1

When production first started, the movie was called King Of The Jungle.

2

The opening scene originally featured a dialogue that introduced most of the main characters. After the directors heard the ‘Circle of Life’, they decided the song was more powerful on its own and scrapped the dialogue altogether.

3

The opening scene was so impressive that it was used as the trailer for the film. This was the first time Disney had ever made a trailer using a full scene.

4

The animals had different relationships in earlier versions of the script. Scar was a lone lion without any relation to Simba and led a pack of baboons. In this version, Rafiki was a cheetah and Timon and Pumbaa were friends with Simba from the very start.

5

The movie was first presented to screenwriter Irene Mecchi as Bamblet, which would be Hamlet set in Africa with Bambi thrown in.

6

The film’s first director, George Scribner, wanted the movie to be like an animated National Geographic feature. He left the project when it was made into a musical.

7

The Lion King is credited as Disney’s first movie with an original storyline. All prior films were adaptations of preexisting stories. However, some dispute this claim because the movie took inspiration from Hamlet.

8

Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella, the voices of Timon and Pumbaa, originally auditioned to be hyenas. The two bumped into each other in the lobby of their audition and asked if they could read together. Director Rob Minkoff thought they were hilarious but decided they’d be a better fit for Timon and Pumbaa.

9

A hyena researcher sued Disney for defamation of character for the portrayal of the animals in the film.

10

There were multiple characters written out of the movie including a little brother and bat-eared fox friend for Nala.

11

Disney’s most important animators chose to work on Pocahontas instead because they thought it would be a more successful film. Therefore, The Lion King was made by the ‘B-team’ animators.

12

Jim Cummings (the voice of Ed the gopher) had to fill in for Jeremy Irons as Scar for a portion of ‘Be Prepared’ after he threw out his voice.

13

‘The Lion in the Moon’ was a deleted scene that featured a lullaby sung by Sarabi. It would have come after Simba’s first encounter with the hyenas and was about a protective lion spirit.

14

‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight’ went through 15 iterations of lyrics over several years before the final product was finished.

15

‘Hakuna Matata’ wasn’t in the initial script. Originally, there was a song called ‘He’s Got it All Worked Out’ about eating bugs but the directors weren’t sold on the idea. When the film’s research team came back with the phrase ‘Hakuna Matata’ they decided to make a song about that instead.

16

The Lion King is the highest-grossing hand-drawn animated feature of all time. The film hit over $986 million at the box office.

17

A wildlife expert brought real African animals to the studio in order to help the animators study their movements. Animals including hornbills and lions were brought to different sets.

18

A 1994 earthquake forced Disney to temporarily shut down production for The Lion King. Much of the film was actually finished from the artists’ homes.

19

Simba was going to lose to Scar in the original final fight scene. Scar would have then died in a fire.

20

At one point the voices of the hyenas were going to be a Cheech and Chong reunion. The directors thought this would be great, but the two weren’t working together at the time and Whoopie Goldberg was cast alongside Cheech Marin.

21

Rowan Atkinson, the voice of Zazu, had some serious competition for the part. Several members of Monty Python, including Patrick Stewart, were considered.

22

In 1991, Disney sent a team of animators to Hell’s Gate National Park in Kenya to do research for the film. Many of the landscapes in the movie are based on this park.

23

It took animators over two years to create the stampede scene. The 2.5 minute scene also involved writing a new computer program that governed movements of the herd.