Disney's Animated Storybook: The Lion King

Disney's Animated Storybook: The Lion King is the first entry in the Disney's Animated Storybook point-and-click adventure interactive storybook PC game series, based on theatrical and home video releases. The game is based on the 1994 Walt Disney Feature Animation film, The Lion King, which tells the story of how a lion named Simba rose to become king of the Pride Lands, claiming the role from his evil uncle Scar, who manipulated Simba into thinking that he killed his father (and Scar's brother) Mufasa. The game was developed by Media Station and published by Disney Software. It was released on November 18, 1994.

Conception
The vision of Marc Teren, VP of entertainment for Disney Interactive, was to create games with a "true and fair representation of the original property", and aim to capitalise as "ancillary products to successful theatrical and home video releases". To achieve this, Teren helped ensure the games were animated by Disney animators. From December 1994 to February 1995, the company had hired 50 new employees. Children's Business suggests the series came into fruition because in the contemporary entertainment market, it was "customary now for entertainment companies to release CD-ROMs to support a film or TV show".

Development
Disney and Media Station collaborated to create more than 12,000 frames of digital animation for each game, as well as 300 music and vocal clips. Digital music and sound effects were composed, orchestrated, arranged, edited, mixed and synchronized at Media Station. The games had hundreds of clickable hotspots that produced animated gags, as well as many mind-challenging interactive games. The voice cast sometimes consisted of actors from the films reprising their roles; meanwhile, at other times voice soundalikes were used.

Commercial performance
By February 18, 1995, Disney's Animated Storybook: The Lion King had sold more than 200,000 since its November 1994 release." Eventually, the title sold 400,000 copies. The Lion King became the top selling children's title in both 1994 and 1995. Together, The Lion King and Winnie the Pooh In the Honey Tree grossed between $1 million and $2 million in the fourth quarter of 1994. NewMedia's bestseller list of CD-ROM titles found The Lion King to be the fourth best-selling title in April and May, 1995. According to PC Data data released in November 1995, The Lion King had the 8th highest retail penetration, being featured in at least three-quarters of 16 major chains.

Critical reception
Multimedia World wrote in March 1995, "Disney's Animated Storybook: The Lion King is a winner that everyone can enjoy, from toddlers to adults." Disney Stories: Getting to Digital notes that it wasn't until this video game title that "Disney achieved its stunning visual quality in an interactive digital story on par with that in the animated films". Superkids gave Disney's Animated Storybook: The Lion King a rating of 3/5 stars. Coming Soon Magazine gave the game a rating of 85%, adding "it has many things to attract young children like animal characters and great artwork". Entertainment Weekly said Disney's Animated Storybook: The Lion King was "Hakuna monotonous", yet gave it a rating of B-. Allgame gave The Lion King a rating of 3.5/5 stars. Family PC Magazine called it a "a big hit", while USA Today said it was a "guaranteed kid pleaser". Computer Shopper positively compared the game to the Living Books title The Berenstain Bears Get in a Fight. Beth Kljajic from Adventure Learning Club said the game was "very poorly written".