movies/tv DISNEY DEBATES: The Lion King vs. Frozen

[baba_booey 4,299]

I'd easily say The Lion King here, hands down one of my favorite movies. Frozen isn't bad, but I feel The Lion King had better plot development, characters and songs and is still fun to go back and watch.

[TheSqueelyOne 157]

While Frozen is great and deserves its place among Disney's classics, The Lion King wins by a mile for me. None of TLK's songs felt lacking, I prefer TLK's more colorful animation, TLK has a background score that I love enough to seek it out to listen to, which is rare for me, and TLK didn't feel like it was lacking in the story department. Frozen was weirdly front-loaded in terms of songs, "In Summer" and "Fixer-Upper" felt pointless, and the magic trolls were awkardly unexplained. I'd still call Frozen great, I just feel like it has a few glaring flaws where TLK doesn't.

Frozen being a far more recent film is also knock against it in my book, though that's not Frozen's fault or anything. It's just I've spent 22/26 years of my life obsessed with TLK, and obviously haven't had the same connection with Frozen.

[CandyStrike 603]

Frozen is much better. It is more emotionally impactful. I could really feel for Elsa but I never really connected to Simba. Lion King is great and all but Frozen is just better.

[King Sejong 858]

   I love both movies, but I give the edge to The Lion King, because it's movie mentor, that will let you have fun, yet will mature your sense of responsibility and purpose. Frozen is an inspirational story, however, it goes down the contemporary route of empowerment, in yourself and your sibling, by the time Frozen came around, this trope was all ready overused, even Tangled went down this path. Hans Zimmer and Tim Rice did a great job for the music, it was faithful to the setting, it made you feel like you were in Africa, with it's tribal beat, Frozen had very generic music, I do not really remember the score, apart from the main theme, and the only Scandinavian song was Frozen Heart, it was a missed opportunity to not have feature Nordic style music, which is quite appealing to listen too. The side characters were good too, Timon and Pumbaa were better than Olaf, who gets more than his fair share of attention, Timon and Pumbaa contributed more to the story, than Olaf who was mostly comedy relief, Timon and Pumbaa raised Simba, so they did more than just give the movie funny moments. Overall, I like both movies, but I love the Lion King more, it went into dark moments, then raised you up with humour and drama, the balance was done better here than in Frozen, I think the only contemporary movie that comes closer to the spirit of the Lion King is Zootopia. 

[Dreambiscuit 8,415]

This is a perfect match-up between two good but overrated Disneys. I love both movies, both are huge successes that vastly outshine superior movies in box office. Lion King beat Beauty and the Beast into the ground, yet Beauty and the Beast is a vastly superior movie. Frozen trampled Tangled, another superior movie. 

Both movies are great on their own terms but have their flaws as well. I'll give the win to Frozen over Lion King though because I like the music and characters better. For what it's worth. 

[Quill Waver 1,408]

The Lion King easily wins my vote in this one, and for three key reasons:

• Frozen had too many songs in the film to actually function as a story without them. Remove every single section of singing from the movie, and you can be left wondering what all had transpired. Personally, I think that if you have to put a story to a song for any reason aside cultural tradition, it is because the story, by itself, can not function, and the same is true with Frozen.
• The Lion King has at least somewhat relatable characters, whilst Frozen had Olaf, who I only found to be somewhat whimsical in his own way and only "tolerable". Simba, Nala, Scar, Timon, Pumbaa... Name any one of these characters to me and I can tell you who they are, their appearance, personality traits, etc. Call me forgetful, but I can hardly remember most of Frozen's characters. That can not possibly be a coincidence.
• The Lion King also, for a Disney film, had a rather interesting and horrific death scene that did not involve the character merely falling to their doom. Spoilers, but I imagine you have seen this already: Simba kicks Scar off Pride Rock's peak to a bed of ground. Scar is seemingly unhurt, as he rises up rather quickly as the hyenas surround him. They share a bit of dialogue:
  • Scar: "Ah... My friends."
  • Shenzi (laughing half-heartedly): "Fre-e-einds? I thought he said we were the enemy!"
  • Banzai: "Yeah..."

                    The camera cuts to a mortified Scar, realizing he made a mistake in trying to lie to Simba and blame the Hyenas for the plot against Simba and that they are responsible for his father's death plot as well.

• Banzai: "...that's what I heard."

                    The camera then cuts to the Hyenas again.

• Shenzi and Banzai: "Ed?"

Ed simply laughs evilly, and he licks his lips as a horde of hyenas slowly surround Scar. Scar pleads for his life continually, but to no avail, and the camera cuts to a shadowy backdrop of the scene, where Scar is briefly seen being eaten alive by the pack of hyenas. This personally was a compelling plot device for me even as a child, and still is to this day. I like a little implied violence when the story calls for it. Frozen? Want to compete?

[cider float 2,536]

Lion King. A pretty amazing movie for being so old.

 

Frozen's conclusion seemed a bit odd to me.

Edited May 22, 2016 by cider float

[cmarston1 5,954]

I would have to go with Frozen.

While I do like The Lion King, I was more emotionally invested in Anna and Elsa's storyline than I was with some of the things that transpired in the Lion King.

Also Elsa is one of my all time favorite animated characters.

The animation on the ice and snow was absolutely gorgeous, and the songs were great, especially Let it Go, which I could listen to for quite a long time.

Frozen was able to surprise me with how good it was, and I was able to witness it grow into the gigantic phenomenon that it is today, which is quite special.

But at the end of the day, I enjoy both of these films and would gladly recommend them to others to watch.

[Moony the Cat 3,697]

I normally dont care about classics and dont put them higher than newer things, just because they are classics, but Frozen had way to many songs in it and not really an interesting Plot for me,so...

 

The Lion King is waaay better for me. 

Also the Lion King had better Songs as well.

[Merion 783]

But what I think is unfortunate is that it is still an overhyped movie and it is shoved in our faces to the point where people say "I'm so sick of f***ing Frozen and Let it Go!" Now I love most everything Frozen but I can see why this can be annoying for some people. 

 

That's my problem with Frozen, actually. I'd love to get some decent Big Hero 6/Zootopia/The Lion Guard merch but I just can't find it anywhere. Frozen, on the other hand... New Frozen merch just keeps coming out like it's still the hottest shit. I swear I saw a Frozen doll commercial on TV the other day. Just stop, Disney. It's been 3 years, time to move on.

 

It's about as annoying as Minions.

 

 

 It's just I've spent 22/26 years of my life obsessed with TLK, and obviously haven't had the same connection with Frozen.

 

Same for me... It's my favourite movie of all time. I just had to vote TLK 

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,526]

I actually haven't seen Frozen, surprisingly. However, I am fairly confidence that The Lion King reigns surprise regardless. That movie is just timeless. The animation, the emotional moments, the characters, it is all soooo good.

[Buck Testa 5,503]

I'm surprised Frozen even has any votes in this "debate" 

 

Seriously Lion King is just better in every respect. It has a more concise story, its songs are memorable without being irritating, its visuals hold up even to this day, and it had my one of my favorite villains ever Scar. 

 

Plus Lion King made things like this happen

 

You can't beat that. 

[duidamasterXD 9,626]

Probably Lion King. Both movies have good songs, good villains (shoot me, I liked Hans) and tell great stories, but everything works together much more cohesively in the Lion King. The characters, music, visuals, setting, all of it gels just so nicely. I don't think Frozen's as bad as a lot of people say it is, but certain things (the setting, some of the music, Elsa in the second half of the movie) felt misused or underused. That's enough to put LK over the top.

 

I will say that I vastly prefer Frozen's characters.

[Spark Thunderbass 1,408]

Frozen doesn't stand a chance when compared to The Lion King, nor can it stand up to the likes of Toy Story either.

[Quinch 1,120]

I will say that I havent seen Frozen, so I cant make ckmparisons between the two. I will say, however, that the Lion King has a terrible moral. Think about it - theres a circle of life and everyone has their place in it. And if your place happens to be scavenging others leftovers and you do anything to elevate yourself, everything will turn into a barren wasteland. Its a beautiful movie, but the toneseems to fit best with the 1800s.

[Jokuc 8,172]

The Lion King easily. I saw Frozen recenty and I don't see what all the fuss is about. It wasn't really that great at all. I like the story, the art, the setting, the characters, the music... pretty much everything in the lion king better than frozen.

 

Frozen fans please don't be salty but in my eyes it's not even comparable to the lion king.

[EpicEnergy 22,530]

I like Frozen better than The Lion King. Both are amazing movies, but I tend to like newer movies more than older movies.

[Megas 27,185]

The worst thing to come out from Frozen was the amount of people coming out of the woodworks to beat us over the head on how objectively better The Lion King was compared to it to the point it became more obnoxious than the hype behind Frozen itself

[Evil Pink One 13,390]

Lion king for me.... the story was good.

frozen's song was the only reason it was good and hyped... psshhh I'm a fillypino and that voice is so common here. pshh even the guys here can sing those notes.

[Splashee 28,538]

Lion King for me. 2D animation, and higher production. Much much bigger than Frozen was. Also, Lion King had more good songs (plural)

[Tom Gallagher 33,536]

I've always hated Frozen and The Lion King is my favourite animated movie so there's a clear winner here! 

Edited October 31, 2021 by TomDaBombMLP

[TheRockARooster 48,067]

I love The Lion King, one of my favouriteDisney movies.

I've not seen Frozen yet but I'm sure that I'll love it too.

[Steve Piranha 29,210]

Frozen was fine, but Lion King? Really ? Might as well compare G3  with G4 horses 

[Miss 6,213]

While I don't think Frozen is particularly amazing, the Lion King I find to be an extremely boring film with generally awful music minus like one song. Not funny, never emotionally invested, etc. 

So def. Have to give it to Frozen for this. Frozen has a good amount of great songs, pretty funny sometimes, characters that are actually interesting. Plot isn't the most invigorating but def. Prefer it to Lion King in almost every way. 

[Sonic Shimmer 4,118]

Both of them are overrated.

Spoiler

*runs away*