The Lion King (franchise)

The Lion King is a multi-million dollar Walt Disney franchise. The success of the Template:Fy American animated feature The Lion King led to two direct-to-video sequel films, a spin-off television series, a musical, several video games, and other merchandise.

Titles

Other media

A 70 mm film entitled Circle of Life: An Environmental Fable is shown in the Harvest Theater in The Land Pavilion at Epcot in Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida. It opened in January 21, 1995 replacing Symbiosis. Compared to the said film, Circle of Life is more an edutainment attraction and more kid-friendly. In the film, Timon and Pumbaa are chopping down trees and clogging up rivers to build the Hakuna Matata Lakeside Village. Simba comes to them and explains how their actions are harmful to nature. This lesson is explained with live-action footage, some left over from Symbiosis.

A Broadway-caliber short-form stage musical named Festival of the Lion King is performed live in Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World, Florida and in Adventureland at Hong Kong Disneyland. It uses the concept of tribal celebration in combination with ideas from Disney's Electrical Parade. The show is in the form of a revue, and not a condensed version of either the film or Broadway show. However, it features the award-winning music from the first film, written by Elton John and Tim Rice. The show uses songs, dance, puppetry and visual effects to create an African savanna setting filled with lions, elephants, giraffes, birds, zebras and gazelles.

The Lion King Celebration was a parade based on the film that ran at Disneyland from June 1, 1994 to June 1, 1997. It was designed as though the story of Simba was a tale passed down in Africa for generations. The parade featured six floats designed around different aspects of Africa, dancers dressed in animal costumes and a Pride Rock float featuring Simba and Nala.

Many characters from The Lion King appear in the Disney Channel series Disney's House of Mouse. Some of them also appear in the series' spin-off films Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse and Mickey's House of Villains. The characters also appear at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts as a meet and greet characters.

Characters

The main characters in the series. From left to right: Shenzi, Scar, Ed, Banzai, Rafiki, Mufasa, Simba, Sarabi, Zazu, Timon and Pumbaa. Bottom right: Nala and her mother.

A total of thirteen supervising animators from Walt Disney Animation Studios and Disney-MGM Studios were responsible for establishing the personalities and setting the tone for the first film's main characters. The animation team studied real-life animals for reference, as was done for the earlier film Bambi. The animation of the characters counted with supervision by wildlife experts such as Jim Fowler, who visited the studio on several occasions with an assortment of lions and other jungle inhabitants to discuss behavior and help the animators give their drawings an authentic feel. He taught them how lions greet one another by gently butting heads, and show affection by placing one's head under the other's chin, mannerisms that can be appreciated in Simba and Nala's reencounter during the song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight". Fowler also talked about how they protect themselves by lying on their backs and using their claws to ward off attackers, and how they fight rivals by rising on their hind legs. Screenwriter Irene Mecchi joined the directing team to help in the character development process as well as to define each character's personality. Story head Brenda Chapman, gave insight to the challenge of the characters and the story by stating "It was our job to make the main character likeable and sympathetic. It was also challenging to make the environment and characters interesting. In real life, lions basically sleep, eat and have no props."

Simba

Main article: Simba

Simba is the title character of the franchise and main protagonist of the first two films, the musical and several video games.

Scar

Scar
Created by	Andreas Deja
Voiced by	Jeremy Irons (The Lion King) Jim Cummings (partial singing voice in The Lion King, full voice in The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride and The Lion King: Simba's Mighty Adventure) James Horan (Kingdom Hearts II) James Avery (Animated Storybook: The Lion King) John Vickery (first musical) Patrick Page (current musical)

Scar is the primary antagonist of The Lion King. He is the younger brother of Mufasa and the uncle of Simba. Scar is jealous of Simba's position as the next king of the Pride Lands, so he plots to kill his brother and nephew, in order to seize the throne. To carry out his plans, Scar recruits three spotted hyenas; Shenzi, Banzai and Ed — who gladly do his bidding in exchange for food. Mufasa foils their first attempt to kill Simba, so Scar calls up an entire army of hyenas and promises that when he is king the hyenas will "never go hungry again". With the help of the hyenas, Scar triggers a wildebeest stampede meant to kill both Simba and Mufasa. Mufasa manages to save his son, but as he tries to escape by climbing up the gorge, Scar grabs his paws and throws Mufasa from the cliff into the stampede, where he is trampled to death. Scar then convinces Simba that he caused the stampede (he had let out a loud yowl, while practicing roaring, seconds before the stampede began, and had not seen Scar throw his father to his death) and in turn killed Mufasa. Simba runs away, overwhelmed by guilt and fear. Scar then orders Shenzi, Banzai and Ed to chase the cub and kill him. Unknown to Scar, however, the hyenas do not succeed. Scar then returns to Pride Rock and assumes the throne, letting the hyenas into the Pride Lands and leading the other lions to believe that both Mufasa and Simba died in the gorge. During Scar's reign, the kingdom rapidly declines as droughts hit and food becomes scarce. Years later, to Scar's surprise, Simba returns to challenge his uncle for the throne. After a verbal confrontation, a fierce battle ensues between Scar's forces and Simba's friends while Simba fights Scar himself. Simba finally defeats him by flipping Scar over a cliff where the hyenas are waiting just below. The hyenas, determined to get revenge on Scar for previously denouncing them as "the enemy", surround their fallen leader and begin to maul him alive shortly before they are all surrounded by the blazing flames.

In the sequel The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride, it is revealed that Scar had a group of lioness followers, whom Simba exiles after he becomes king. They are led by Zira, who has a son named Kovu that was "selected" to be Scar's heir. Scar only appears twice, the first time in Simba's nightmare, and the second as Kovu looks into a stream, he sees Scar's reflection rather than his own. In The Lion King 1½, Scar makes a few brief, non-speaking appearances in the scenes for which he was present in the original film.

In the Broadway musical, Scar's role is expanded upon with the song "The Madness of King Scar". In it, Scar begins doubting his reign, fearing that he might be losing the respect of the lionesses and that he needs a queen. He attempts to seduce Nala, who rebukes him by scratching his face.

Besides appearing in various The Lion King video games, Scar also appears in Kingdom Hearts II as the primary villain of the Pride Lands world. Much like in the film, Scar murders Mufasa to become king, and under his reign the Pride Lands suffers a drought and food becomes scarce. Prior to Sora, Donald Duck and Goofy's arrival at the Pride Lands, Pete (in the form of a lion) offers Scar use of the Heartless to maintain his hold on the throne. Sora attempts to confront Scar in order to save the world, but Scar confronts the party and nearly attacks them, but is pinned down by Nala in order to allow Sora and friends some time to escape. Later, Sora locates Simba and brings him back to the Pride Lands so he can challenge his uncle for the throne. The confrontation between Scar and Simba that follows is almost identical to that in the original film, and Simba eventually defeats his uncle. Thinking Scar to be defeated, the protagonists are surprised when, as Pete explains, Scar returns to battle once again as a Heartless; however, Sora and his friends defeat Scar again. By the time Sora returns to the Pride Lands to see how Simba is faring, rumors of Scar's ghost haunting the Pride Lands have driven Simba into doubt. The "ghost" is revealed to be the interaction of Simba's lack of confidence and Scar's spirit. Multiple copies of Scar's "ghost" then combine to form a gigantic Heartless that is eventually killed by Simba and Sora.

Scar makes very brief, non-speaking appearances in a couple of episodes of the animated TV series The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa. He is seen when Timon tries to revive Pumbaa's amnesia after being struck by lightning, and when Zazu cleans out his trashcan. He also appears as one of the Disney Villains the Evil Queen evokes to fight Mickey Mouse in the Disney's Hollywood Studios version of Fantasmic! Nighttime Show Spectacular. Scar appeared as one of The Walt Disney Company's lawyers in a Saturday Night Live Saturday TV Funhouse sketch called "The Disney Vault". After the two children try to escape the vault, the lawyers stop them and Scar bribes them to stay by showing them The Lion King 5 & 2/3: Simba fills in on The View, (the actual wording was "Simba sits in for Meredith"). Scar is also seen in Hercules (1997 film). When Hercules is posing for a painting on a pot, he is wearing Scar's skin on his back.

Rafiki

Rafiki
Created by	Jonathan Roberts
Voiced by	Robert Guillaume (films) Tsidii Le Loka (musical)

Rafiki is a mandrill-baboon hybrid who lives in a baobab tree and is old and wise. He performs activities which are often shamanistic, but also sometimes quite silly. He tends to speak in third person when speaking of himself. Rafiki's character often serves as the visual narrator of the story of The Lion King. Robert Guillaume voices Rafiki in the three films.

He is shown to be a dear friend to Mufasa. He presents Simba to all the animals gathered at Pride Rock, and draws a stylized lion cub on the walls of his treehouse home to represent Simba's birth. When Simba runs away and his family believes him dead, Rafiki draws his paw across the Simba drawing, obscuring it in grief. Later, after picking up Simba's scent in the dust and pollen in the air, Rafiki determines that Simba is still alive and restores the drawing, adding the full mane of an adult lion as a sign to seek out this young deliverer from Scar's tyranny. Journeying to the area where Simba lives with Timon and Pumbaa, Rafiki observes Simba and recognizes, at least in principle, that he is suffering from a ponderous emotional burden. To treat it, he approaches the young lion and teaches him a few playful (and sometimes painful) lessons about learning from the past, not living in it. He also points out that the spirit and values of Simba's dead father, Mufasa, continue to live in Simba himself. When Simba decides to return to Pride Rock and fight Scar for the kingship, Rafiki accompanies him, demonstrating his kung fu skills in battle against the hyenas. At the end of the film, Rafiki raises Simba and Nala's new-born cub atop Pride Rock for everyone to see, echoing the beginning of the film.

In the sequel The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, Rafiki appears in the beginning again as the presenter of Simba and Nala's new-born cub Kiara. Later on in the film, despite protesting that Simba and Zira would forbid it, he is persuaded by Mufasa's spirit to get Zira's son Kovu and Kiara to fall in love. He tries to make them fall in love with each other by taking them to a fantasy paradise called "Upendi". Later, when Simba exiles Kovu, he is seen sighing sadly of Kovu leaving. In the end, he acts as the host of Kiara and Kovu's wedding. Rafiki appears briefly in the midquel The Lion King 1½, and is referred to by Timon as "The Omniscient Monkey". It is revealed that it was Rafiki who taught Timon the philosophy of "Hakuna Matata". Besides appearing in the scenes he appeared in the original film, Rafiki also appears in a scene where he chats with Timon's mother and in a scene where he makes Timon go back to join his friends against Scar, albeit saying nothing but "My work here is done" after Timon goes to find Pumbaa on his own.

In the musical, the character of Rafiki was modified. Because director Julie Taymor felt that the story lacked the presence of a strong female, Rafiki was changed into a female mandrill. Rafiki's role is expanded in the musical. She sings the song "Circle of Life" and her painting scene is extended. She also sings a song called "Rafiki Mourns", in which she mourns Mufasa's death. She also has a brief role in Nala's song "Shadowland", blessing Nala for her journey to find help. Instead of finding Simba's scent on dust, Rafiki hears Simba's song "Endless Night" on the wind. Rafiki meets Simba and shows him that his father lives on inside him through the song "He Lives in You". She is present during the battle, fighting a hyena using hand-to-hand combat. She then appears adorning Simba with the king's mantle and then presents his newborn cub at the end of the play.

Rafiki appears in a few episodes of the Timon and Pumbaa TV series and also has his own series of skits called "Rafiki Fables" in the same show. He appears as a minor non-playable character in the Pride Lands world of Kingdom Hearts II. Rafiki returned in the kids "Disney Cookbook", as him as the creator of "Rafiki's Coconut drink".

Sarabi

Sarabi is Simba's mother, Mufasa's mate, and the highest ranking lioness of the pride. Her first appearance is at the beginning of the film, cradling her newborn son. After Mufasa's death, she mourns with the other lionesses. Under Scar's leadership, food begins to run low. Scar questions her as to the failure of the lionesses and she turns to blame on Scar's poor leadership and mentions Mufasa. Scar strikes her just as Simba returns. At first she mistakes her son for the late Mufasa, but once her confusion clears she is happy to be reunited with her son. After Scar admits that he is the one who killed Mufasa, she joins the others in battling Scar and the hyenas. Sarabi is voiced by Madge Sinclair.

Development

History

Early production of The Lion King began in late 1988, with the film originally being titled King of the Kalahari and later King of the Jungle. The treatment, inspired by Hamlet, was written by Thomas M. Disch (author of The Brave Little Toaster) as work-for-hire, Disch received no credit or royalties. Production took place at the Walt Disney Animation Studios in Glendale, California. Also, nearly 20 minutes of the film were animated at the Disney-MGM Studios. Ultimately, more than 600 artists, animators and technicians contributed to the The Lion King over its lengthy production schedule. More than one million drawings were created for the film, including 1,197 hand-painted backgrounds and 119,058 individually colored frames of film.

In April 1992, when Rob Minkoff joined the directing team, a session was held to revamp the story. Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, directors of Beauty and the Beast, also joined the directing team. For two days, producer Don Hahn presided over the discussion that finally produced a character makeover for Simba and a radically revised second half of the film. Irene Mecchi joined the team that summer to help further develop the characters and define their personalities. Several months later, she was joined by Jonathan Roberts in the rewriting process. Working together in the animation department and in conjunction with the directors and story team, they tackled the unresolved emotional issues in the script and also added many comic situations. Some of the lead production crew made a trip to Africa to better understand the environment for the film. The trip gave production designer Chris Sanders a new appreciation for the natural environments and inspired him to find ways to incorporate these elements into the design of the film. The filmmakers also made us of computers to better present their vision in new ways. The most notable use of computer animation is in the "wildebeest stampede" sequence. Several distinct wildebeest characters were created in a 3D computer program, multiplied into hundreds, cel shaded to look like drawn animation, and given randomized paths down a mountainside to simulate the real, unpredictable movement of a herd. Similar multiplication occurs in the "Be Prepared" musical number with identical marching hyenas. Five specially trained animators and technicians spent more than two years creating the 2½ minute stampede sequence.

At one time, the Disney Feature Animation staff felt The Lion King was less important than Pocahontas. Both projects were in production at the same time, and most of the staff preferred to work on Pocahontas, believing it would be the more prestigious and successful of the two. As it turned out, while both films were commercial successes, The Lion King received more positive feedback and larger grosses than Pocahontas.

The sequel The Lion King II: Simba's Pride was directed by Darrell Rooney and produced by Jeannine Roussel, with Flip Kobler and Cindy Marcus writing the screenplay. Disney believed that Simba's Pride would be so popular that it shipped 15 million copies to stores for the October 27 release date.

Music

The original motion picture soundtrack for the first film was released on July 13, 1994, two days before the film's release. It contains songs by songewriters Elton John and Tim Rice, who wrote five original songs, with Elton John performing "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" during the end credits. Additionally, "The Morning Report", a song which was not present in the original theatrical film, was later added to the IMAX theater and to the DVD Platinum Edition release. The film's score was composed by Hans Zimmer and supplemented with traditional African music and choir elements arranged by Lebo M. Elton John thought his career had hit a new low when he was writing the music to the song "Hakuna Matata". However, the strongly enthusiastic audience reception to an early film trailer which consisted solely of the opening sequence with the song "Circle of Life", suggested that the film would be very successful. Out of the five original songs, "Hakuna Matata" was listed at number 99 in the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs list in 2004, and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" won the Oscar for Best Original Song during the 67th Academy Awards. The soundtrack itself was the fourth best-selling album of 1994 on the Billboard 200 and the top-selling soundtrack.

Disney Records released Rhythm of the Pride Lands on February 28, 1995 as a sequel to the soundtrack of the first film. Rhythm of the Pride Lands was initially printed in a very limited quantity. However, it was re-released in 2003, included in some international versions of The Lion King's special edition soundtrack with an additional track, "Circle of Life".

A audio CD entitled Return to Pride Rock: Songs Inspired by Disney's The Lion King II: Simba's Pride was released on September 8, 1998. Although not promoted as a soundtrack to The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, it contained all the songs from the film and some additional songs inspired by it by Lebo M. Tina Turner recorded a version of "He Lives in You" for the film. On August 31, 2004, Disney released an "enhanced soundtrack" to coincide with the release of the film's 2-Disc Special Edition DVD. However, the CD only contains the songs featured in the film, without any of the inspired songs by the first film. Siskel & Ebert noted that it was best the film was direct-to-video, since the music was lacking and not remotely equal to the original's soundtrack.

The soundtrack for the third film, The Lion King 1½: Songs From Timon and Pumbaa's Hilarious Adventure, was released to CD by Disney Records on February 10, 2004. It includes two songs from the original film, "That's All I Need" and "Hakuna Matata", re-performed by Nathan Lane who took over the role of voicing the character Timon. The rest of the soundtrack includes various R&B tracks, including remakes of the Kool and the Gang classic "Jungle Boogie" by artist French, and two instrumental pieces from film composer Don Harper. Ennio Morricone was the original composer of "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly".

Reception

During its release in 1994, The Lion King grossed more than $783 million worldwide, becoming the most successful film released that year, and it is currently the twenty-seventh highest-grossing feature film of all time. The film was the highest grossing animated film of all time until the release of Disney/Pixar's Finding Nemo, a computer-animated film. The Lion King is still the highest grossing traditionally animated film of all time in the United States. The film received many award nominations. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Score, the Golden Globe award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature. The song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" alone won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, the Golden Globe for Best Original Song, the BMI Film Music Award, and the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance Male.

The Lion King II: Simba's Pride sold 3.5 million copies in three days. Thirteen million copies were sold while it was still in print in the late 90s. Both sequels won the Annie Award for Best Animated Home Entertainment Production. The Lion King 1½ also won five DVD Exclusive Awards. The musical won six Tony Awards including Best Musical.

Critical reaction

Film	Rotten Tomatoes		Metacritic	Yahoo! Movies
	Overall	Cream of the Crop
The Lion King	92% (61 reviews)	100% (13 reviews)	84% (13 reviews)	A (6 reviews)
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride	43% (7 reviews)
The Lion King 1½	77% (13 reviews)