lion King; it simply maximized it. The Little Mermaid featured a cast of lesser-known, fresh-faced actors and actresses, partially because Disney was a struggling company at the time, and few big-named celebrities wanted to be affiliated with it. With each new Disney film since Mermaid, Disney has managed to recruit more well-known actors because of the studio's increasing success. Let's examine:

1. When The Little Mermaid was released in 1989, few of us have heard of Jodi Benson (Ariel), Christopher Daniel Barnes (Eric), and Samuel E. Wright (Sebastian), but it still proved successful.

2. When Beauty and the Beast was released in 1991, two years later, few of us have heard of Paige O'Hara (Belle) and Robby Benson (Beast), but were now well-aware of the Tony Award-winning Angela Lansbury (Mrs. Potts). Beauty was far more successful than Mermaid. Also, Beauty had the names Céline Dion and Peabo Bryson, two of the world's biggest pop stars at the time, attached to its soundtrack.

3. When Aladdin came out in 1992 with the fresh-faced Scott Weigner (Aladdin) and Linda Larkin (Jasmine), it had now added the wildly popular names of Robin Williams (Genie), Jonathan Freeman (Jafar), and Gilbert Gottfried (Iago) to its list of credits, as well as featured Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle with music. Aladdin made more money than Mermaid and Beauty combined.

4. Finally, when The Lion King was released in 1994 with some of the world's biggest actors attached to its credits, including Matthew Broderick (Simba), James Earl Jones (Mufasa), Jeremy Irons (Scar), Moira Kelly (Nala), Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella (Timon and Pumbaa), and Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin, and Jim Cummings (Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed), as well as music by Tony Award-winning lyricist Tim Rice and world-renowned rock star Elton John, it proved more successful than the three previous blockbusters combined, making more than three times as much as Mermaid, twice as much as Beauty, and almost 300 million dollars more than Aladdin. Not to mention its very racially diverse cast (for its time).

It may have also helped that Lion King was released during the peak of the Disney Renaissance (1989 to 1999) in June, 1994. By this time, Disney had become quite popular, and following the million-dollar successes of The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), and Aladdin (1992), each one a bigger success than the last, people were expecting The Lion King to be as good, if not better than its predecessors. And it definitely was.

In conclusion, the success of The Lion King was due to the combination of a meaningful and original plot, big-named celebrities, and the pavement set by its three previous films. But, being the fantastic film that it is, The Lion King deserved every bit of fame and success that it got, and I stand by that!