in which the character "faces discipline by his dad after his adventure with the hyenas." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote that Simba "has been given a marvelously expressive face" to the point of which "He seems more human than the Ken and Barbie types featured in Aladdin and The Little Mermaid." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone described "the father-son relationship" shared by Simba and Mufasa as "movingly rendered," while About.com's David Nusair wrote, "it's the touching father/son stuff that lies at the heart of the movie that cements The Lion Kings place as an utterly timeless piece of work." James Berardinelli of ReelViews enjoyed the fact that the film focuses more on the story of Simba himself as opposed to the romantic relationship developing between the character and Nala. However, Berardinelli criticized Matthew Broderick's vocal performance, describing it as "nondescript." Rob Humanick of Slant Magazine hailed the fact that "it's never laid on [Simba] that his time as king will directly correspond with the eventual passing of his father" as one of the film's "most important facets." However, he criticized The Lion Kings characters, describing them as well-designed but "lazy and troublesome." The Austin Chronicles Robert Faires felt that Simba and the other Lion King characters, though "true", were simply unoriginal retreads of preceding animated characters who were "swiped from other Disney cartoons." Hal Hinson of The Washington Post gave the character a negative review. Labeling Timon and Pumbaa the only interesting characters in The Lion King, Hinson questioned Simba's role as the film's hero. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times agreed, "A movie's heroes may have their names above the title, but often as not it's the sidekicks who get the real work done." Turan went on to pan Simba, describing him as "irritatingly callow." Chris Hick of the Deseret News complained about the fact that Simba and the other "characters in The Lion King are not as warm and fuzzy as other Disney animated features," crediting this with making "the film a bit tougher to warm [up] to." ComingSoon.net strongly panned Simba as a lead character, writing, "typically for Disney animated fare, it's the hero who is the weak link being both blandly designed and blandly performed." Acknowledging the character's Shakespearean origins, The Baltimore Suns Stephen Hunter gave Simba a negative review, writing, "Alas ...Simba stands in for Hamlet, but he's a lot less complicated; in