DBWI: The Lion King considered a classic and a success

As you know, Walt Disney Pictures released the movie called The Lion King in 1994, but it has lukewarm reviews and was a flop at the box office. One of the biggest problems, was Simba the lion, was a bland rip off of Kimba the Lion, Bambi the deer, and Todd the fox from The Fox and the Hound. The main villian, Scar, voiced by James Avery, who played Uncle Phil in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and the Shredder from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series was problematic enough, he can act and do things, he is considered the worst villian in Disney animated film history. There is a meerkat character who is extremely offensive to Africans*, but he is annoying. Simba's love interest, Nala is also considered the worst love interest in Disney animated film history.** Well, Beauty and the Beast was the very best animated classic Disney has to offer until 2013, when they made a very successful critically acclaimed 3D animated adaptation to Don Quixote. I do admit I like the 2000 Dreamworks animated film, A Toy's Tale, which had audiences crying when a main character, a cowboy doll getting blown up by a evil teenager in the end, and the 2004 Don Bluth film adaptation of the Ballad of Mulan, released by Columbia Pictures. How would film history would like if The Lion King was critically acclaimed and was a blockbuster success?

* Timon, if he is written very identical to Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
** Nala, if she is written very similar to Rose Tico from Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.
 
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My dad slept through that movie when he finally relented and agreed to bring me to see it and he got the better end of that deal. I don't think there's much to rescue there. It's a shame, because the plot could have been almost Shakesperean if they hadn't tried to make this into a pure comedy. But Mufasa's death ruined it, because the slapstick of having him thrown in the air again and again by the wildebeests just doesn't work and Simba breaking into song about how he's so happy he can be king is the height of tastelessness. I had to wake up my dad to tell him I wouldn't ever behave like that entitled cub. I dunno, maybe adopt a more somber tone? Move some of the musical numbers around? Have Simba reject the kingdom at some point?
 
Of course, it didn't help when the American legal representative for Tezuka Productions DID sue Disney and Disney had to fork over nearly $100 million for violating the international copyright of Jungle Tatei, as Kimba the White Lion is known in Japan. That money actually made it possible for Tezuka Productions to become a prominent anime production house in Japan again; Mamoru Hosoda's three landmark films--The Girl Who Leap Through Time, Summer Wars and Wolf Children--were all Tezuka Productions as the company expanded into more "adult" anime movies.
 
Mufasa's death ruined it, because the slapstick of having him thrown in the air again and again by the wildebeests just doesn't work and Simba breaking into song about how he's so happy he can be king is the height of tastelessness.

I have to admit, that scene was probably the best in movie. Sure the it was absurdly inapproprate considering the context, but boy was it hilarious!

OOC: Holy crap, my sides hurt.
 
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