The Lion King

Advert for The Lion King. (TV: Rose)

The Lion King was a film and a musical stage show which was based off of it. A London bus advertising the stage production once passed by Rose Tyler. (TV: Rose)

On Christmas Day 2006, the Tenth Doctor tried to impress upon the Sycorax leader his own belief in the potential of human beings by remarking, "From the day they arrive on the planet and blinking, step into the sun, there is more to see than can ever be seen, more to do than..." Abruptly, the Doctor stopped talking, realising that his speech was in fact lyrics from "Circle of Life", a song from The Lion King. (TV: The Christmas Invasion)

The Tenth Doctor had a Blue-ray disc copy of The Lion King on the TARDIS. (COMIC: A Rose by Any Other Name)

Behind the scenes

• Another song that featured in both Doctor Who and The Lion King is "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", which can be heard in Rise of the Cybermen, when it is played to mask the screams of homeless humans being converted into Cybermen. However, the song predates The Lion King and its link to The Lion King has never been established in the DWU.
• RTD also intentionally dropped a line from The Lion King — centring around the word "fixer-upper" — into Voyage of the Damned. It was apparently so "American" a word that producer Phil Collinson didn't know what it meant. (PCOM: Voyage of the Damned)
• Elton John wrote the music for the songs in the film as well as several songs in the theatrical adaptation.
• In terms of cast and crew overlap, Rowan Atkinson played Zazu and Hans Zimmer wrote the score for the film. Rob Edwards originated the role of Scar on the West End London theatrical adaptation.
• Beyonce played Nala in the 2019 film.
• Whoopi Goldberg, who played Shenzi the Hyena in the 2019 film, was someone whom Russell T Davies wanted in the show desperately.