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The Lion King
The Lion King, released in 1994, became the highest-grossing traditionally animated film in history at the time of its release, capping the "Disney Renaissance" period of the late 1980s and early '90s during which the studio produced a string of major critical and commercial animated hits. The film's story, drawing loose thematic inspiration from Shakespeare's Hamlet, follows a young lion prince's exile and eventual return to reclaim his birthright, and its emotionally intense opening act — including the death of the protagonist's father, Mufasa — is frequently cited as one of the more genuinely devastating sequences in mainstream animated filmmaking. Its Elton John and Tim Rice-composed songs, including "Circle of Life" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," won multiple Academy Awards and Grammy Awards, and the film's soundtrack became one of the best-selling animated film soundtracks in history. The Lion King's stage musical adaptation, which debuted on Broadway in 1997, became one of the highest-grossing productions in Broadway history, and the franchise's continued commercial life across theater, a 2019 photorealistic computer-animated remake, and ongoing merchandising has made it one of Disney's most enduringly valuable properties.
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Spirited Away
Spirited Away, directed by Hayao Miyazaki and released in 2001 by Japan's Studio Ghibli, became the highest-grossing film in Japanese box-office history at the time of its release and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, the first hand-drawn and first non-English-language film ever to win the award. The film's story, following a young girl trapped in a magical bathhouse for spirits after her parents are transformed into pigs, draws heavily on Japanese folklore and Shinto spiritual traditions, giving it a culturally specific mythological foundation distinct from the more Western fairy-tale sources typical of American animated features. Miyazaki's insistence on hand-drawn animation techniques, even as computer animation was rapidly becoming the industry standard elsewhere, reflected Studio Ghibli's broader artistic philosophy prioritizing traditional animation craftsmanship, and Spirited Away's visual style is frequently cited as among the most technically accomplished examples of hand-drawn animation ever produced. The film's blend of genuinely strange, dreamlike imagery with emotionally grounded coming-of-age themes has made it one of the most internationally acclaimed animated films ever made, and its critical and commercial success significantly raised international awareness of Japanese animation as a serious artistic medium beyond its existing anime fan base.
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