2. MOVIES 7 - 5

7. The Lion King - $313,000,000

Directors: Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff
Year released: 1994

It's not only animated, it's also pretentious! Yes, the "circle of life," a sort of kiddified Social Darwinism, comes across as "philosophy lite." But perhaps we're reading too much into it. Maybe it's just about cute lions, Elton John songs, and all the merchandizing that Michael Eisner could have dreamed up in his wildest corporate fantasies.

The Lion King was so successful that it spawned a Tony-winning Broadway musical, a TV spin-off for its two supporting characters (Timon the Meekrat and Pumbaa the Warthog), and a really comfortable line of Underroos. It was also the first Disney animated film based on an original story with no human characters.


6. Forrest Gump - $330,000,000

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Year released: 1994

This is another movie based on a novel, and what's more, the author has also written a sequel that will undoubtedly be coming soon to a theater near you. The story about a guy who was "not a smart man," but always found a way to do the right (and historically significant) thing charmed audiences out of almost seven hundred million bucks.

The film's success can probably be attributed to two factors: 1) special effects that placed Tom Hanks in all sorts of historical footage, and 2) the romanticized nostalgia of Americana that the film evoked. The fact that the movie reveled in the last 50 years of American history as if it were the most important time in the history of the world drew some boos from critics, but boomers meshed with this flick like peas with carrots.


5. Jurassic Park - $357,000,000

Director: Steven Spielberg
Year released: 1993

The most fun movie of the summer of '93 was a big, bad dinosaur movie featuring the lizards that weren't there. Featuring groundbreaking use of computer animation, Jurassic Park made dinosaurs look more real than any other movie before it. Capturing a level of detail unseen to that point on the screen, there is not one scene in the entire movie that looks fake. Just try to find one.

Based on Michael Crichton's bestselling book, Jurassic Park actually remained quite true to the original story. The lesson to be learned: don't mess with a winning formula.