History YMMV / TheLionKing

* FridgeHorror: In the Game Boy version, the "[[EasyModeMockery Cub]]" difficulty ends at the Stampede level.

* FollowTheLeader: Many concepts, compositions and [[CaptainErsatz characters]] are notoriously similar to that of Osamu Tezuka's KimbaTheWhiteLion. Whenever a member of The Lion King production team speaks on the matter, the claim is usually that they hadn't heard of ''Kimba''. In the case of some individuals working on the film this may even be true, but to assert that no one one the film's huge production team had ever heard of ''Kimba'' is iffy at best. This is not helped by the fact that early production reels depicted Simba as a white lion, and there are several claims of people on staff mistakenly calling the film a remake of Kimba, or calling Simba by that name. Much of the controversy is documented [[http://www.kimbawlion.com/rant2.htm here]].

** A ''lot'' of people really liked adolescent Simba, especially in the FurryFandom. (Not the way you're thinking. [[{{Squick}} Most of them]].)
* Fanon: many speculate that Sarafina is the lioness who tells Kiara, "My, how you've grown!" at one point in the movie. This is otherwise unconfirmed, however.

** Timon and Pumbaa. Loveable slackers who save Simba's life and help him deal with his trauma, or two feckless wasters who encourage a vulnerable young boy to hide from his problems and responsibilities so he can stick around as their bodyguard?

* HilariousInHindsight: ''Simba's Pride'' and {{Mulan}} came out the same year (1998) and in each there's a moment where Kiara and Mulan are not being listened to:

* HilariousInHindsight: ''Simba's Pride'' and Disney/{{Mulan}} came out the same year (1998) and in each there's a moment where Kiara and Mulan are not being listened to:

** This was probably intentional considering the number of ShoutOuts in [[ThePrincessAndTheFrog that film.]]

* WallBanger: The revelation in the sequel that there were actually ''lots'' of lionesses on Scar's side...and yet, absolutely none of them turned up at any point to help him in the original film. Ah, sequel-induced plot holes.
** Not particularally, Pride Rock was surrounded by huge fire at the time that was spreading rapidly, and when he fell, the Hyenas were already on the rock from when he tried to pin the blame on them. If one looks, it's quite likely no one could get to Scar to help him.

* {{Wallbanger}}: The revelation in the sequel that there were actually ''lots'' of lionesses on Scar's side...and yet, absolutely none of them turned up at any point to help him in the original film. Ah, sequel-induced plot holes.

* {{Fanon}}: Simba and Nala's son from ''Six New Adventures'', Kopa. Also many speculate that Sarafina is the lioness who tells Kiara, "My, how you've grown!" at one point in the movie. This is otherwise unconfirmed, however.

* {{Fanon}}: Simba and Nala's son from ''Six New Adventures'', Kopa.

-->'''Mufasa:''' Scar! Brother! Help me!
-->[Scar grabs him with his claws, making him roar in pain]
-->'''Scar:''' (with a slow and creepy tone in his voice) [[PreMortemOneLiner Long...live...the king.]]
-->[[spoiler: [He then [[MoralEventHorizon threw Mufasa off a cliff]].]]]

-->'''Ebert''': There have to be dark corners, [[NightmareFuel frightening moments]], and ancient archetypes like the crime of regicide. "The Lion King", which is a superbly drawn animated feature, is surprisingly solemn in its subject matter, and [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids may even be too intense for very young children]].

** Depending on how you view Zira's FreudianExcuse and how you view her AlternativeCharacterInterpretation, she may also qualify.

-->'''Simba''': I...I had a bad dream.

-->"Without a queen, what am I? A dead end, no line, no descendants, no future. With a queen, I'll have... ''cubs!''"

* DudeNotFunny: An in-verse variation. Banzai is complaining about his injuries after the hyenas' scuffle with Mufasa, and Ed ticks Banzai off because he ''won't stop laughing''.
-->'''Banzai:''' It's not funny, Ed.\\
''(Ed tries briefly to stop before bursting out again)''\\
'''Banzai:''' Hey, shut up!
** Related to that, when Banzai falls into the thorns, the other two laugh at him. When Banzai starts pulling them out, he spits a few into Ed's face. Of course he doesn't dare spit any at Shenzi - she's his boss.

* SuperlativeDubbing: Say hello to the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKo1krB6OJw Polish Dub]].

** Zira, from the sequel, is '''probably''' this, since she is clearly cruel, remorseless, and irredeemable. She even LovesTheSoundOfScreaming. She also later in the movie does something that has her own followers defecting to the other side. Whether or not she qualifies, though, might depend on how you interpret her FreudianExcuse, and maybe on whether or not you consider her spitefulness a more respectable motive than Scar's greed.

** Even in comparison to the first movie, the sequel is arguably much more intense. The villain of this one is motivated primarily by spitefulness, whereas at least Scar had the semi-pragmatic motive of greed. Zira's VillainSong is almost entirely about how much she LovesTheSoundOfScreaming, and said song is considerably more vicious than Scar's VillainSong. In general, the very style of this movie is arguably much darker than the first movie, like during the fire scene, [[spoiler:wherein we see Kiara surrounded by flames, coughing from the smoke, and collapsing from exhaustion,]] or during Zira's first attack, [[spoiler:when Simba is being [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown mercilessly mauled by several other lions]],]] and then there is "He Is Not One Of Us" where the pridelanders are all announcing their intense hatred for Kovu, who is not even guilty of what they are all accusing him of in the first place.

** And in the sequel, Zira probably crosses this when [[spoiler:she threatens to kill her own daughter for refusing to take part in the attack on the pridelanders. Well, if she didn't cross it before then.]]

* CompleteMonster: Zira.

* {{Wallbanger}}: The revelation in the sequel that there were actually ''lots'' of lionesses on Scar's side...and yet, absolutely none of them turned up at any point to help him in the original film. Ah, sequel-induced plot holes.

** Even in comparison to the first movie, the sequel is arguably much more intense. The villain of this one is motivated more by spitefulness than by greed. Her VillainSong is almost entirely about how much she LovesTheSoundOfScreaming, and said song is considerably more vicious than Scar's VillainSong. In general, the very style of this movie is arguably much darker than the first movie, like during the fire scene, wherein we see Kiara surrounded by flames, coughing from the smoke, and collapsing from exhaustion, or during Zira's first attack, when Simba is being [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown mercilessly mauled by several other lions]]. Then there is "He Is Not One Of Us" where the pridelanders are all announcing their intense hatred for Kovu, who is not even guilty of what they are all accusing him of in the first place.

* Wallbanger: The revelation in the sequel that there were actually ''lots'' of lionesses on Scar's side...and yet, absolutely none of them turned up at any point to help him in the original film. Ah, sequel-induced plot holes.

* NightmareFuel: See [[NightmareFuel/{{Disney}} the Disney section]].