Movie Musings: Disney and More

25 Facts You Might or Might Not Know About The Lion King

On June 24th, 1994, Walt Disney Animation Studios released their original version of The Lion King. The film received universal acclaim and became the highest-grossing motion picture of 1994 worldwide. On July 19th, 2019, Disney will release a readaptation of The Lion King in the medium of motion-capture animation, 25 years after the original classic. In honor of that, I thought we could explore some interesting facts about this classic Disney blockbuster. Please feel free to comment on anything you find interesting.

• The Lion King (1994) was nominated for four Oscars and won two: Best Original Score (Hans Zimmer) and Best Original Song “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” (m. Sir Elton John, l. Sir Time Rice.) John and Rice were also nominated for the songs “Circle of Life” and “Hakuna Matata.”
• Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, who provided the respective voices of Adult Simba and Timon in the film, later befriended one another at the film’s premiere and have since starred in three Broadway Shows Together: Mel Brook’s The Producers (2001), The Odd Couple (2005), and It’s Only A Play (2014).
• “Lion King,” was readapted for Broadway on November 13th, 1997. The show won six Tony’s, including Best Musical. The show featured Samuel E. Wright in the role of Mufasa, who ironically voiced Sebastian in The Little Mermaid (1989). The show is still going strong, having played a total of 9,009 performances as of June 30th, 2019.
• James Earl Jones, the voice of Mufasa in the original film, will reprise the role in the remake
• “The Lion King,” lead to the creation of two direct-to-video sequels, The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride (1998), and The Lion King 1 1/2 (2004). Disney also produced two spin-off television series, Timon & Pumbaa (1995-1999), which aired on the Disney Channel and The Lion Guard (2016-present) which currently airs on the Disney Junior Network. Ernie Sabella has voiced the character of Pumbaa the Warthog in every one of these shows, except the new film. Seth Rogen will be the new voice of Pumbaa. 
• James Earl Jones and Madge Sinclair, the voices of King Mufasa and Queen Sarabi, Simba’s parents, previously worked together in a comedy called Coming to America (1988) where they played the King and Queen mother of Prince Akeem (played by Eddie Murphy). Ironically, there were scenes in the film where they wore costumes made of lion fur!
• In addition to James Earl Jones returning, the voice cast of Disney’s new “Lion King,” will also feature Beyonce Knowles-Carter, Billy Eichner, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Donald Glover, John Kani, Keegan-Michael Key, John Oliver, Seth Rogen, and Alfre Woodard. The film will be directed by Jon Favreau, who previously directed The Jungle Book (2016), which also featured the motion-capture technique, and won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. The same team of visual effects artists who worked on “Jungle Book,” will also be applying their talents to “Lion King.”
• The original film was co-directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, both of whom directed Disney-produced shorts, i.e.: The Little Matchgirl (2006) (Allers), Tummy Trouble (1989) and Roller Coaster Rabbit (1990) (Minkoff)—the latter two of which starred Roger Rabbit of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). Minkoff also directed The Haunted Mansion (2003) with Eddie Murphy.
• Jeremy Irons, the original voice of Scar, originally was able to do his own singing in the “Be Prepared,” sequence. However, his vocal chords became strained when singing the line “You won’t get a sniff without me,” and hence, Jim Cummings, who also voiced Ed the Hyena in the film, finished the song in place of Irons.
• Nathan Lane improvised Timon’s comedic line “What do you want me to do, dress in drag and do the hula?”
• In addition to the character of Scar having two separate voices, one for the speaking and the other for singing, several other roles in the film where shared by two different actors. The role of Adult Simba was spoken by Matthew Broderick, though it was sung by Joseph Williams
• “Lion King,” was in production at Disney around the same time as Pocahontas (1995). Everyone who worked at Disney at the time had more faith in “Pocahontas,” then they did in “Lion King,” and even thought that “Pocahontas,” would go on to receive a Best Picture Oscar Nomination (as Beauty and the Beast (1991) had previously done). Ironically, “Lion King,” proved to be the big hit, while “Pocahontas,” was met with mixed-to-negative reviews and didn’t make a great deal of money.
• When “Lion King,” won the Best Original Score and Best Original Song Oscars, it followed in the footsteps of all the Disney Oscar-winning films released prior to it: The Little Mermaid (1989), Song “Under the Sea,” Beauty and the Beast (1991), Song “Beauty and the Beast,” and Aladdin (1992), Song “A Whole New World.” Although “Pocahontas,” was a critical and financial flop, it managed to win Oscars in the same categories too. The “Pocahontas,” song was, “Colors of the Wind.”
• Andreas Deja, the supervising animator for the character of Scar in the film is known at Disney for being the supervising animator for many of the modern villains at the studio. He also animated The Horned King in The Black Cauldron (1985), Gaston in Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Jafar in Aladdin (1992).
• Jeff Nathanson wrote the screenplay for Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can (2002) and the screenplay for the new “Lion King.” 
• Shenzi and Banzai the Hyenas were voiced by Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin, both of whom have had Pixar voice-over roles. Goldberg voiced Stretch the Octopus in Toy Story 3 (2010) and Marin voiced Ramone in the Cars franchise (2006-2017).
• Hanz Zimmer is also returning to score the new film, and Sir Elton John and Sir Tim Rice have also re-teamed to make revisions to the songs they wrote for the original, in addition to all-new song called “Never Too Late,” which will play at the end of the new film’s credits. The film will also feature the song “He Lives In You,” which was written for the Broadway version of “Lion King,” by Lebo M.
• “Lion King,” was the all-time favorite animated film of Oscar-winning Silver Screen legend, Gregory Peck. He ranked the film in his top five all-time favorite movies!  
• Jonathan Taylor Thomas began recording “Lion King,” while starring as Randy Taylor in the Disney/ABC Series Home Improvement (1991-1999). Coincidentally, his on-screen, father, Tim Allen also began recording the voice of Buzz Lightyear, in Toy Story (1995), while starring on the show.
• Disney didn’t record actual lions roaring for the film. Frank Welker, who is known at Disney for voicing many non-speaking characters, including Max the Dog in The Little Mermaid (1989), Abu in Aladdin (1992), and numerous others, provided all the lion roars heard in the film.
• During the “Be Prepared,” sequence, the scene where the hyenas are marching past Scar can be connected to WW2 Symbolism.
• There originally was a song for Mufasa to sing called “To Be King,” but it was scrapped when it didn’t fit James Earl Jones’s singing voice.
• The plot of “Lion King,” can be compared to both William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and also the bible stories of Moses and Joseph.
• Liam Neeson was considered to voice of Mufasa, but he turned it down. Neeson later went on to voice Aslan the Lion in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005) and its sequels, Prince Caspian (2008), and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010). “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” and “Prince Caspian,” were both produced by Disney.
• “Lion King,” remained the highest-grossing animated film of all time, until it was surpassed by Toy Story 3 in 2010 and after that, Frozen in 2013. However, it is still the highest-grossing 2D Animated Film of all-time.