The Lion King is a 1994 American animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, released in theaters on June 15, 1994 by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd film in the Disney animated feature canon and the highest grossing traditionally animated feature film in history. It was also the last film of Disney’s Renaissance. The story, influenced by the Shakespeare play Hamlet, focuses on a young lion in Africa named Simba, who learns of his place in the great “circle of life” and overcomes many obstacles to claim his place as the rightful king.
Story
The Lion King takes place in the fictional Pride Lands of Africa, where a lion rules over the other animals as king. At the beginning of the film, Rafiki, a wise old mandrill shaman, (commonly mistaken as a baboon), anoints Simba, the newborn cub of King Mufasa and Queen Sarabi, and presents him to a massive gathering of animals at Pride Rock (”Circle of Life”). Meanwhile, Mufasa’s younger brother, Scar, realizes that he is no longer the heir to the throne and plots to kill both Simba and his father in order to usurp it.
When Simba has grown into a young cub, Mufasa brings him on a tour of the Pride Lands, teaching him about the Circle of Life, the delicate balance affecting all living things, which the king must maintain. The tour is cut short when Mufasa’s advisor, the hornbill Zazu, alerts him of hyena sightings in the Pride Lands, and Mufasa sends a disappointed Simba home while he deals with the threat. Back at Pride Rock, Scar piques Simba’s curiosity about the elephant graveyard, a place beyond the northern borders of the Pride Lands, where Mufasa has forbidden Simba to go. Simba, trying to prove his courage, takes his best friend Nala to the elephant graveyard, fooling Zazu along the way (”I Just Can’t Wait to Be King”). At the graveyard, the cubs are greeted by Shenzi, Banzai and Ed, Scar’s hyena minions who attempt to kill the cubs. Fortunately, they are rescued by Mufasa at the nick of time.
Mufasa scolds Simba on the way home, and explains to Simba that being brave doesn’t mean looking for trouble. When Simba asks if his father will always be with him, Mufasa tells his son that the great kings of the past watch from the stars, just as he will watch over Simba one day when the sun sets on his time. Meanwhile, Scar becomes furious, as he intended for the hyenas to kill the cubs. Plotting further, Scar gathers more hyenas and, in a scene resembling Nazi and Soviet military imagery, buys their loyalty by claiming that if he becomes king, they’ll never go hungry again (”Be Prepared”).
Some time later, Scar lures Simba into a gorge for a “surprise from his father,” while the hyenas engineer a wildebeest stampede down into the gorge where Simba is. Alerted by an insincerely dramatic Scar, Mufasa races to rescue his son from the stampede. The lion king successfully saves his son, but struggles to bring himself to safety. As Mufasa helplessly clings on to a steep cliff, he asks Scar for help, but Scar flings his brother into the raging stampede below, after mocking him with the words “long live the king.” Simba rushes down to his father’s body, and tries to wake up the dead king to no avail. An approaching Scar convinces Simba that the young cub was responsible for his father’s death, and recommends that he flee the Pride Lands, never to return. As Simba is running off, Scar sends his hyena henchmen to kill Simba again, but as Simba flees through a thornbush-covered embankment, the hyenas break off pursuit and let him escape. Hurling threats that he will be killed if ever seen again, the hyenas return to Scar and lie that they have murdered the cub. Informed that both Mufasa and Simba were killed, the pride regretfully allows Scar to assume the throne as the closest of kin. Still mourning, they are told the hyenas are now part of the pride.
Simba collapses in a distant desert, where he is found by Timon and Pumbaa, a comical meerkat-warthog duo who adopt and raise Simba under their carefree “Hakuna Matata” lifestyle. When Simba has grown into an adult, he is discovered by his childhood friend Nala, who relays that Scar’s tyrannical reign has devastated the Pride Lands, turning it into a barren wasteland. She asks Simba to return and take his rightful place as king, but Simba refuses, still guilty about supposedly causing his father’s death.
Simba then shows Nala around and they find themselves in love (”Can You Feel the Love Tonight”). But immediately afterwards, Nala tells Simba that she doesn’t understand why he won’t return to Pride Rock. The two become angry, confused, and end up in a quarrel. However, Rafiki shows up and indirectly persuades Simba to return home with a series of metaphors. Combined with an appearance of the ghost of Mufasa, Simba realizes his responsibility and heads back to Pride Rock, followed by Timon, Pumbaa and Nala.
Once back at Pride Rock, Simba confronts his uncle. Afraid of losing the throne, Scar announces to the pride that Simba was responsible for Mufasa’s death. He then corners Simba at the edge of Pride Rock with his hyenas, resulting in a scene similar to Mufasa’s death. At the same time, lightning strikes the dry brush, surrounding Pride Rock with flames. As Simba dangles over the edge of Pride Rock with flames below him, an over-confident Scar reveals the truth about Mufasa’s death. Enraged, Simba leaps up and pins Scar to the ground, forcing him to admit his wrongdoings. A fierce battle between the lionesses and the hyenas ensues. Rafiki, Zazu, Timon, and Pumbaa join the fray as well.
Atop Pride Rock’s peak, Simba finally corners Scar. Scar tries to surreptitiously blame everything on the hyenas, but Shenzi, Banzai and Ed overhear this betrayal. Simba asks Scar to leave the Pride Lands and never return, like what Scar told Simba to do years earlier. Scar pretends to leave, but promptly attacks Simba, resulting in a violent final duel. Simba eventually triumphs over his uncle by kicking him over a low cliff. Scar manages to survive and staggers to his paws, but finds himself surrounded by the now resentful hyenas. The hyenas approach their fallen leader and devour him alive, just as everything is seemingly enveloped by the fire.
A downpour extinguishes the brushfire, however, and Simba subsequently reconciles with his family. Rafiki then directs Simba to Pride Rock’s overlook with the words “it is time”. As Simba reaches the top of the overlook, he see the stars shining down on him and hears the voice of his father booming, “Remember…” Emboldened, Simba roars to signify that he is now king of the Pride Lands. With Simba and Nala as the new king and queen, the Pride Lands become green with life again. The movie concludes with Rafiki lifting Simba and Nala’s newborn cub high into the air for all the animals to see, thus continuing the circle of life
Production
The Lion King was originally called King of the Jungle during early stages of production. As in the case of the earlier film Bambi, animators studied real-life animals for reference, and some of the filmmakers went to Kenya to observe the natural habitat that would be shown in the film.
The film’s significant use of computers helped the filmmakers to present their vision in new ways. The most notable use of computer animation is in the “wildebeest stampede” sequence. Several distinct wildebeest characters were built 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.
The Lion King was once considered a secondary project to Pocahontas, both of which were in production at the same time. Most of the Disney Feature Animation staff preferred to work on Pocahontas, believing it would be the more prestigious and successful of the two. While both films were commercial successes,The Lion King received a greater amount of positive feedback and larger grosses than Pocahontas, but both became known Disney classics.
The main locations for the film, including Pride Rock and the Gorge, are modelled after Hell’s Gate National Park in Kenya. This animated film was created and recorded at a studio in Los Angeles, California.
Awards
The film won two Academy Awards: Best Original Score and Best Original Song (”Can You Feel the Love Tonight”). Besides winning in the same two categories in the Golden Globe Awards, it also won Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, and another Golden Globe for film editing. In the Annie Awards, it won Best Animated Film, Best Individual Achievement for Story Contribution in the Field of Animation, and Jeremy Irons also won Best Achievement for Voice Acting for voicing Scar.
