Lion King vs Frozen

[ptdreher]

Question to all: What if the Lion King had been introduced in 2014 vs 1994? Would it it have been as popular as Frozen due to social media and the overall media penetration in our lives?
I believe it is because of our current times that Frozen is what it is and I believe that the Lion King would have been as big as Frozen if it were introduced today instead of 20 yrs. ago. Dont get me wrong, I love both movies, I just think we live in a more instant popularized culture than ever before.
What do you think?

 

[JEANYLASER]

Frozen I love it!

 

[Californian Elitist]

Frozen I love it!

I can tell you didn't read the whole post.

 

[monothingie]

Question to all: What if the Lion King had been introduced in 2014 vs 1994? Would it it have been as popular as Frozen due to social media and the overall media penetration in our lives?
I believe it is because of our current times that Frozen is what it is and I believe that the Lion King would have been as big as Frozen if it were introduced today instead of 20 yrs. ago. Dont get me wrong, I love both movies, I just think we live in a more instant popularized culture than ever before.
What do you think?

Social media had nothing to do with it. Tween girls 20 years ago versus tween girls today have more or less the same tastes when it comes to these things. A better comparison would probably be Aladdin (Jasmine).

DISCLAIMER: I am not a tween girl.
DISCLAIMER: I am not an middle age male FBI Agent.

 

[Hula Popper]

lol

 

[216bruce]

I think Frozen would still win. 1) It's a "princess" movie and that's what folks seem to expect and want out of Disney more than anything else, and it's what the company seems to do best. 2) It's a 'sister' thing that just resonates with tween girls and even older ones. Disney owns that demographic and thusly gets their parents too. 3) "Let it Go" tops any one song in Lion King for ear-worminess. 4) I never envisioned that Lion King would be a Broadway musical. Frozen is a gimmee as a huge Broadway hit that'll be around for a long time.

 

[Tom]

While it's hard to compare the two movies side by side, given their completely different styles of animation and pacing, I agree that the internet has a huge effect on how things are perceived and hyped today.

 

[216bruce]

One other reason, if we are judging by today's standards. I honestly think some folks would see Lion King as 'cheap' looking because it's 2d. I'll bet that most kids have never seen a hand drawn movie in a theater and think of 2d as 'tv animation' or just 'old' and not as cool.

 

[prberk]

I think Frozen would still win. 1) It's a "princess" movie and that's what folks seem to expect and want out of Disney more than anything else, and it's what the company seems to do best. 2) It's a 'sister' thing that just resonates with tween girls and even older ones. Disney owns that demographic and thusly gets their parents too. 3) "Let it Go" tops any one song in Lion King for ear-worminess. 4) I never envisioned that Lion King would be a Broadway musical. Frozen is a gimmee as a huge Broadway hit that'll be around for a long time.

You have to be kidding on #3.

While Frozen is good, and some songs are nice, "Let it Go" is debatable to some. First, although it is popular and even good, it is hard to say that it is better than "The Circle of Life," especially in context of the opening sequence of The Lion King. That scene is beautiful and amazing on a big screen.

And "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" is really fun. (And maybe similarly to "In Summer.") I also noted a while back that Frozen's "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" in some ways is equivalent to "Hakuna Mutata" from The Lion King in that it was a musical sequence that served the purpose of letting the characters grow up.

Remember that the re-release of The Lion King in 3-D recently was the number one movie for several weeks, even though it was old and already in most people's homes.

But, to me, The Lion King wins overall because it has a great story with heart, and is beautifully drawn. Frozen brought Disney back to these roots, and is also beautifully animated (in a way that looks like more like hand-drawn than most, by the way, even though it was computer animation). Lion King edges it out.

And, as for Broadway, one thing that made The Lion King soar on Broadway was exactly because it is breathtaking and unexpected in its exposition. The fact that Frozen already lends itself to the stage is not necessarily meaning that it will be breathtaking there, just natural. The Lion King was breathtaking on Broadway in part because of the innovative puppetry and new, unexpected approaches to staging.

 

[216bruce]

I'm just talking about the song itself. I said "ear-worm" which means it really gets stuck in your head. This has nothing to do with the accompanying visuals. And even that comparison is really pretty competitive on a visual basis. Elsa transforms her character during that song and it is her statement of 'self', while she builds her castle and isolates herself both physically and emotionally. It's a pivotal movement in the film. "Circle" is an opening number that exposes the setting and the theme with great visuals of Africa and it's inhabitants. While both are important to each respective film, I really don't think that "Circle of Life" has had the impact that "Let it Go" has had in pop culture on at least a short-term basis. Anyway, it's still too early to really say. "Lion King" has been around for almost 20 years, "Frozen" for 1. Only time can really give it perspective and gauge the impact of it. Until then, it's personal opinion. I like both and prefer hand-drawn animation, but the songs in "Frozen" are what made the movie so, so successful IMO. The story, characters and dialogue are really nothing exceptional (except Olaf...he's a hall of famer).

Broadway-wise, well, that's mostly due to Julie Taymor and her radical re-imagining and staging of "Lion King" with the costuming, dance and puppetry (sort-of). We really have to wait and see what the Broadway version of "Frozen" ends up being, but with the songwriters being Broadway songwriters it should have no problem transitioning to stage. Will it be as landmark a production as "Lion King"? Doubtful. That's a very hard act to follow and since it features a mostly human cast of characters, it's bound to be a more traditional staging and presentation than "Lion King" was/is.

They are both wonderful, but like most things discussed on these fine boards, it's a matter of opinion. In this case it's the number one animated movie of all time vs. the number one Broadway show of all-time- both of them in popularity. If you want to talk about 'greatness' and 'artistic quality' then neither are going to be in the discussion of all-time greats. But that's a whole other discussion.

And remember, the post is about today's standards. Twenty years ago tastes were different. Today, you have to gauge what is popular with today's audience. I don't know how Elton John would do today with current audiences apart from his generation of fans (and I'm 57). The last hits he had were Lion King...so...um...maybe not so much today. Lion King has sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 million units of it's soundtrack (not including cast album) and Frozen about 4 million. Both are impressive as hell but back in 94 there was nowhere near the level of online music theft/sharing that exists today, so I have to wonder how Lion King sales would be today. Regardless, 4 million of ANY album today is phenomenal.
Again, matter of taste and opinion.