Which film do you feel was, at their respective times, more significant culturally? For myself I remember Toy Story seeming to have a larger, and longer presence in pop culture at least among kids, despite not being as big at the box office as The Lion King had been.

"The Lion King" for it was influenced by William Shakespeare's "Hamlet".

This is a tough one.  The Lion King was probably the height of the Disney Renaissance.  However I think Toy Story was more important simply because it began the era of CGI animation.  Nothing like it had been done before and it set the stage for most of the animated films of the '00s and '10s.

Toy Story is more important and here's why. It impacted the animation industry in multiple ways. For decades up until Toy Story came out in 1995 the most made money animated films in box office had the traditional 2-D cel style of animation. Toy Story was the first full CGI animated film in the history of cinema, and it started the decline of 2-D animated films and the rise of 3-D CGI films. This later led to hit CGI movies such as Antz, A Bug's Life, Shrek, Monster's Inc, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, and Finding Nemo. CGI animated companies like Pixar and Dreamworks began to surge while 2-D animated films were dying out by the early 2000's and failed in box office miserably. This is why the 2000's was a weird transitional time for animation because 2-D animation was on huge decline and when you look back at those CGI movies it hasn't aged well compared to the CGI films of the 2010's with HD crisp clear quality and better rendering. I believe CGI animation has been fully established throughout the 2010's with the revival of Disney, Illumination Entertainment, Sony Pictures Animation (modern), and Pixar continuing to give us good films once in a while. Dreamworks has kinda fallen off though as the only exception.

I think both.

Quite obviously Toy Story. The Lion King may have been much more financially successful and considered one of the gold standards of 2D animation, but Toy Story was an absolute groundbreaker for animation as a whole, having not only innovated the type of dialogue and ideas that appear in kid's animated movies, but also solidified 3D animation as the wave of the future, to the point that a mere decade after The Lion King was released, 2D animated films had their unofficial death in Western market with Home on the Range.

Quite obviously Toy Story. The Lion King may have been much more financially successful and considered one of the gold standards of 2D animation, but Toy Story was an absolute groundbreaker for animation as a whole, having not only innovated the type of dialogue and ideas that appear in kid's animated movies, but also solidified 3D animation as the wave of the future, to the point that a mere decade after The Lion King was released, 2D animated films had their unofficial death in Western market with Home on the Range.
The cgi part is the most obvious reason why it's so groundbreaking. I mention on another thread that 1995 was arguably the first Y2K year since you had Toy Story, PS1, Sega Saturn, DragonBall, and Windows 95 all coming out in that year. All of which had an impact on 2000s culture.

The cgi part is the most obvious reason why it's so groundbreaking. I mention on another thread that 1995 was arguably the first Y2K year since you had Toy Story, PS1, Sega Saturn, DragonBall, and Windows 95 all coming out in that year. All of which had an impact on 2000s culture.


Y2K influences, doesn't mean the culture was there yet.

I don't know if you will agree, but in a way, 1995 was like 2007.

Both are boar years (1995 was the year of the Wood Boar. 2007 was the year of the Fire Boar.), both are very significant years when it comes to technology (1995 brought Windows 95 and the beginning of CGI animation. 2007 brought the release of the iPhone), and both are arguably the first years that have influence of the next era (for 1995, it would be the Y2K era. For 2007, it would be the Electropop era).


Typical decadeology.

Typical decadeology.


Yeah you're right; I should delete it.

I think Toy Story, as it brought in a whole new era of animation like others have said. The style of Animated films today can be traced back to Toy Story in a broad sense.

Toy Story easily. It revolutionized the animation industry with its innovative use of CGI. However, personally I always felt The Lion King was a much better film (Toy Story is still my childhood though!). In a way, The Lion King, due to it not being heavy on CGI/special effects in its traditional animation has made the film age much better, while Toy Story's (at times) choppy CGI can definitely make the film seem much older. Thus, in the long run I think The Lion King is (has and always will be) considered the better and more timeless film (in a similar caliber to films like Snow White, Cinderella, or Peter Pan).

I just rewatched The Lion King for the first time in a long time.  I have to say, it really brought out the 90s kid in me.  Few movies capture that essence like The Lion King and also Toy Story.  However, I am also wondering what it was about The Lion King that made it such a big deal.  Sure, it was an excellent Disney classic but few were the kind of pop cultural phenomenon that The Lion King was.  I honestly don't think Toy Story was quite that big, though it certainly was a big deal.  The Lion King was in a class all its own and is still remembered as being one of the best of the best Disney movies.

The Lion King was definitely more impactful in its immediate aftermath, with its massive following,  huge hit soundtrack, and its quick adaptation into a highly successful Broadway musical that now jointly rank as the highest grossing title in box-office history.

Toy Story's argument here really stems from its status as the foundation for full-length CGI, which is of course a huge benchmark in cinema history.

So looking at it from today's perspective, I would argue that Toy Story feels more historically significant as a film but still less culturally relevant, since The Lion King's hit status has not waned a bit over the years and it is still frequently shown and referenced even now.

^^^ I like you mentioned the soundtrack and I think that played a significant role in The Lion King's pop cultural significance.  This was 1994 and Elton John was still a pretty big deal at that time.  His songs recorded for The Lion King are still AC radio staples to this day.