History YMMV / TheLionKing

!!YMMV tropes for works titled ''The Lion King'':
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[[folder:VideoGames]]

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[[folder:Stage Musical]]
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: In "The Madness of King Scar," Scar laments that he's never been loved, "not even as a cub." Is it true that his parents neglected him [[ParentalFavoritism in favor of the older, stronger Mufasa]], and is this his FreudianExcuse? Or did his parents love him, and does he just believe they didn't because they tried to curb his narcissistic tendencies, similar to [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Azula's]] issues with her mother?
* CompleteMonster: [[Characters/TheLionKingScar Scar]] commits the same crimes that his aforementioned movie counterpart did and goes beyond that, notably [[AttemptedRape attempting to force himself onto Nala]]. During the musical, Scar becomes [[SanitySlippage more and more paranoid]] as time goes by, also feeling that he was being tormented by his older brother even in death. Unwilling to admit that he's [[TheCaligula terrible at governing the Pride Lands]], he instead condemns all his subjects to death so that he wouldn't have to accept that maybe he wasn't as good at being a king that he thought he would be.
* HarsherInHindsight: ''Endless Night'' becomes even more heartbreaking after you learn that Jason Raize -- Adult Simba in the original 1997 cast -- committed suicide due to a poor relationship with his father.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh8M8x_0Qp0 The Madness of King Scar]]", in light of the plot of ''[[WesternAnimation/TheLionKingIISimbasPride Simba's Pride]]'', which was released a year after the musical premiered.
--->"Without a queen, what am I? A dead end, no line, no descendants, no future. With a queen, I'll have... ''cubs!''"
** The original Broadway cast features Creator/MaxCasella as Timon, who is given [[AdaptationalDyeJob reddish-orange fur]] in this adaptation. Four years later, he'd play ''another'' snarky, orange animal sidekick named [[VideoGame/JakAndDaxter Daxter]]. He even uses the same New York accent for both characters.
* HypeBacklash: 20+ years on, this show still regularly sells out in New York City, on tour, and in foreign sit-down productions (it's the only Disney show to truly become a blockbuster in London's West End). But with regards to the hardcore musical theatre fan community... it has a lot of haters on the Broadway.com message boards who think it's only worthwhile for the beautifully-staged "Circle of Life" number -- which is, of course, the first scene -- and nothing else. They chalk up its continued popularity to its LongRunners status giving the illusion of quality, package tour groups, families who won't expand their horizons to "real", non-corporate theatre, and foreign tourists who easily understand it. Because of its popular, critical, and awards success (in particular beating ''Theatre/{{Ragtime}}'' for Best Musical at the 1998 Tony Awards, even though that show won the Book and Score awards) only encouraged more and more {{Screen To Stage Adaptation}}s, particularly of animated/family-friendly features as opposed to more sophisticated, adult fare, it's one of a handful of shows accused of turning musical theatre as a medium into a shell of its former self (other shows with similarly bitter reputations include the Andrew Lloyd Webber canon, ''Theatre/MammaMia'' and ''Wicked'', and to a lesser extent ''Theatre/TheProducers''). Oddly, the stage version of ''Beauty and the Beast'' preceded this show by four years and received a much chillier critical reception at the time, but musical theatre fans are rather more forgiving of its long-running success even though it's arguably just as guilty of ''Lion King'''s perceived sins.
* {{Narm}}:
** It may require some effort to take the dancers dressed as [[PlayingATree grass and flora]] seriously.
** One bit that occasionally causes the audience to laugh is when the lionesses pull the sheets portraying their tears out from their eyes during "Rafiki Mourns".[[note]]It happened during the penultimate Dallas show of 2018[[/note]]
* OlderThanTheyThink: The bulk of the new songs, with some changed lyrics, originate from the album ''Rhythm of the Pride Lands'', which was released in 1995. Others were cut from the movie, or made it to the sequel.
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** The [[NoExportForYou Europe-exclusive]] NES port was a port of the Game Boy version. Despite limited colour, it had sluggish and delayed controls. Physics and jumping precision were also non existent in this version. To make things worse, the box cover says ten levels. The game itself only has six, meaning the Adult Simba levels were either glitchy or they didn't bother to program it in. It's quite telling that pirate companies made their own NES version that, while still an ObviousBeta, was nonetheless far superior to the official NES release. A pity that it was also the final game ever officially released for the console; hardly going out with a bang.

** "Can't Wait to be King" is filled with very annoying puzzles with the monkeys and tricky ostrich rides between them ([[UnintentionallyUnwinnable a mistake in this section can be fatal]]).

** The [[NoExportForYou Europe-exclusive]] NES port was a port of the Game Boy version. Despite limited colour, it had sluggish and delayed controls. Physics and jumping precision were also non existent in this version. To make things worse, the box cover says ten levels. The game itself only has six, meaning the Adult Simba levels were either glitchy or they didn't bother to program it in. It's quite telling that pirate companies made their own NES version that, while still an ObviousBeta, was nonetheless far superior to the official NES release.

* WereStillRelevantDammit: Productions have been known to incorporate pop culture references to break the fourth wall for comedy's sake. Sometimes these can work, but other times... not so much.[[note]]Case in point, during the penultimate Dallas show of 2018, Pumbaa quipped "Now that's what I call beating ''VideoGame/AngryBirds''!" after fending off the vulture trying to eat Simba. The audience collectively groaned, since ''Angry Birds'', as of 2018, was long past its time in the spotlight.[[/note]]

* HilariousInHindsight: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh8M8x_0Qp0 The Madness of King Scar]]", in light of the plot of ''[[WesternAnimation/TheLionKingIISimbasPride Simba's Pride]]'', which was released a year after the musical premiered.
-->"Without a queen, what am I? A dead end, no line, no descendants, no future. With a queen, I'll have... ''cubs!''"

** The [[NoExportForYou Europe-exclusive]] NES port was a port of the Game Boy version. Despite limited colour, it had sluggish and delayed controls. Physics and jumping precision were also non existent in this version. To make things worse, the box cover says ten levels. The game itself only has six, meaning the Adult Simba levels were either glitchy or they didn't bother to program it in. It's quite telling that when pirate companies made their own NES version that, while still an ObviousBeta, was nonetheless far superior to the official NES release.

* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames: The console games, while they are [[NintendoHard tough]], are still solid games.