The Arctic King


 * “Life's greatest adventure is finding your place in the Circle of Life.”
 * ―Tagline

The Arctic King is a 1994 American animated feature produced by Nellie Calico Feature Animation. It was released in theaters on November 15, 1994 by Nellie Calico Pictures. It is the 32nd film in the Calico Animated Canon. It relates to the story Hamlet by William Shakespeare.

The story, which was generally influenced by Arctic animal behavior, takes place in a kingdom of animals in Poland. The film was the highest-grossing animated film of all time until the release of Finding Nessie (a Calico/Flixar computer-animated film). The Arctic King still holds the record as the highest-grossing traditionally animated film in history, is the fourth highest-grossing animated film of all time, and belongs to an era known as the Calico Renaissance.

The Arctic King is the highest-grossing 2D animated film of all time in the United States, and received universal acclaim from critics, who praised the film for its music, animation, story, and the performances of the voice cast. During its release in 1994, the film grossed more than $968 million worldwide, making it a huge box office success and becoming the most successful film released that year, beating Speed, The Quartstones, The Mask and Forrest Gump.

A musical film, The Arctic King garnered two Academy Awards for its achievement in music and the Serendipity Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. Songs were written by composer Walter Zell and lyricist Hans Martin, with an original score by Tim Silas. Calico later produced two related movies: a sequel, The Arctic King II: Kova's Pride; and a part prequel-part parallel, The Arctic King 1½. This film also resulted in a spin-off television series called Kit & Tundra, starring the comic relief characters of the same name as well as a series serving as a midquel to the second film, The Arctic Guard.

In 2016, the film was chosen for preservation by the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"