The Lion King - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[tammy]

Simba is the first animated Disney character to have a villain as a biological relative, followed by Hercules.

[marc]

Disney's 34th animated feature.

[jesse]

Elton John and Tim Rice were a little shocked when they saw that the producers originally intended to have their (eventual) Oscar-winning love ballad "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" as a duet between Timon and Pumbaa.

[charlie]

Oliver & Company (1988) director George Scribner was the initial director of the film, being later joined by producer Don Hahn and Roger Allers, who was the lead story man on Beauty and the Beast (1991), in October 1991. Allers brought with him Brenda Chapman, who would become the head of 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 Don Hahn joined the production as producer as Schumacher became only an executive producer due to Disney promoting him to Vice President of Development for Feature Animation.

[jim]

Directors Rob Minkoff and Roger Allers cited the documentary National Geographic Specials: Eternal Enemies: Lions and Hyenas (1992) as being a major inspiration for the overall feel of the film saying they attempted to reach even "one-tenth the power of the documentary".

[melinda]

(at around 6 mins) Near the start of the film Mufasa asks Scar if he is going to challenge him. In real life lions actually fight one another for right to be leader of the pride with the loser backing down.

[riley]

Rowan Atkinson (Zazu) didn't know the lyrics to "it's a small world." he had to learn and practice the lyrics, for the scene when Zazu sings for Scar. Thankfully he picked them up quickly.

[veronica]

The wildebeest stampede took Disney's CG department approximately three years to animate. A new computer program had to be written for the CG wildebeest stampede that allowed hundreds of computer generated animals to run but without colliding into each other.

[violet]

The original script included several characters which were cut. There was another lion cub named Mee-Too, a bat-eared fox, and a rhino with a tickbird on his back. In fact the tickbird was kept and evolved into Zazu. Multiple characters have ended up scrapped for the final version of the first film - a little brother for Nala, a second meerkat, Nala's father (who would have been leader of another pride), Joka, a rock python who would have acted as a fourth lackey for Scar and a bat-eared fox named Bhati for example. Nala's brother, Mheetu, in particular was to have an important role, serving as a character for Nala to protect from the hyenas and Scar. Mheetu would also have been lured into the gorge, causing Simba to try and save him. However, he fails, causing Mufasa to rescue them, leading to his death.