Cmv   the lion king is hugely overrated:
There was a golden age of sorts for Disney where they moved on from the fairly dull and flat movies of the past that started with The Little Mermaid and extended through Beauty and the Beast and Alladin. But then there was lion king.

Even if you hadn't seen or heard of Kimba the White Lion, the Lion King was so predictable as to be cliche. The characters and songs weren't anything more special than any other Disney movie either. 

I believe that the people who prosthelytize about the movie are mostly the ones who watched is as kids or young adults looking through nostalgia colored glasses. People who's first exposure to a real and dramatic story was Lion King so they came to believe that Lion King did something unique or special (when it really, really didn't).