In discussing Disney's pivotal influence in not only animation but American culture, I'm surprised one was left out (also an American institution)---Broadway! Most of us tend to think of Broadway shows as being very stereotypical, glitz and glamour complete with flashy costumes and elaborate dances, shows like Chicago; Memphis; and In the Heights. But in the 90s, once Disney enjoyed their reign as the heavy hitters in animated and children's film, a new progression was made. That progression took the form of translating perhaps the most famous Disney movie of the 90s,1994's  The Lion King, from animation to stage.

Michael Eisner, a prominent Disney exec and theatre lover, took The Lion King to the Broadway stage, with the help of famous and revolutionary stage director Julie Taymor, in 1997.

Obviously presenting this Disney classic in an entirely different medium presented some issues on all fronts. There are radical differences between animated film and the stage. Obviously in animation, you can make anything happen (animals talk, people fly, elaborate dance numbers, vivid coloring, etc..)

There are different problems that the stage presents. How do you convey the moving, talking, live animal characters, when you only have human actors to work with? How do you stay true to the story without cutting some of the  material to satisfy time, cost and production requirements? How do you even convey some of the more pivotal scenes in a way that makes them both understandable and believable (the stampede scene, the fire scene)?

Julie Taymor found creative solutions to all these problems. She kept the entire story intact. She used human actors to serve as: puppeteers (4 actors fit inside the legs of an elephant, which they then made walk), pseudo-animals with detailed masks, makeup and extremely ornate costumes, all while making it believable to the audience. 

The actors essentially had two parts they had to convey, human emotion through an animal character.

The forms of narrative were thought out, manipulated, and condensed in a believable medium to make The Lion King one of the top-grossing Broadway shows of all time. It still holds the most popular spot on the Broadway tickets website, and has ran an unbelievable amount of shows since it's opening in 1997.

Essentially when we think of one famous story, we tend to see it in the specific medium in which it was first conveyed to us. But through dedication and creativitity, we can translate just about any story from one form of narrative to another. Disney hit the mark and Broadway followed in capturing the essence of this story.

If any doubts remain as to Broadway's ability to condense stories to fit the stage, ever heard of Shrek the Musical?