33 interesting facts about the cult cartoon "The Lion King" (40 photos)

When I first watched the cartoon "The Lion King", I was simply in the wildest delight. Stunning and vibrant art, graphics, plot, action and music did their job.





1. The idea to create the cartoon "The Lion King" appeared almost by accident. One day, during a trip to Europe, Roy Disney (Walt Disney's brother and head of the company), Jeffrey Katzenberg (Disney producer and now the general producer of Dreamworks) and Peter Schneider (Disney's president of feature animation) discussed ideas for their future animation projects.



Peter Schneider, Roy Disney and Jeffrey Katzenberg

During this conversation, someone suggested the idea of making a cartoon about Africa, and others supported this idea.

By the way, this was the last Disney project Jeffrey Katzenberg worked on. A little later, he would leave Disney and create his own company, Dreamworks, and his first cartoon would be Shrek.

2. But there were a lot of problems with the script, as it was constantly being rewritten.

The first version of the script was written by the author of the cartoon "The Brave Little Toaster" Tom Disch. And according to the original idea, this cartoon was supposed to be called “King of the Kalahari.”





Little is known about the original script, but what is certain is that according to Disha's idea, the plot revolved around a war between lions and baboons. Also, in his script there were several male lions and even Rafiki, who here, however, was not a mandrill, but a cheetah.

But what is certain is that Katzenberg did not like this idea. He was quite good at visualizing the script in his head, so after reading Dish's script, he rejected it because he thought it was bullshit.



The second version of the script, tentatively titled “King of the Jungle” (despite the fact that lions don’t live in the jungle), which Jenny Tripp worked on, introduced a lion cub into the plot, who received the familiar name Simba. According to her idea, Simba fought off the pride and was kidnapped by a bird of prey, but in the end she was saved by a baboon and a mongoose (prototypes of Timon and Pumbaa). And although this script did not become the final one, part of it still formed the final version of the cartoon.



Over time, many more scripts were released that were rejected, but at the same time, some of the developments ended up in the final version. For example, Scar was originally not supposed to be Mufasa's brother at all. Thus, bit by bit, the final version of the script was created.

3. But, of course, we must not forget that the cartoon was very much inspired by Shakespeare's Hamlet. However, the creators didn’t even hide it.



There is a lot from Shakespeare's work here:

The king is killed by his own brother;

The shadow (ghost) of the father appears to the son. Moreover, initially this scene was not written in the script, but they decided to insert it so that Simba would have a good reason to return home;

The prince returns from exile to take revenge;

The scar plays with the skull. Let us remember poor Yorick from Hamlet;

According to the original version of the script, Scar was supposed to say the phrase “Good night, little prince” in the final battle, which would also refer to Hamlet.



3. Jeffrey Katzenberg decided to make a small reference to his life. Once in his youth, as a volunteer, he witnessed with his own eyes the political squabble during the election of the mayor.



4. In order to better study the behavior of animals, the film crew went to Kenya. It was there that they were struck by the idea of the Circle of Life and other things that were included in the cartoon. According to the creators, if not for this trip, the cartoon would have turned out completely different, and most likely much worse than the final version.



Moreover, it was thanks to this trip that the song “Hakuna Matata” appeared. During the trip, a local guide explained the philosophy of "Hakuna Matata". Disney liked this so much that they decided to insertThis is a cartoon. But initially this song should not have existed at all. Instead, Timon and Pumbaa were supposed to sing a song about the joy of eating insects.



5. A scene was cut from the cartoon where Scar harassed Nala, hinting to her with the help of a song that the queen’s place was vacant, and she could become it by giving birth to lion cubs. This scene, by the way, is available on the Internet. True, this is not an official fragment. This is the merit of one enthusiast who recreated this scene according to the script. Moreover, it turned out so well that it can’t be distinguished from real Disney animation.



6. Many characters were cut from the final version of the cartoon, such as Mi-Tu (Nala’s brother), Iggy the lizard, the wise fox and a meerkat girl named Tesma, with whom Timon was supposed to fall in love.



Concept of Mi-Tu (Nala's brother)

7. The funniest thing is that all the lions in the cartoon “The Lion King” were voiced by tigers. Yes, it just so happens that tigers roar more expressively and brighter than lions.

8. You will be surprised, but Disney did not place big bets on this cartoon. The fact is that the creators have long decided to move away from cartoons about talking animals. And the success of such hits as “Beauty and the Beast”, “The Little Mermaid” and “Aladdin” only confirmed this.

Many believed that “The Lion King” would be an outright bummer, so the main efforts were devoted to creating the cartoon “Pocahontas,” because it not only told about people, but also touched on real history.



As a result, in order to meet all needs, we had to hire even beginners without experience.

9. In order for the animators to cheer up and better feel the king of animals, a live lion and a lion cub were brought into the studio. It was scary, but it paid off.



10. Several groups of animators worked on the creation of the cartoon. So, for example, one group was responsible for episodes with Simba’s childhood, while the other worked on the adult main character, etc.

11. Mufasa had his own song prepared, which was to be included in the cartoon, and in which it was sung that being a king is a great responsibility.

12. After the release of The Lion King, many accused it of being a plagiarism of the old Japanese cartoon Kimba the White Lion. And Matthew Broderick, who voiced the adult Simba, was completely sure that he was in the remake of this Japanese cartoon.



Yes, there are certain similarities here. The main character's name is Kimba, which is similar to Simba. In addition, there is a lion with a scar on his eye, a monkey that looks like Rafiki, the protagonist's dead father, and several other similar moments. But the creators of the cartoon stated that they, in principle, did not know about the existence of “The White Lion Kimba.”



And you know, I believe them. Considering how much work was done on the script, which was put together piece by piece, the cartoon can hardly be accused of plagiarism. Although, perhaps, the Disney people are being disingenuous (at least the screenwriters), since there really are some similarities.



The company that produced Kimba the White Lion was offered to sue Disney for plagiarism, but they refused because they understood that they simply could not stand up against such a large company and their lawyers.

13. In addition to classic animation, some CGI elements were used in the film. And the most ambitious scene with 3D graphics was the iconic scene with a running herd of antelopes.



Painstaking and simply colossal work was done. And all this is not in vain. Even today this scene looks large and spectacular. And the most interesting thing is that it took almost three years to create this three-minute (or rather 150-second) scene.



14. Many of the characters' names were taken from the Swahili language. So, for example, Simba is translated as “Lion”, Sarabi (Simba’s mother) is translated as “Mirage”, Rafiki is “friend”, Pumbaa is “klutz”, Shenzi (the main hyena) is “grue”bai" etc.

By the way, about Pumba. Despite the fact that this Swahili word means “klutz” or “stupid”, this is what they call warthogs there. As their guide explained to the film crew, warthogs received this name because of their strange behavior, because if, while chasing it, a predator gets tired and needs to rest, then the warthog will also get up and will not run away further until it chases it again.



And of course, it was impossible not to note that Scar is not a name, but a nickname that he received after he “earned” his scar on his eye. And Khoya doesn’t say this in the cartoon, it is known that his real name is Taka, which means “Trash” in Swahili.



But the name Mufasa is in no way connected with any title. He was named after the last king of one of the Kenyan tribes that disappeared after colonization.

15. Elton John literally convinced the authors to include his song “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” in the cartoon, and for good reason, since this song eventually brought the cartoon an Oscar.



True, initially, during the performance of this composition, Timon and Pumbaa had to sing along clumsily and with dissatisfied faces (with mockery), since Simba was carried away by Nala. Elton John did not like this version and he ordered not to spoil his composition in this way.

The authors agreed with this and allowed Timon to perform part of the song in a sad tone, which was a good decision.



16. The Lion King was the first Disney film to feature real movie stars, not just voice actors, in the voice acting. Among them are such famous actors as Matthew Broderick (Simba), James Earl Jones (Mufasa), Rowan Atkinson (Zazu), Whoopi Goldberg (Shenzi the hyena), Jeremy Irons (Scar), Cheech Marin (Banzai the hyena), Madge Sinclair ( Sarabi), Nathan Lane (Timon).



Moreover, initially Nathan Lane auditioned for the role of Zazu, and Ernie Sabella for the role of one of the hyenas, but in the end they made all the employees laugh so much with their performance that they found more interesting roles for Timon and Pumbaa.



But the brainless hyena Ed was voiced (at least made sounds) by the famous voice actor Jim Cummings, who voiced a huge number of animated characters. Yes, it was he who voiced the Black Cloak in the Disney animated series of the same name.

And of course, it should be noted that many of the characters were copied from the actors who voiced them. Well, just look at Zazu. This is the spitting image of Rowan Atkinson.



17. The Disney studio was also interested in developing third-party projects based on their cartoons, including games. Therefore, even at the stage of creating the cartoon, the Disney company turned to the Virgin interactive company, which had already produced the successful game Disney's Aladdin for Disney, which many of us played on the Sega mega drive 2 console.

And precisely because the game was being created even before the cartoon was finished, there were some deviations from the future cartoon.



So, for example, at the level "Hakuna matata" (the last children's level) we had to fight a gorilla, which was not in the cartoon. As it turned out, according to the original idea, the cartoon should have featured the same gorilla who bullied Simba, but in the end it was abandoned. But they didn’t cut it from the game (except perhaps from the pirated version).

18. The march of hyenas to Scar's song is, of course, an allusion to Adolf Hitler and the march of soldiers of the Third Reich. It's not hard to guess.



19. James Earl Jones and Madge Sinclair, who voiced Mufasa and Sarabi (Simba's parents), played the king and queen in Coming to America, starring Eddie Murphy.



20. Pumbaa was the first Disney character to fart. To make the characteristic sound, voice actor Ernie Sabella gave it himself....his ownmouth, covering it with your palm.



21. Unlike other lions and lionesses, Scar's claws are always extended, which clearly speaks of his nature.



22. The friendship between a meerkat and a warthog is not at all fictional for a cartoon. In the wild, meerkats actually often live near warthogs and even eat ticks from their backs.



23. Initially, the marmot that crawls out of the ground was supposed to be a naked mole rat (there is such an animal). But the artists came up with a very strange animal, reminiscent of an indecent organ. The director even joked that if they insert this character, they will have to put an age limit on the cartoon. Therefore, the naked mole rat was replaced with a marmot.

24. Remember when Timon says the phrase “Should I wear a skirt and dance the hula?” So, this line was improvised by actor Nathan Lane, who voiced Timon. But the creators liked this phrase so much that they decided to draw a scene where Timon dances in a skirt made of leaves.



25. Young actor Jonathan Taylor Thomas could not correctly voice Simba at the moment when he tries to wake up the deceased Mufasa. Then the director approached the boy and whispered something in his ear, after which Thomas was able to act out the desired emotion. As it turned out later, the director told him something about his mother.



26. In one scene, Mufasa asks Zazu: “So what should I do with him?”, referring to Scar. To this Zazu replies: “It would make a nice rug.” Initially, this phrase was intended simply as a passing joke, but later Disney decided to use it for their cartoon "Hercules" (1997). In one scene, Hercules throws a lion skin onto the floor. Well, I think you already understand whose skin it is.



27. Disney often inserted Mickey Mouse references into their projects. "The Lion King" was no exception. The silhouette of Mickey Mouse's head and ears can be seen on one of the beetles.

28. Many viewers noticed that at the moment when Simba falls to the ground, dust particles fly out from under him, which form the word “SEX”.



The former Disney animator denied this information. He reported that the cloud of dust actually formed a word. But the abbreviation "SFX" was encrypted there, which refers to the team that did the special effects.

29. According to the original idea, Scar was still supposed to throw Simba off the cliff, which would have referred to the death of Mufasa. But in any case, Simba should have survived, and Scar should have ended up burning alive, laughing loudly. But in the end, the creators changed their minds and made the final battle scene much more interesting. Agree, Scar's death at the hands of hyenas is much more interesting and creepy.



30. With a budget of $45 million, the film grossed $968.5 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing animated film in the world, as well as the second highest-grossing film of 1994 after Forrest Gump.

The Lion King held its position as the highest-grossing animated film for almost 20 years, until it was supplanted by Despicable Me 2 and Frozen in 2013.

In addition, the film received two Oscars for music (Hans Zimmer) and for the song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" (Elton John). And I'll remind you. that the film was conceived as a passing project while the main group worked on the cartoon "Pocahontas". Not bad for a passerby, right?

31. Despite the fact that we know very well that the wise mandrill's name is Rafiki, his name was never spoken in the cartoon. He was generally called either a monkey or a baboon. However, his name can be seen in the credits and also heard in subsequent projects on The Lion King.



32. After the release of the cartoon, some viewers began to build theories that Simba and Nala are brother and sister, because in the pride one lion inseminates all the lionesses, and also kills the children of the former head of the pride.

The creators of the cartoon assured that Simba and Nala have different fathers, although nothing was ever said about Nala’s fatherhad an impact. Also, the creators asked not to find fault with some of the cartoon’s inconsistencies in relation to wildlife. Still, this is a work of art that does not pretend to be truthful.



But still, in the second part of the cartoon, which refers us to another work of Shakespeare “Romeo and Juliet”, the creators decided to make Kovu not his own, but the adopted son of Scar, so that no one else would build theories about incest, since Kovu and Kiara (Simba’s daughter ) were supposed to fall in love with each other.

And many years later, the authors even said that Scar is not Mufasa’s brother. But in my opinion this is a very strange statement.

33. After the success of the cartoon "The Lion King", a real conveyor belt started working. Specifically, two full-length sequels were released, the animated series “Timon and Pumbaa,” as well as the animated series “The Lion Guardian.”

And of course, let's not forget about the full-scale remake in 2019. The film was so successful that to this day it holds first place in the list of highest-grossing animated films.