Picks and Pans Review: Lions of Darkness

By David Hiltbrand

UPDATED 08/22/1994 at 01:00 AM EDT • Originally published 08/22/1994 at 01:00 AM EDT

TBS (Sun., Aug. 21, 9 p.m. ET)

A-

This two-part documentary from wildlife filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert is strikingly reminiscent of Disney's hit The Lion King. An orphaned lion cub—like Simba—charts a perilous passage to adulthood, and hyenas are the drama's villains.

But the lions get, and deserve, top billing in these National Geographic Explorer episodes. No animator can do justice to these regal beasts.