The film's original opening was going to be a quiet dialogue-heavy sequence. Hans Zimmer (the composer) made an extended version of 'Circle of Life' to allow for some cuts from the film. The animators were very impressed with his work and decided the change the beginning so that the could use Zimmer's complete work.
Simba says to his uncle Scar 'You're so weird!' To which Scar replied: 'You have no idea.' Jeremy Irons (the voice of Scar) gave this same response in the 1990 film 'Reversal of Fortune'.
One of the bugs Timon pulls out of the log during 'Hakuna Matata' is wearing Mickey ears.
James Earl Jones (the voice of Mufasa) and Madge Sinclair (the voice of Sarabi) played the King and queen in the 1988 film 'Coming to America'.
Many people have, por now, heard the rumor about that little word that is formed por the dust that Simba sends up into the air. This occurs after he talks to Timon and Pumbaa about the stars. Actually the letters formed are not 'SEX'(as everyone will want tu to believe) , but are 'SFX' which stand for special effects. The letters were put in there por the special effects team.
This is the first animated feature made completely at disney Studios in Florida.
The música Sounds Familiar? Yep. In the original Lion King the música may sound like it's from another movie the truth is, it is. In the movie, Power of One many of the chants are the same as the Lion King. The reason is because the same team that brought together Power of One, Lebo M and Hans Zimmer, did The Lion King. In fact, the directors recieved the Power of One CD and wanted that música for the film.
When the film's creators first thought of making an animated movie about lions, they referred to the idea as "Bambi in Africa." The first drafts of the story were written in 1989 -- only then the movie was called King of the Jungle.
Before they worked on The Lion King, several of the film's creators spent two weeks on safari in Kenya, studying how real lions live. They watched hunting lions, mothers with cubs and big male gatos stretched out in the sun. One time they tied a rope behind their Land Rover and drove slowly as lion cubs chased the rope, batting and and playing with it just like house cats. They made sketches and took fotos of playful cubs to create young Simba and Nala.
A wildlife expert brought a lion, a babuino and some vultures to the film studio so the animators could study certain behaviors. For example, in the movie, Rafiki carries a staff, so the animators had the real babuino carry a long stick aorund so they could sketch him in different poses.
The creators originally imagined Sean Connery (the actor best known as the first James Bond) as the voice of Simba's dad, King Mufasa.
Some people at the studio considered The Lion King a "small" movie, so the creators and animators working on it referred to themselves as the "B Team." Some of the animators wanted to work on Pocahantas -- the "big" movie that the "A Team" was working on -- instead.
While the film's creative team traveled through Kenya, their African guides told them about some local customs and beliefs. Some of these made it into the movie, including the nonsense song lyrics that Rafiki chants: "Asante Sana! Squash banana! We we nuga! Mi mi apana!" (Roughly, it means, "Thank tu very much! Squash banana! You're a babuino and I'm not!")
Listen closely to "Morning Report" -- does Simba seem a little...different? In the original movie, Jason Weaver provided the canto voice for young Simba. However, Jason is all grown up now, so producers tapped 14-year-old Evan "Hot Sauce" Saucedo to sing "Morning Report." (Evan is the 2003 Teen Champion on the TV series Showtime.)
Actor Jonathan Taylor Thomas (of TV's inicial Improvement) played the part of young Simba. In the elefante graveyard scene, Simba was supposed to slide down an elephant's backbone, so Jonathan needed to sound like his back was bumping against an elephant's vertebrae. "The studio guys beat on my back [to make the noise]," says Jonathan.
"Bug football," a scene that was cut from the movie, showed the carefree "Hakuna Matata" lifestyle of Timon, Pumbaa, and Simba. Timon makes an "interception" of a large, juicy bug from Simba and runs towards the end zone doing his own play-by-play. He stops and throws a "bug bomb" pass to Pumbaa, who proceeds to eat the "ball." "It was a fun scene," Don Hahn says, "but it didn't mover the plot forward." Now tu can see it as a bonus feature on the DVD.
The new DVD included a scene that didn't appear in the original movie. The song, "Morning Report," was wirrten for the Broadway musical version of The Lion King, created after the movie. But producers liked the song so much they decided to add it to the movie. Animators created a whole new scene with Zazu and Simba canto "Morning Report."
The movie's producers considered adding other songs as well from the Broadway production. "We looked as all the songs from the stage show," says Don Hahn, "and there were wonderful songs like 'He Lives in You' [about King Mufasa living on inside Simba]. But 'Morning Report' felt like it really belonged in the movie and that tu were watching the movie the way it was intended the be."
During development, The Lion King script was constantly changing -- some characters got más lines, and others never made it to the screen. At one time, the "cast" included a lion cub named Mee-Too, a bat-eared zorro, fox and a rhino with a tickbird on his back. The cub, zorro, fox and rhino were dropped, and the tickbird went solo for a while as King Mufasa's assistant. Finally he became a hornbill named Zazu. "The hyenas were originally sort of faceless villain," Don Hahn adds. "As we went on, we thought it would be better if we had a leader and a follower, so that's where the idea of Shenzi and Banzai came from. And then we thought that since they were laughing hyenas, we needed someone to laugh at their jokes, so that's where we got Ed. He's named for Ed McMahon, [the sidekick] from the old Tonight Show, who always laughed at Johnny Carson's jokes."
The song "Hakuna Matata" originally began with Timon canto a verse about "When I was a young meerkat..." The filmmakers decided the song would work better if it were shorter and got to the point right away, so they cut Timon's verse. Now it begins with Pumbaa's verse, "When I was a young warthog..."
In the early scripts, Scar was a rogue lion who wasn't related to Mufasa. Then the filmmakers decided that the story would be más emotional and scary if the bad guy was someone in the family. So they made him Kind Mufasa's brother -- a creepy uncle for Simba, and a threat from the "inside."
According to Don Hahn, there are few "inside jokes" in The Lion King because the creators wanted to keep the movie grounded in the animal world as much as possible. (That's also why tu don't see these lions wearing hats o holding chicken legs with their paws o doing other "cartoony" things.) One exception: A caged Zazu sings Disney's "It's a Small World," to which Scar yells, "No, anything but that!" (If you've ever gone to disney World's and Disneyland's It's a Small World and had the attraction's song get stuck in your head, then tu know how Scar feels.)
"Can tu Feel The amor Tonight" was the first song Tim arroz wrote for the movie. He gave the words he'd written to Elton John, who wrote the music. Elton imagined the amor balladbeing sung por the two young lions -- but instead it was recorded por Timon and Pumbaa! "I was horrified when I heard it sung por the warthog. It was a shock!" say's Elton. The producers later changed their minds and gave the song to the lions. Wise move! (In the movie, Timon and Pumbaa still sing the last verse.)
The scene where King Mufasa's ghost appears to Simba was the last scene created for the movie. In the original script, Mufasa died and never reappeared. But the producers decided that Simba really needed to see his father again, so they created the scene with Mufasa's ghost.
When the first outtakes of the Lion King-script was made, Sarafina had a lot más lines. Eventually, these got cut away, and when the movie was finished, she only had one.
