Thursday, April 11, 2013

The Lion King

The Lion King
Summary
-Simba is a lion cub born to King Mufasa and Queen Sarabi of the Pride Lands. Later on, Mufasa tells Simba that should he die, Simba will be the next King. Scar, his brother, would have been king if Mufasa did not have a child. One day, while playing in the canyon, wildebeest are forced to stampede and when Mufasa tries to save Simba, he does so at the cost of his own life. Scar uses this as his chance to rule Pride Land. So Simba must return to Pride Rock and take his rightful throne from his scheming uncle




Cast
-Jonathan Taylor Thomas: Young Simba
-Matthew Broderick: Adult Simba
-James Earl Jones: Mufasa
-Jeremy Irons: Scar
-Moira Kelly: Adult Nala
-Niketa Calame: Young Nala
-Ernie Sabella: Pumbaa
-Nathan Lane: Timon
-Robert Guillaume: Rafiki
-Rowan Atkinson: Zazu
-Madge Sinclair: Sarabi
-Whoopi Goldberg: Shenzi
-Cheech Marin: Banzai
-Jim Cummings: Ed

Did You Know?
-The line "What do you want me to do, dress in drag and do the Hula?" was improvised by Nathan Lane
-The wildebeest stampede took 3 years to animate
-The first Disney cartoon to be dubbed in Zulu for its African release
-Pumbaa the Warthog is the first Disney character to be flatulent
-Several of the characters have names that are words in Swahili
  • Shenzi: Barbarous/Uncouth/Uncivilized/Savage
  • Pumbaa: Ignorant/Lazy/Careless
  • Sarabi: Mirage
  • Rafiki: Comrade/Friend
  • Simba: Lion/Courageous Warrior
  • Mufasa: the name of the last king of the Bagada people, who were dispersed during English colonization
  • Nala: Gift

-Rowan Atkinson was chosen to play the role of Zazu after the animators watched episodes of Mr. Bean
-Tim Curry and Malcolm McDowell were considered for the role of Scar
-The animators were impressed with Jeremy Irons' facial expressions, so they worked some of his facial features into Scar's facial features
-The main locations in the film, Pride Rock and the Gorge, were modeled after Hell's Gate National Park in Kenya
-During the scene of "Be Prepared" the hyenas are marching past Scar. This was based on real footage of Nazis marching past Adolf Hitler while he was on a podium
-The second film where James Earl Jones (Mufasa) and Madge Sinclair (Sarabi) perform together as an African king and queen. The first time was in the movie Coming to America, playing the king and queen of a fictional African nation

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