Search results
The Lion King was released on June 15, 1994, receiving critical acclaim for its music, story, themes, and animation. With an initial worldwide gross of $763 million, it finished its theatrical run as the highest-grossing film of 1994 and the second-highest-grossing film of all time, behind Jurassic Park (1993). [6]
- The Lion King (Disambiguation)
The Lion King is a 1994 animated Disney film.. The Lion King...
- Walt Disney Feature Animation
Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to...
- Scar
Scar is a fictional character and the main antagonist in...
- Simba's Pride
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (also titled as The Lion...
- The Lion Guard
The Lion Guard is an American animated television series...
- Ernie Sabella
Ernest Sabella (born September 19, 1949) is an American...
- Sally Dworsky
Sally Dworsky is an American singer-songwriter and playback...
- Nala
Nala is a fictional character in Disney's The Lion King film...
- Disney Renaissance
The ten films considered to make up the Disney Renaissance...
- Mufasa
The main characters in the 1994 film The Lion King.From left...
- The Lion King (Disambiguation)
- Overview
- Plot
- Cast
- Development
- Music
- Release
- Trivia
“The greatest adventure of all is finding our place in the circle of life.”
―Tagline
is an animated, musical/drama feature film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation as the 32nd film in the Disney Animated Canon. Containing elements of Hamlet and Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the story centers a lion prince named Simba, who must overcome the loss of his father and his villainous uncle, Scar, in order to take his rightful place as the king of the Pride Lands.
received universal acclaim from critics, who praised the film for its music, animation, story, and the performances of the voice cast. During its release in 1994, the film grossed more than $763 million worldwide, making it the most successful film released that year, beating Forrest Gump, True Lies, The Mask, and Speed. Today, The Lion King holds the record as the highest-grossing traditionally animated film in history. Its success solidified what was regarded as the Disney Renaissance. It also became the second highest-grossing animated film after Aladdin.
was followed by two movies: a sequel The Lion King II: Simba's Pride and a part prequel-part parallel The Lion King 1½. Additional spin-offs include the television series Timon & Pumbaa and The Lion Guard. In 2019, a theatrical remake of the film was released using photorealistic computer animation to portray the characters and environments.
In 2016, the film was chosen for preservation by the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The story of The Lion King takes place in an African kingdom called the Pride Lands, where a lion rules over the other animals as king.
In the lands of Africa, in the "Circle of Life", Rafiki, a mandrill shaman, anoints Simba, the newborn cub of King Mufasa and Queen Sarabi, and presents him to a gathering of animals at Pride Rock. Meanwhile, Mufasa's younger brother, Scar, who decided not to be at the ceremony, is annoyed that he is no longer the heir to the throne. Mufasa confronts Scar about not attending the ceremony and says to not turn his back on him when he tries to leave. When Scar says Mufasa should not turn his back on him and Mufasa asks him if it is a challenge, Scar replies that he would not dream of it as he lacks brute strength. After Scar leaves, Mufasa wonders what to do with him.
A few years later, Mufasa shows a young Simba the Pride Lands and explains to him the responsibilities of kingship and the "circle of life", which connects all living things. Meanwhile, Scar plots to eliminate Mufasa and Simba so he may become king. He tricks Simba and his best friend Nala into exploring a forbidden elephant graveyard. Simba, Nala, and Zazu head off to the watering hole rather as he "just can't wait to be king". Simba and Nala make it to the elephant graveyard, where they are chased by three hyenas named Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed, who are in league with Scar. Mufasa is alerted of the incident by Zazu and rescues the cubs. Though disappointed in Simba, Mufasa eventually forgives him and explains that the great kings of the past watch over them from the night sky, from which he will one day watch over Simba.
Later that night, Scar gains the loyalty of the hyenas by claiming that if he becomes king, they will "never go hungry again" if they help him kill Mufasa and Simba with "Be Prepared". Plotting further, Scar gathers more hyenas forming an army. Sometime later, Scar lures Simba into a gorge for a "surprise from his father" then signals the hyenas to create a wildebeest stampede down into the gorge where Simba is. Alerted by an insincerely dramatic Scar, Mufasa races to rescue Simba from the stampede. He saves his son but is left clinging to the edge of a cliff, which results in Scar flinging him into the stampede below to his death. Scar convinces Simba that he was responsible for his own father's death and recommends that he flees the Pride Lands, never to return. To compound this, Scar once again sends the hyenas to kill Simba, but as Simba reaches a thorny embankment, they let him escape, hurling threats that he will be killed if ever seen again. That night back at Pride Rock, Scar informs Sarabi, Nala, and the rest of the pride that both Mufasa and Simba were killed in the stampede and that he is assuming the throne as the closest of kin. After becoming king, Scar fulfills his promise to the hyenas and allows them to come into the Pride Lands.
Simba collapses in a distant desert where he is found unconscious by Timon and Pumbaa, a meerkat-warthog duo who raise Simba under their carefree "Hakuna Matata" lifestyle. When Simba has grown into a young adult, he saves them from a hungry lioness revealed to be Nala. Simba shows Nala around his home, and the two begin to fall in love with "Can You Feel The Love Tonight". Nala then tells him that Scar's tyrannical reign has turned the Pride Lands into a barren wasteland; she demands that Simba return and take his rightful place as king, but Simba refuses, still guilty about supposedly causing his father's death. Rafiki arrives and persuades Simba to return to the Pride Lands, assisted by Mufasa's presence in the stars. After some advice from Rafiki and the ghost of his father, Simba, followed by Nala, Timon, and Pumbaa, returns home.
Once back at Pride Rock, Simba (with Timon, Pumbaa, and Nala) is horrified to see the condition of the Pride Lands. What was once a lush paradise was now a dead wasteland. With the overhunting, the prey eventually left the Pride Lands, causing famine in the pride. After seeing Scar strike his mother that he is "ten times the king Mufasa was", Simba announces his return. In response, Simba confronts Scar, who forces Simba to confess to being responsible for Mufasa's death. Scar then forces Simba over the edge of Pride Rock, just as a lightning bolt starts a fire below. As Simba dangles over the edge of Pride Rock, Scar whispers to Simba that he killed Mufasa. Enraged, Simba leaps up and pins Scar to the ground, forcing him to admit the truth to the pride. A raging battle ensues between the hyenas and the lionesses, Timon, and Pumbaa, which results in Simba cornering Scar. Amid their fight, Scar tries to surreptitiously blame everything on the hyenas, but the hyenas overhear his conversation with Simba and back away growling. Simba orders Scar to flee the Pride Lands. Scar pretends to leave but turns to attack Simba, resulting in a final duel. Simba eventually overpowers Scar by kicking and hurling him over a low cliff. Scar initially survives the fall but finds himself surrounded by the now resentful hyenas. The hyenas surround their traitorous fallen leader. Scar frantically tries to absolve himself, but the hyenas finally had enough of his lies, derogatory treatment, and violated promises, so they ignore his life plea, attack him, and maul him to death, as flames rise around and engulf them.
•Matthew Broderick as Simba (voiced by as a cub and as an adult)
•Jonathan Taylor Thomas as young Simba
•Jason Weaver as young Simba (singing)
•Joseph Williams as adult Simba (singing)
•Moira Kelly as Nala
•Niketa Calame as young Nala
The idea for The Lion King was conceived in late 1988 during a conversation between Jeffrey Katzenberg, Roy E. Disney, and Peter Schneider on a plane to Europe to promote Oliver & Company. During the conversation, the topic of a story set in Africa came up, and Katzenberg immediately jumped at the idea. Producer Thomas Schumacher, who had just completed The Rescuers Down Under, decided to attach himself to the project "because lions are cool". The idea was then developed by Walt Disney Feature Animation's vice president for creative affairs Charlie Fink. Katzenberg decided to add elements involving coming of age and death, and ideas from personal life experiences, such as some of his trials in his bumpy road in politics, saying about the film, "It is a little bit about myself." In November of that year Thomas M. Disch (author of The Brave Little Toaster) wrote a treatment entitled King of the Kalahari, and afterwards Linda Woolverton spent a year writing drafts of the script, which was titled King of the Beasts and then King of the Jungle. The original version of the film was very different from the final film. The plot was centered in a battle being between lions and baboons with Scar being the leader of the baboons, Rafiki being a cheetah, and Timon and Pumbaa being Simba's childhood friends. Simba would also not leave the kingdom, but become a "lazy, slovenly, horrible character" due to manipulations from Scar, so Simba could be overthrown after coming of age.
director George Scribner was the initial director of the film, being later joined by Roger Allers, who was the lead story man on Beauty and the Beast in October 1991. Allers brought with him Brenda Chapman, who would become the head of the story. Afterwards, several of the lead crew members, including Allers, Scribner, Hahn, Chapman, and production designer Chris Sanders, took a trip to Hell's Gate National Park in Kenya, in order to study and gain an appreciation of the environment for the film. After six months of story development work Scribner decided to leave the project, as he clashed with Allers and the producers on their decision to turn the film into a musical, as Scribner's intention was of making a documentary-like film more focused on natural aspects. Rob Minkoff replaced Scribner, and producer Don Hahn joined the production. Hahn found the script unfocused and lacking a clear theme, and after establishing the main theme as "leaving childhood and facing up to the realities of the world", asked for a final retool. Allers, Minkoff, Chapman, and Hahn then rewrote the story across two weeks of meetings with directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, who had just finished Beauty and the Beast. The script also had its title changed from King of the Jungle to The Lion King, as the setting was not the jungle but the Savannah.
was the first Disney animated feature to be an original story, rather than being based on an already-existing work. The filmmakers have said that the story of The Lion King was inspired by the Joseph and Moses stories from the Bible and William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Despite these claims, the story was not based on the aforementioned works, having actually taken more inspiration from actual animal behavior. During the summer of 1992, the team was joined by screenwriter Irene Mecchi, with a second screenwriter, Jonathan Roberts, joining a few months later. Mecchi and Roberts took charge of the revision process, fixing unresolved emotional issues in the script and adding comic business for Pumbaa, Timon, and the hyenas. Lyricist Tim Rice worked closely with the writing team, flying to California at least once a month, as his songs needed to work in the narrative continuity. Rice's lyrics – which were reworked up to the production's end – were even pinned to the storyboards during development. Rewrites were frequent, with animator Andreas Deja saying that completed scenes would be delivered only for the response to be that parts needed to be reanimated due to dialog changes.
The voice actors were chosen for how they fit and could add to the characters – for instance, James Earl Jones was cast because the directors found his voice "powerful" and similar to a lion's roar. Nathan Lane originally auditioned for Zazu, and Ernie Sabella for one of the hyenas. Upon meeting each other at the recording studio, the actors, who at the time both co-starred in Guys and Dolls, were asked to record together as hyenas. The directors laughed at their performance and decided to cast them as Timon and Pumbaa. For the hyenas, the original intention was to reunite Cheech & Chong, but while Cheech Marin accepted to play Banzai, Tommy Chong was unavailable. Thus, his role was changed into a female hyena, Shenzi, who was voiced by Whoopi Goldberg.
The development of The Lion King started concurrently with Pocahontas, which most of the animators of Walt Disney Feature Animation decided to work on instead, believing it would be the more prestigious and successful of the two. The story artists also did not have much faith in the project, with Brenda Chapman declaring she was reluctant to accept the job "because the story wasn't very good", and writer Burny Mattinson saying to co-worker Joe Ranft about the film that "I don't know who is going to want to watch that one." Most of the leading animators were either doing their first major work supervising a character, or had much interest in animating an animal. Thirteen of these supervising animators, both in California and Florida, were responsible for establishing the personalities and setting the tone for the film's main characters. The animation leads for the main characters included Mark Henn on young Simba, Ruben A. Aquino on adult Simba, Andreas Deja on Scar, Aaron Blaise on young Nala, Anthony DeRosa on adult Nala, and Tony Fucile on Mufasa. Nearly 20 minutes of the film, including the "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" sequence, were animated at the Disney-MGM Studios facility. Ultimately, more than 600 artists, animators, and technicians contributed to The Lion King over the course of its production. Weeks before the film was to be released, production was affected by the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which shut off the studio and required the animators to finish their work from home.
The character animators studied real-life animals for reference, as was done for the 1942 Disney film Bambi. Jim Fowler, a renowned wildlife expert, visited the studios on several occasions with an assortment of lions and other savannah inhabitants to discuss behavior and help the animators give their drawings an authentic feel. The Pride Lands are modeled on the Kenyan national park visited by the crew. Varied focal lengths and lenses were employed to differ from the habitual portrayal of Africa in documentaries – which employ telephoto lenses to shoot the wildlife from a distance. The epic feel drew inspiration from concept studies by artist Hans Bacher – which, following Scribner's request for realism, tried to depict effects such as lens flare – and the works of painters Charles Marion Russell, Frederic Remington, and Maxfield Parrish. Since the characters were not anthropomorphized in terms of posture, all the animators had to learn to draw four-legged animals, and the story and character development was done through the usage of longer shots following the characters.
Elton John and Tim Rice wrote five original songs for this film, with Elton John performing "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" during the end credits. The film's score was composed by Hans Zimmer and supplemented with traditional African music and choir elements arranged by Lebo M.
The film's original motion picture soundtrack was released on July 13, 1994. It was the fourth best-selling album of the year on the Billboard 200 and the top-selling soundtrack.
garnered widespread critical acclaim, and at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 128 reviews collected, the film has an overall approval rating of 93%, with a weighted average score of 8.41/10. Among Rotten Tomatoes Cream of the Crop, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television, and radio programs, the film hol...
•There is a considerable controversy of plagiarism of the 1965 Japanese animation "Kimba the White Lion" in regard to similar plots, character design and personalities, animation sequences, and other examples. However, in recent events, the plagiarism accusations were debunked, mainly because Disney claimed they had no knowledge of Kimba and that it was all a coincidence.
•The film would currently be the 19th highest-grossing animated film of all time worldwide if it had never been re-released.
•At the end of the film, Simba and Nala's newborn cub is presented to the Pride Lands by Rafiki. In 1995, a commentary track for the film was released, in which the filmmakers gave the cub the placeholder name of "Fluffy", making no gender reference at all. This all lead back to how Pocahontas, a film made around the same time as The Lion King, and released a year after the film, was expected to be the more successful movie between the two films, and thus no sequels, spin-offs, or reboots were planned ahead.
•This is the first Disney film whose title not only is near or at the beginning of the movie but at the end (before the credits), more being Tarzan, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Brother Bear, and Raya and the Last Dragon.
•The film is one of Disney's first attempts at animating hair and fur, due to getting its technology to create fur.
•The Lion King was the first-ever feature film to be translated to European Portuguese and the first Disney film to be dubbed in Zulu.
The Lion King: Directed by Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff. With Rowan Atkinson, Matthew Broderick, Niketa Calame-Harris, Jim Cummings. Lion prince Simba and his father are targeted by his bitter uncle, who wants to ascend the throne himself.
- Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff
- 1 min
People also ask
Is the Lion King a movie?
How much money did the Lion King make in 1994?
When was the Lion King released?
Is the Lion King based on a true story?
The album was released on May 31, 1994, on CD and audio cassette. The soundtrack was recorded in three different countries: the U.S., the U.K. and South Africa. It is the best-selling soundtrack album to an animated film in the United States with over 7 million copies sold, with 4,934,000 copies sold in 1994. [6]
- 1993–94
- May 31, 1994 (original release), September 30, 2003 (Special Edition)
During its release in 1994, The Lion King was widely acclaimed, grossing more than $783 million worldwide, becoming the most successful film released that year. The film was the highest grossing animated film of all time until the release of Disney/Pixar's Finding Nemo .
- The Lion King (1994)
The Lion King is an animated movie made by Disney in 1994. It was the most successful animated movie of the 1990s. The movie is about a young lion prince who learns about his role as king and in the circle of life. It is dedicated to Frank Wells. Wells was the president of The Walt Disney Company.
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated musical coming-of-age drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff and produced by Don Hahn, from a screenplay written by Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and Linda Woolverton.
