The Lion King, the Walt Disney Company's 1994 animated feature about a young lion cub in Africa, ranks among the most popular and most profitable films of all time. When it came out in the summer of 1994, The Lion King set off a craze among Americans young and old alike, eventually becoming the third-fastest film to earn over $100 million dollars at the box office, and bringing in millions more through creative marketing tie-ins. Combined with a massive marketing campaign, the film's dramatic plot, stunning animation, and lively score attracted audiences of all ages. Several of the film's themes—family responsibility, interconnectedness, inner direction—seemed to resonate with 1990s audiences, making the film one of the most revealing cultural documents of the decade.

Although Disney presented The Lion King as the first of its thirty-plus animated features to be an original work, the script owes artistic...