Franchise / The Lion King

"We are all connected in the great Circle of Life."

The Lion King is a popular Disney franchise that began in 1994 with the Disney Animated Canon film of the same name. It mainly revolves around a pride of lions who are the royalty overseeing a vast swath of African savannah called the Pride Lands, with the pride's leader seen as king by the other animals. The franchise's first three films famously feature many Shakespearean themes in their plots.

This was Disney's second franchise to have EGOTed (Beauty and the Beast was the first), and to this day retaining the record for the shortest timespan to receive all four awards, receiving its grand slam in only four years.

Works with pages on TV Tropes:

Comic Books

• The Lion King: A series of mostly unrelated comics based on the original film.
• The Lion King: Wild Schemes & Catastrophes (2019): An anthology with four stories set before the 2019 remake, focusing on Simba as a cub.
• Disney Storied Places (2019): An anthology featuring stories based around location of Disney films.
• Scar (2023): A series starring the villain Scar as part of the Disney Villains line.

Films

• The Lion King (1994): The highest-grossing traditionally animated film of all time. A young lion cub prince gets tricked by his uncle, the king's brother, into thinking he killed his father. After the cub grows up, he later learns of his uncle's tyranny and goes to face him to reclaim his throne. Part of the Disney Renaissance, it is very inspired by Hamlet.
• The Lion King II: Simba's Pride^note later retitled The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride (notice the Arabic numeral replacing the Roman numeral) (1998): The first Direct to Video sequel. The king's lioness daughter bonds with a lion from a banished pride who still sees the king's uncle as the "rightful" king. Inspired by Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth.
• The Lion King 1 ˝^note The Lion King 3: Hakuna Matata outside of North America (2004): The second Direct to Video sequel, although it's more of a prequel/interquel of the first film from the perspective of Those Two Guys. A meerkat wants to get away from his monotonous life digging tunnels and goes out to find a better life, befriending a warthog along the way. Has similarities to the modern Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
• The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar (2015): The Pilot Movie to the franchise's second TV series (see below).
• The Lion King (2019): The highest-grossing animated film of all time^note Though Disney doesn't officially consider it as such, instead claiming Frozen II to hold that spot. A photorealistic reimagining of the first film directed by Jon Favreau, following Disney's trend of live-action remakes of their animated films.
  • Black Is King (2020): A visual album film released on Disney+ and primarily made by Beyoncé (who voiced Nala in the remake) and based on the tie-in album she curated for the remake, The Lion King: The Gift, made up of several segments forming into a narrative that parallels the plot of the original film.
• Mufasa: The Lion King (2024): A sequel/prequel to the 2019 film, directed by Barry Jenkins. The backstory of Simba's father Mufasa and how he went from an orphaned cub to becoming king of the Pride Lands, told to Simba's children by his friends.

Music

• The Lion King: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1994): The soundtrack album of the 1994 film, featuring songs by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice, and a score by Hans Zimmer.

Television series

• The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa (1995–1999): The first spinoff, set between the first and second film, focusing on that meerkat and warthog duo mentioned above as they have adventures in the jungle they call home and elsewhere. Very different from the first film.
• The Lion Guard (2015–2019): Made for young audiences, this series is an interquel set within the timeline of the second film. The king's son leads a diverse group of animals in defending the Pride Lands.

Literature

• The Lion King: Six New Adventures (1994): A series of short picture books set sometime after the original film. The king's son (not the same one as The Lion Guard above) is told about events that happened in the past. This series is considered semi-canon.

Theatre

• The Lion King (1997): The Spectacle-loaded Screen-to-Stage Adaptation of the original film, the third-longest running show on Broadway, and the highest-grossing Broadway production of all time.

Theme park attractions

• The Enchanted Tiki Room (Under New Management) (1998–2011): Zazu the hornbill made an appearance in this Walt Disney World update to the classic attraction as one of the hosts of the show, alongside Aladdin's Iago.
• Festival of the Lion King (1998-): A stage show at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Walt Disney World, featuring a cast of original characters singing the songs of the original film alongside animatronics of Simba and Pumbaa, and a costumed actor playing Timon. One of the original characters also fills in as Scar for "Be Prepared."

Video games

• The Lion King (1994): A Platform Game for Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo among others that loosely follows the plot of the original film. Good, but difficult.
• Disney's Animated Storybook: The Lion King (1994): A point-and-click edutainment game for Windows and Macintosh computers serving as the first entry in that series. Basically, an interactive abridged retelling of the original film.
• The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride (1998): Four arcade-style minigames for Windows themed after the namesake film.
• The Lion King: Simba's Mighty Adventure (2000): A Platform Game for Game Boy Color and PlayStation that follows the plots of the first two films.
• Kingdom Hearts (2002—present): The video game series developed by Disney and Square Enix features characters and settings from the franchise.
  • Kingdom Hearts (2002), Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (2004), and Kingdom Hearts III (2019): Simba is featured as an ally the player can summon to aid them in battle.
  • Kingdom Hearts II (2005) adapts the plot of the latter parts of the original film with the series' original characters taking part in the action, and then includes an original story set during the final Time Skip of the film.
    • Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory (2020) features two stages based on the film's world from II with Simba as a guest party member, as well as an unlockable stage set to "Circle of Life".
• Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure (2003): Simba, Timon & Pumbaa, Rafiki and Nala appear as playable skaters, with Pride Rock, the Elephant Graveyard and Scar's Canyon (aka the gorge that the wildebeest stampede took place in) being available as skatable levels. Zazu and Scar appear as NPC's, the latter being the boss of the three levels.
• Disney Friends (2007): Simba appears as an interactive friend, with Timon and Pumbaa appearing in adventures.

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