Lion King?

I had a few people ask me privately why my last post about Frozen did not mention The Lion King in the litany of past Disney successes.

First of all, there is no doubt that The Lion King was one of the greatest commercial successes Disney has ever experienced, and I’m still dying to go see the musical on Broadway or in the West End.

However, when The Lion King first came out, I was nine years old, and I went to go see it in the theatre. Needless to say, I found the whole experience very traumatising, especially the stampede (didn’t Disney learn their lesson with Bambi?!!), and ended up needing to leave the theatre twice due to my own upset. (I had found The Little Mermaid similarly traumatising at age 4.)

Later that day, a family friend sat down with me and tried to explain, “Heather, that’s what life is really like for animals in Africa.”

To which my response was, “In real life, ANIMALS. DON’T. TALK.” So now you have an idea of what I was like as a child.