Pocahontas Puts The Lion King Production At A Major Disadvantage

In a 2017 interview with Collider, "The Lion King" co-director Rob Minkoff said that Jeffrey Katzenberg had very high hopes for "Pocahontas" at the time of its development, believing it could to be a serious contender for the Oscars. "The Lion King", on the other hand, was described by Katzenberg as an early "experiment", which in its own way was liberating because, as Minoff reasoned, it liberated him and his production team. , to try to do something really revolutionary:

"In fact, Jeffrey Katzenberg spoke very well about Pocahontas and The Lion King [while] they were in production at the same time. He said, "Pocahontas is West Side Story meets Dances With Wolves" He said: "The Lion King, on the other hand, is an experience. So, we don't really know." But the fact that he allowed us to make a film without a real precedent, without a real formula... Because in Hollywood in particular, people love a formula, don't they? is a cue. If you understand the rules, that's how you're supposed to. Suddenly, if you don't have a formula — everyone wants a formula, but if you don't have it, you're really compelled to do something different."

While it would end up bearing a disconcerting resemblance to older animated projects (not to mention a certain Scandinavian medieval myth and William Shakespeare's play), "The Lion King" was otherwise something which deviated from Disney's formula at the time, as Minkoff pointed out. In another major departure from lore, the movie was still in the middle of production when Disney debuted "Pocahontas." This was all just an attempt on Katzenberg's part to get the studio to release a new animated film every year, which it had never done consistently until then.