This week marks the 20 year anniversary to ‘The Lion King’ and celebration for the movie’s 20th birthday, here are 10 things you probably did not know about ‘The Lion King’.
Did you know that in 1994 Disney made $1 billion in merchandise sales? That is a ton of money, no wonder Disney bought LucasFilms nearly 20 years later.
Regardless of how much money they made, check out the 10 things you probably did not know about ‘The Lion King’.
10 Things You Most Likely Didn’t Know About The Lion King
1. According to “The Making of The Lion King,” the original opening scene featured a conversation discussing most of the main characters, but directors Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff changed it when they heard the final version of “Circle of Life.”
2. The result of this decision was such a big deal that the opening scene was used as a trailer for the movie, making it the first time Disney had ever made a trailer using a complete scene.
3. The first script was titled King of Beasts, then changed to King of the Jungle featured Scar as a lone lion, unrelated to Simba, who was in charge of a pack of vicious baboons. In this version, Rafiki was written as a cheetah and Timon and Pumbaa were both friends with Simba from the start.
4. The Lion King was the first Disney animated film had a completely original storyline. Previously, Disney would create an adaptation of a pre-existing story, ie Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, etc.
READ MORE: Disney’s Lion King is Getting a Sequel, ‘Lion Guard’
5. Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella, who played Timon and Pumbaa, originally auditioned to be hyenas. “They came to an audition in New York and they bumped into each other in the lobby, which is when they discovered they were both auditioning for the roles of hyenas,” director Rob Minkoff said. “They asked the casting director if they could audition together and they were hilarious as they read their lines, but they didn’t seem right for the hyenas. That’s when we thought, ‘What if we use them as Timon and Pumbaa?’ It was the perfect fit.” Cheech Marin and Whoopi Goldberg were cast as the hyenas instead.
6. Tommy Chong was supposed to play the third hyena opposite his former comedic-partner, Marin, but when he could not be contacted for an audition, Disney chose Jim Cummings was cast in his place.
7. After Simba’s first encounter with the hyenas, the film was supposed to play a lullaby sung by Sarabi called “The Lion in the Moon,” which was about a protective lion spirit. The song was later scrapped.
8. “Hakuna Matata” wasn’t originally in the script; instead, there was a song about eating bugs called “He’s Got it All Worked Out.” According to Minkoff, “We couldn’t convince everybody that making the entire song about eating bugs was a good idea. Soon after, the research team came back from their trip to Africa with the phrase ‘Hakuna Matata’. We talked about it in a meeting with Tim Rice—and that’s when the idea struck. I remember Tim saying, ‘Hmmm… Hakuna Matata. It’s a bit like Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo.’ A song was born!”
9. The Lion King is the highest-grossing hand-drawn animated movie of all time with a total box office of over $987 million.
10. The Lion King is the third highest-grossing animated feature in general, the 19th highest-grossing film of all time, and the best-selling videotape of all time.
BONUS: Disney’s Lion King is getting another sequel called ‘Lion Guard’. The Lion Guard centers on Kion, the second born cub of Simba and Nala. Kion takes the role as the leader of the Lion Guard, the bravest ands martest lions whose job is to preserve the Pride lands. Instead of assempling a team of young lions, Kon goes in a different direction by gathering a diverse group of firends, Bunga, a honey badger, Fuli, a confident cheetah, Behste, a hippo, and Ono, an egret.
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Photo Credit: Disney
