This is the twelfth post in the Blogging A-to-Z Challenge.
I feel like I’m really scraping for topics. I had a hard time coming up with something for the letter “L”. I almost picked “Lazy”, since that’s how I’m feeling at the moment about writing this entry. 😀 But I’ve settled on The Lion King. Yes, the Disney Movie! I don’t have a lot to say about it, but basically that movie was the Frozen for our generation. It came out in summer ’94. I was 11.5, my brother was 9, and my cousins were 4 and 2. We saw it in a theater in Atlanta while visiting our uncle and cousins. In fact it was the first movie our cousins ever saw in the theater. I still remember how blown away I was by the opening chant in Circle of Life. I was terrified of it, actually. 😀 Mufasa falling to his death was disturbing as well. It stuck with me for days.
In the months and years that followed, The Lion King was a big part of my brother’s and my life. We learned ALL of the songs (I think that’s the first and only Disney movie where I learned every song). I’d sit on my bed in my room, facing the mirror and singing the Elton John versions of Can You Feel The Love Tonight as it played on the cassette player. We listened to the tape over and over. I wonder if our mom ever got sick of it.
The Lion King was part of my school life as well. In 6th grade choir we did a medley of songs from the movie. And in 8th grade, my friends and I used Lion King code names for all of our crushes. We even gave ourselves Lion King nicknames. My friend Kelly and I even became friends in 8th grade while working on a project that was Lion-King themed. We still refer to each other by our nicknames — she’s Simba, I’m Zazu.
In my personal opinion, The Lion King was Disney’s last truly great animated movie. Frozen is cool, but it’s no Lion King. Maybe I’m just biased toward the things I grew up with!
I still want to see the musical…and I would LOVE to be IN the musical. I’ve never been in a theater performance (aside from choir), but I think that would be just about the funnest thing ever.
Featured image credit: http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/lionking/images/6/69/Kopa_Simba_Nala_and_Rafiki.png/revision/latest?cb=20140104013526
Now I’m showing my age- my equivalent to this is “The sound of music” we even went to a sing along version a few years back – great fun.
This is such a great movie!
2015 A to Z Challenge Co-Host
Matthew MacNish from The QQQE
Oh my goodness! I hated the scene where Mufasa died! Any time I watched it as a kid, I skipped over that part. My younger brother, on the other hand, had stuffed Nala and Simba. You are right though, Frozen is not in any way like The Lion King. It would be nice for Disney to put out something truly imaginative and good. I can’t remember what Disney movies came out after The Lion King, but I am prone to agree that The Lion King probably was the last great Disney animation.