The Lion King

An American classic, Walt Disney's The Lion King is the highest grossing traditional animated film in history, and it was the highest grossing animated film for all time until the release of Finding Nemo in 2003 (Wikipedia).
There are several messages that this movie really hammers home. Perhaps the most famous phrase from The Lion King is the "Hakuna Matata." It means 'no worries'! That is the key phrase that characters Timon and Pumba tell the young lion Simba. Simba mistakenly thinks that it is his fault for his father's death. But Timon and Pumba teach Simba the new way of thinking.
On a shallow level, "Hakuna Matata" seems to give the message that one shouldn't care about what happens; anything goes, who cares?, whatever. This could be a dangerous attitude and mindset because it encourages alack of responsibility and remorse.
But on a deeper level, it also talks about putting your past behind you. Someone (and I have no idea who) said that we cannot "...let our past mistakes define who we are." We cannot live our whole lives in a fit of self pity and dispair because of our past failures, but we must rise up and start anew; second chance.
And a second chance is what Simba gets. He gets a second chance at reclaiming a past friendship with Nala, a second chance to return to his friends and his family, and most importantly perhaps, to ascend Pride Rock and reclaim his rightful place as King.

This movie can be tied to God's Kingdom in many ways. I think that this movies "circle of life" idea can be associated to the "shalom" of God's Kingdom. This movie got it right because it shows how things are supposed to be; times of peace and prosperity and justice. In God's Kingdom there will be "shalom" and in this movie, there was always a push for things to be the way they are supposed to be.
This movie can somewhat be tied to the empire in that honestly, everything is not as it should be all the time. What with a power-hungry Uncle Scar who will stop at nothing to gain power, hyenas invading the Pride Lands, famine and drought, there is much work to be done as far as restoration and healing are concerned.
And thats not even to get into Simba's personal problems. He feels unready; unworthy. He feels ashamed of his past and struggles with who he was meant to be. Thankfully, he does finally find redemption and is able to take his place in the "circle of life".