The idea for The Lion King was conceived in late 1988 during a conversation between Jeffrey Katzenberg, Roy E. Disney, and Peter Schneider on a plane to Europe to promote Oliver & Company. During the conversation, the topic of a story set in Africa came up, and Katzenberg immediately jumped at the idea. [2] Producer Thomas Schumacher, who had just completed The Rescuers Down Under, decided to attach himself to the project "because lions are cool". The idea was then developed by Walt Disney Feature Animation's vice president for creative affairs Charlie Fink. [3] Katzenberg decided to add elements involving coming of age and death, [4] and ideas from personal life experiences, such as some of his trials in his bumpy road in politics, saying about the film, "It is a little bit about myself." [4] In November of that year Thomas Disch (author of The Brave Little Toaster) wrote a treatment entitled King of the Kalahari, [5] and afterwards Linda Woolverton spent a year writing drafts of the script, which was titled King of the Beasts and then King of the Jungle. [3] The original version of the film was very different from the final film. The plot was centered in a battle being between lions and baboons with Scar being the leader of the baboons, Rafiki being a cheetah, [4] and Timon and Pumbaa being Simba's childhood friends. [6] Simba would also not leave the kingdom, but become a "lazy, slovenly, horrible character" due to manipulations from Scar, so Simba could be overthrown after coming of age. [3] This is the first Disney film whose title not only is near or at the beginning of the movie but at the end (before the credits), more being Tarzan, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Brother Bear, and Raya and the Last Dragon. The film is one of Disney's first attempts at animating hair and fur, due to getting its technology to create fur. This is the second film in which James Earl Jones and Madge Sinclair appear as king and queen, and the parents of the protagonist, the first being in an R-rated live-action movie Coming to America.

Toy Story (1995) • A Bug's Life (1998) • Toy Story 2 (1999) · Monsters, Inc. (2001) • Finding Nemo (2003) • The Incredibles (2004) • Cars (2006) • Ratatouille (2007) • WALL-E (2008) • Up (2009) • Toy Story 3 (2010) • Cars 2 (2011) • Brave (2012) • Monsters University (2013) • Inside Out (2015) • The Good Dinosaur (2015) • Finding Dory (2016) • Cars 3 (2017) • Coco (2017) • Incredibles 2 (2018) • Toy Story 4 (2019) • Onward (2020) • Soul (2020) • Luca (2021) • Turning Red (2022) • Lightyear (2022) • Elemental (2023) 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.The Lion King II: Simba's Pride: He Lives in You • We Are One • My Lullaby • Upendi • One of Us • Love Will Find a Way The film became available on Digital HD August 15, 2017, and on Blu-ray/DVD August 29, 2017. It later got a 4K Ultra HD release on December 4, 2018. Deleted: To Be King • Warthog Rhapsody • The Lion of the Moon • Old Fearless Buzz • The Madness of King Scar • Where Do I Belong This is the only Disney animated feature from the 'Disney Renaissance' era to have absolutely no humans in the movie. Allers, Roger; Hahn, Don, and Minkoff, Rob ( 1995). Laserdisc/DVD audio commentary for The Lion King. Walt Disney Home Entertainment

Several lionesses with the same type of fur coloring as Nala appear when they battle for the last time. Television: Find Out Why • Timon & Pumbaa ( videography) • Timon and Pumbaa's Wild About Safety • The Lion Guard ( videography) • It's UnBungalievable!Films: The Lion King ( video) • The Lion King II: Simba's Pride ( video) • The Lion King 1½ ( video) • The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar • The Lion King (2019) ( video) • Mufasa: The Lion King Fireworks: Celebrate the Magic • Celebrate! Tokyo Disneyland • Disney Dreams! • Disneyland Forever • Happily Ever After • Harmonious • Ignite the Dream: A Nighttime Spectacular of Magic and Light • Illuminate! A Nighttime Celebration • The Magic, the Memories and You • Momentous • Once Upon a Time • Tree of Life Awakens • Wonderful World of Animation • World of Color • Wondrous Journeys

In fact, The Lion King is the first (and third overall) film in the Disney Animated Canon to have an entirely non-human cast since Robin Hood in 1973.Season Two: " Palm Beached/ Jamaica Mistake?" • " Oregon Astray/ New Guinea Pig" • " Isle of Manhood/ Puttin' on the Brits" • " Klondike Con/ Isle Find Out" • " Beetle Romania/ Rumble in the Jungle" • " Wide Awake in Wonderland/ Zazu's Off-by-One Day" • " Animal Barn/ Roach Hotel" • " Africa-Dabra!/ I Don't Bolivia" • " Shopping Mauled/ Library Brouhaha" • " Catch Me if You Kenya/ Scent of the South" • " Monster Massachusetts/ Handle with Caribbean" • " Forbidden Pumbaa/ Washington Applesauce" • " Alcatraz Mataz/ Oahu Wahoo" • " I Think I Canada/ Zazu's Off Day Off" • " Beast of Eden/ Sense & Senegambia" • " Timon on the Range/ The Man from J.U.N.G.L.E." • " Maine-Iacs/ Fiji-Fi-Fo-Fum" • " Rome Alone/ Amusement Bark" • " Once Upon a Timon" • " Home is Where the Hog Is" • " Bumble in the Jungle Plus: Beethoven's Whiff!/ Mind Over Matterhorn" The Brave Little Toaster (1987) • Valiant (2005) • The Wild (2006) • A Christmas Carol (2009) • Gnomeo & Juliet (2011) • Mars Needs Moms (2011) • Strange Magic (2015) • The Lion King (2019) Season Three: " Battle for the Pride Lands" • " The Harmattan" • " The Accidental Avalanche" • " Ghost of the Mountain" • " Marsh of Mystery" • " Dragon Island" • " Journey of Memories" • " The Race to Tuliza" • " Mama Binturong" • " Friends to the End" • " The Tree of Life" • " The River of Patience" • " Little Old Ginterbong" • " Poa the Destroyer" • " Long Live the Queen" • " The Lake of Reflection" • " The Triumph of the Roar" • " Journey to the Pride Lands" • " Return to the Pride Lands" 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.

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 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. This article is about the 1994 traditionally animated film. For the 2019 photorealistic computer-animated film of the same name, see The Lion King (2019 film). The Lion King was the first-ever feature film to be translated to European Portuguese and the first Disney film to be dubbed in Zulu.The Lion King was the first Disney animated feature to be an original story, rather than being based on an already-existing work. The filmmakers have said that the story of The Lion King was inspired by the Joseph and Moses stories from the Bible and William Shakespeare's Hamlet. [9] Despite these claims, the story was not based on the aforementioned works, having actually taken more inspiration from actual animal behavior. During the summer of 1992, the team was joined by screenwriter Irene Mecchi, with a second screenwriter, Jonathan Roberts, joining a few months later. Mecchi and Roberts took charge of the revision process, fixing unresolved emotional issues in the script and adding comic business for Pumbaa, Timon, and the hyenas. Lyricist Tim Rice worked closely with the writing team, flying to California at least once a month, as his songs needed to work in the narrative continuity. Rice's lyrics – which were reworked up to the production's end – were even pinned to the storyboards during development. [7] Rewrites were frequent, with animator Andreas Deja saying that completed scenes would be delivered only for the response to be that parts needed to be reanimated due to dialog changes. [3] Season Two: " Babysitter Bunga" • " The Savannah Summit" • " The Traveling Baboon Show" • " Ono and the Egg" • " The Rise of Scar" • " Let Sleeping Crocs Lie" • " Swept Away" • " Rafiki's New Neighbors" • " Rescue in the Outlands" • " The Ukumbusho Tradition" • " The Bite of Kenge" • " Timon and Pumbaa's Christmas" • " The Morning Report" • " The Golden Zebra" • " The Little Guy" • " Divide and Conquer" • " The Scorpion's Sting" • " The Wisdom of Kongwe" • " The Kilio Valley Fire" • " Undercover Kinyonga" • " Cave of Secrets" • " The Zebra Mastermind" • " The Hyena Resistance" • " The Underground Adventure" • " Beshte and the Beast" • " Pride Landers Unite!" • " The Queen's Visit" • " The Fall of Mizimu Grove" • " Fire from the Sky" Although this movie is rated G by the MPAA, it received a TV-PG rating on most TV channels for the violent content, especially the scene where Mufasa dies. The Lion King : A Memoir – Don Hahn. [Blu-ray]. The Lion King: Diamond Edition: Walt Disney Home Entertainment. 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.