10 Animated Movies That Should Have Won The Oscar For Best Animation (But Didn't Because The Award Didn't Exist Yet)

Now, while plenty of the films on this list did win Academy Awards (mainly the Disney ones) and became examples that would be followed by the rest of the industry henceforth, none of them are quite as famous as The Lion King.

The story, adapted from Shakespeare's Hamlet, features acts of unspeakable villainy, moments of true heroism, and is imbued with the emotional depth of a Greek tragedy. From start to finish, from song to song, The Lion King engulfs you in its world of elephant graveyards and tropical paradises.

The Lion King's strength lies in its simply awesome cast, featuring the voice talents of James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, Rowan Atkinson, Whoopi Goldberg, Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane. Together they manage to achieve something very special and give the film an emotional toll that Pixar would later set as the gold standard of visceral storytelling.

The standouts of the film's cast 26 years later remain James Earl Jones as Mufasa and Jeremy Irons as Scar. Both were drawn by the supreme animation team to represent features that the actors had in their own faces. Where Jones gets a fatherly rounded face, Scar gets a longer face and that fearsome Irons smile. It feels like an early version of performance capture.

The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning two for Best Original Score (Hans Zimmer) and Best Original Song (Can You Feel The Love Tonight).

In terms of legacy, the 'live-action' remake was met with lukewarm reviews but still made Disney $1.6 billion at the box-office, proving the goodwill of the original more than held up 25 years later.