The Lion King

The Lion King is One of the most popular Disney animated musicals, which was released to theaters on June 15, 1994 by Walt Disney Pictures.

The story, which was influenced by the Bible stories of Joseph and Moses and the William Shakespeare play Hamlet, takes place in a kingdom of anthropomorphic animals in Africa. It is about a naive young lion cub born in Africa, making his uncle Scar the second in line to the throne. Scar desperately wants to be King, but can't as long as Mufasa and Simba are there so he schemes to kill King Mufasa and Prince Simba, thus making himself King. Scar and his hyenas lure Simba into the path of a wildebeest stampede in which Mufasa is killed trying to save his son. Scar convinces Simba that he is responsible for his father's death and urges him to leave the Pride Lands and never return. Years later, as an adult, Simba decides to return home to overthrow the usurper and claim the kingdom as his own to embrace his destiny and take his proper place in the Circle of Life.

The Lion King: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released on July 13, 1994. The instrumental score composed by Hans Zimmer. Tim Rice was the lyricist for "Circle of Life", "I Just Can't Wait to Be King", "Be Prepared", "Hakuna Matata" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" which were composed by Elton John; three of them are repeated at the end in versions by Elton John.

The soundtrack was recorded in three different countries: the USA, the UK and South Africa. The Lion King Soundtrack which sold over 10 million copies, was the fourth best-selling album of the year on the Billboard 200 and the top-selling soundtrack. It is the only soundtrack for an animated movie to be Diamond certified (10x platinum).

The song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" received numerous awards including the Academy Award for Best Original Song, the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, the BMI Film & TV Award for Most Performed Song from a Film and the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance Male.