This week marks 25 years since The Lion King was released by Disney in 1994, and over that time the animated film became a cultural sensation that spawned a media empire. The Onion looks back at The Lion King on its 25th anniversary.
1987:
Matthew Broderick narrowly avoids a five-year sentence for killing two people in a car accident in Northern Ireland, freeing him up to later voice Simba.
1993:
Film touted as first Disney animated feature with an original story, based on the apparent assumption that no one has heard of William fucking Shakespeare.
1994:
Elton John fills in as last-minute replacement for Kurt Cobain.
1994:
The Lion King video game for Super Nintendo has a whole level inside a volcano even though nothing like that happens in the movie.
1997:
Pumbaa-inspired pet warthogs adopted years earlier dumped at shelters by the thousands.
1998:
In the sequel The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride, Simba is captured and brought in a crate to the Minnesota Zoo.
2004:
The Lion King ½ companion film focuses on the untold parallel story of Simba falling in with a mystical sex cult led by gurus Timon and Pumbaa.
2014:
Live musical version surpasses Song Of The South to become the most successful Broadway adaptation of a Disney movie.
2017:
James Earl Jones asked to re-audition for Mufasa.
2020:
Grandma buys wrong Lion King.
