Catseye

Walt Disney Animation Studios released The Lion King in limited markets on 15 June 1994 and wide on 24 June 1994. The picture was directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff from a screenplay credited to Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and Linda Woolverton, after an initial development period during which various story teams had circulated ideas including a Bambi-in-Africa concept and a Hamlet-with-lions framing. The Hamlet template, with the king murdered by his brother and the prince in exile, remained the structural backbone of the released picture; the biblical Joseph narrative supplied additional motifs around exile, return, and reconciliation with brothers. Jonathan Taylor Thomas, then a 12-year-old child star on ABC's Home Improvement, voiced young Simba; Matthew Broderick, fresh off the Tony Award-winning revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1995), took the adult Simba role. Elton John and Tim Rice wrote the picture's five major songs including "Circle of Life," "Hakuna Matata," "I Just Can't Wait to Be King," and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight"; Hans Zimmer composed the orchestral score. "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 67th ceremony in March 1995, with Zimmer winning Best Original Score and the film also nominated in the Original Song category for "Circle of Life." The Lion King grossed approximately 968 million USD on its initial worldwide theatrical release on an 45 million USD production budget, the highest-grossing animated film of 1994 and the second-highest-grossing film of any kind that year after Forrest Gump. Subsequent rereleases (3D in 2011, the IMAX rerun in 2002) and the 2019 photoreal remake have brought the franchise's lifetime gross past 9 billion USD across all releases. The 1997 Broadway musical adaptation by Julie Taymor has run continuously since 13 November 1997 and is the highest-grossing Broadway production in history.