With #AnimationIsForEveryone trending on Twitter, I thought I throw my hat into the ring and talk about how Disney’s The Lion King impacted me as a child. 

I remember my parents giving me a VHS cassette when I was about 3 or 4 years old and it contained the recording of The Lion King that was shown on the ABC channel. There would be ads sprinkled throughout the film, most notably, the broadway version of The Lion King and the Taco Bell ad with the chihuahua trying to capture Godzilla in a tiny box (I believe that ad was promoting the 1998 version of Godzilla). Putting nostalgic ads aside, what I remembered and cherished most from that film was enjoying the musical numbers, especially “Be Prepared”, which is probably the best Disney villain song I’ve ever heard. The heart-wrenching scene with Simba witnessing Mufasa’s death and seeing him trying to wake him up, the scene with Simba, Rafiki, and the ghost of Mufasa, and the climactic fight between Simba and Scar are my favorite scenes throughout the film and those scenes stuck with me over the years.

Overall, to this day I consider The Lion King to be one of the best Disney films of all time, and I still find it interesting that this film was based on Hamlet ( which I didn’t know about until I was in high school). If you guys haven’t seen this film yet, please do so and don’t forget that animated works, such as The Lion King, aren’t just for children, but for everyone.