The Lion King [DVD]

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There is a considerable controversy of plagiarism of the 1965 Japanese animation "Kimba the White Lion" in regard to similar plots, character design and personalities, animation sequences, and other examples. However, in recent events, the plagiarism accusations were debunked, mainly because Disney claimed they had no knowledge of Kimba and that it was all a coincidence. The development of The Lion King started concurrently with Pocahontas, which most of the animators of Walt Disney Feature Animation decided to work on instead, believing it would be the more prestigious and successful of the two. [9] The story artists also did not have much faith in the project, with Brenda Chapman declaring she was reluctant to accept the job " because the story wasn't very good", [3] and writer Burny Mattinson saying to co-worker Joe Ranft about the film that " I don't know who is going to want to watch that one." [8] Most of the leading animators were either doing their first major work supervising a character, or had much interest in animating an animal. [4] Thirteen of these supervising animators, both in California and Florida, were responsible for establishing the personalities and setting the tone for the film's main characters. The animation leads for the main characters included Mark Henn on young Simba, Ruben A. Aquino on adult Simba, Andreas Deja on Scar, Aaron Blaise on young Nala, Anthony DeRosa on adult Nala, and Tony Fucile on Mufasa. Nearly 20 minutes of the film, including the " I Just Can't Wait to Be King" sequence, [6] were animated at the Disney-MGM Studios facility. Ultimately, more than 600 artists, animators, and technicians contributed to The Lion King over the course of its production. Weeks before the film was to be released, production was affected by the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which shut off the studio and required the animators to finish their work from home. [11] In Mouse Hunt, Nathan Lane's character Ernie Smuntz says Hakuna Matata to one of the auctioneers, a reference to Timon in the Lion King.

The Lion King was followed by two movies: a sequel, The Lion King II: Simba's Pride; and a part prequel-part parallel, The Lion King 1½. Additional spin-offs include the television series Timon & Pumbaa and The Lion Guard. In 2019, a theatrical remake of the film was released using photorealistic computer animation to portray the characters and environments.This is the only Disney animated feature from the 'Disney Renaissance' era to have absolutely no humans in the movie.

Jeremy Irons and Ernie Sabella both share the same birthday: September 19; Sabella was born on Irons's first birthday. Even though the setting is definitely Africa, there are some minor anomalies in the selection of animal species portrayed in the movie. In the "circle of life" sequence, leaf-cutter ants are seen crawling on a branch, even though leaf cutter ants are not only found in South America, they are endemic there. Also, Timon is a meerkat, and they are found in parts of Namibia and throughout South Africa, miles from Hell's Gate National Park where the main setting of the film is heavily modeled. Celebrate the glory of The Lion King as this magnificent coming-of-age masterpiece takes its rightful place as the reigning star of the acclaimed Walt Disney Signature Collection!Books: Marvel Comics • The Art and Making of The Lion King • The Lion Guard: Can't Wait to be Queen • The Lion King: The Novelization • The Lion King: The Full Film Script