9 Behind-The-Scenes Stories From 'The Lion King'
Vote up the impressive behind-the-scenes stories you would hold up to show the world atop Pride Rock.
At the height of the Disney Renaissance, in June 1994, The Lion King hit theaters. It was a smash hit, going on to become the highest-grossing animated film in history up to that point. According to Guinness World Records, it is still the highest-grossing traditional animated film of all time. Its success now seems like destiny fulfilled, but during production, it was far from a sure thing. In the early stages it was considered a side project and not likely to be a big hit. Production hit various snags along the way, including original director George Scribner walking off the project, creative differences with songwriter Elton John, and a major Los Angeles earthquake.
In the end, of course, it all worked out. Here are some of the most intriguing tales from the making of The Lion King.
In the finished film, the central song “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” is introduced by Timon the meerkat. He's expressing his fears that, now that Simba is falling in love, he will no longer be their carefree buddy. After a few bars, the song segues into other, less comical singers performing the bulk of the melody.
But that's not how it was originally meant to be. The first cut of The Lion King featured the entire song performed by Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella as Timon and Pumbaa. According to co-director Rob Minkoff:
Elton had written ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight’ as kind of a straight-up Disney love song, and we were all, you know, trying to be different. And so we said, ‘Let’s have Timon and Pumbaa sing it.' As a kind of send-up.
Co-director Roger Allers recalled an early screening at which John saw this version of his ballad:
When the movie ended, he turned around very quietly, and with great control, he said, ‘I think you’ve ruined the movie.'
Adds then-Disney Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg:
I was driving… as I was going across the Golden Gate Bridge, I had Elton on the phone, screaming at me. He said to me, ‘You don’t know what you're doing. This song is brilliant.'
Eventually, the filmmakers realized John was right, and recorded a more conventional, heartfelt version of the song.
Impressive story?Some of the voice actors on The Lion King did their own singing, as well as recording their spoken lines. Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella, for instance, did their own singing as Timon and Pumbaa on “Hakuna Matata.” On the other hand, Jonathan Taylor Thomas acted the voice of Young Simba, but Jason Weaver did the singing for “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King.”
Matthew Broderick, who voiced adult Simba, thought he was going to be singing his musical parts, but it turns out he was wrong. As he explained to Conan O'Brien in 1996:
When we recorded it, I sang, but they cut me out and used a different person. […] In their words, they said, ‘It just really took us out of the movie.’
Ironically, the year after The Lion King released, Broderick won a Tony Award for his performance in the musical How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. “It's kind of a Disney ending,” Broderick reflected.
Impressive story?- Photo:
- Pocahontas
- Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
3'The Lion King' Was A 'B' Project At Disney, Given Less Attention Than 'Pocahontas'
Given that it went on to become the highest-grossing animated film in history to that point, you'd think The Lion King was Disney's top priority in the years after Aladdin (1992) released. But in fact, the studio was much more bullish on Pocahontas (1995) to be its next big hit.
Rob Minkoff recalled:
We'd been working on [The Lion King] for a couple of months, and then Jeffrey [Katzenberg] calls a breakfast meeting. And in the meeting, we have the whole crew from Pocahontas and Lion King. And Jeffrey says, ‘Pocahontas is a home run! It's West Side Story, it's Romeo and Juliet with American Indians! It's a hit! Lion King, on the other hand, is kind of an experiment, we don't really know if anybody's gonna really want to see it…'
Artistic coordinator Randy Fullmer was annoyed by Katzenberg's insistence that one project was more favored than another. “That was like, ‘Wait a minute, are we second-class citizens?'” he recalled. But in a way, the situation took off some pressure and allowed the filmmakers to be less restrained. “When you’re on the ‘B’ picture and nobody knows what it is, there was no precedent set,” recalled artistic supervisor Daniel St. Pierre.
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'Be Prepared' Was Inspired By A Third Reich Propaganda Film
Scar's big musical number, “Be Prepared,” sets forth a dark vision of the kind of police state he is planning to create when he is king. The sequence features grim, dystopian visuals, including a shot of Scar looking down on endless columns of goose-stepping hyena soldiers.
The scene's visuals are heavily influenced by the 1935 Third Reich propaganda film Triumph of the Will, directed by Leni Riefenstahl. According to production designer Chris Sanders:
[The visuals] grew out of one sketch by story staffer Jorgen Klubien that pictured Scar as Hitler. The directors ran with the concept and worked up a Triumph of the Will-style mock-Nuremberg rally…
Impressive story? - Photo:
- Robert A. Eplett
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public domain
5A 1994 Earthquake Almost Derailed Work On The Film
On January 17, 1994, a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck Southern California. The quake caused billions of dollars in damage and up to 72 fatalities. It also had an impact on the production of The Lion King.
After the quake, it was impossible to continue work at Walt Disney Studios until the structures had been deemed safe. According to producer Don Hahn, work had to be redistributed to people's homes:
So, there we were, within months of finishing this movie, and all of a sudden people can't get to the studio. I mean, the freeway bridges were out, and the studio's closed, there were gas leaks, and we started to figure out, if we're going to get this done, the deadline's not gonna move. And so we started shuttling things back and forth. And, all of a sudden, this next big film from Walt Disney Pictures is being done in garages around Southern California.
Adds co-director Roger Allers:
When we finally were able to get back into the studio, people were… camping out, because they had no home, people were without power or water. It was crazy; it was like a tent town.
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Cheech And Chong Were Going To Play The Hyenas, But Only Cheech Was Available
Originally, there were plans to have both members of comedy duo Cheech & Chong play two of the hyenas. But Tommy Chong and Cheech Marin weren't working together at the time, so it didn't pan out. Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella, who ended up playing Timon and Pumbaa, also auditioned for the roles initially.
Marin agreed to play one of the hyenas; according to him, producer Jeffrey Katzenberg broached the idea to him while they were on a ski lift together. "I was looking to do anything that didn’t have a big joint in it," Marin recalled.
The second speaking hyena role went to Whoopi Goldberg, who says she “begged” to be in it. According to co-director Rob Minkoff:
We were having lunch and the head of animation walks in and says, ‘Guys, Whoopi Goldberg wants to be in your movie.’ We’re like, ‘How does that happen?’ ‘She had lunch with Elton John, who told her about it, and now you’ve got to figure out something, you’ve got to put her in the movie.’
We couldn’t get Chong and Cheech to work together. But we thought, ‘Could it be Cheech and Whoopi?'
The third hyena, played by Jim Cummings, had no dialogue, expressing himself solely through cackles, grunts, and snarls. It's pretty interesting to watch clips of Cummings in the audio booth.
Impressive story? - 7
Animators Studied Live Lions That Were Brought Into The Studio
In order to help them create believable lion characters, Disney animators were treated to a visit by actual, full-grown lions in the studio. They had a chance to observe the animals and sketch them in real time. Producer Don Hahn recalled:
There was this guy named Jim Fowler, who was a big star on a nature show called Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom… [H]e brought into the studio these huge cats. It was like Africa in Burbank… [The animators] could actually sit down in front of these cats and feel the size and the heat of these animals, and that made a huge difference.
Tony Fucile, the supervising animator for Mufasa, noted:
That really helped, to actually get right up front, close, a couple feet away from them. Like Joseph, a male lion, was pretty intimidating. You never forget that; it's always there in the back of your mind. […] When I was looking at Joseph, I was thinking, ‘I’ve got to get this type of strength into these drawings.'
Co-director Roger Allers recalled, “The male lion came in and was happy to lie down and be observed, but the lioness came in and there was something terrifying about her.”
Impressive story? - 8
Rafiki Was Made A 'Mutant' With A Much Longer Tail Than His Species Should Have
Rafiki, the cackling, slightly mad monkey who acts as a sort of elder or wise man for the lion kingdom, was voiced by Robert Guillaume. He is meant to be a mandrill, a species of Old World monkey known for bright blue-and-red coloration on its face.
However, real mandrills have extremely short, stumpy tails, unlike the long one that Rafiki sports. Giving him this tail was a conscious choice by the animators, who chose to disregard the real animal's anatomy in this respect. James Baxter, the supervising animator for Rafiki, said, “he's actually a sort of mutated mandrill – he's a mandrill with a tail. They don't really have tails, but he has a tail.”
Impressive story? As voiced by Jeremy Irons, Scar is one of Disney's more memorable villains. He's evil through and through, but also sly and witty in a way that makes us enjoy watching him. He's also, according to some, coded queer – which is to say, although his character isn't explicitly gay, he strongly reads that way to attentive viewers.
When asked about this, Irons himself said:
[It] never crossed my mind when making it, but seeing it, I have no doubt he's a complete closet gay, and he's miserable because he hasn't come out. And if only he would have done, the world would have been entirely different – he would have forgotten about taking over the monarchy. He would have been happy in himself with his partner.
Impressive story?
