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The Lion King Fan Site: The People Behind the Magic

Making a Disney Animated Film takes years of work by hundreds of very creative people. It might begin way upstream, with the trickle of an idea. What If we did a film about the Animal kingdom? About a young Lion who has to struggle with growing up? As this trickle moves downstream, writers put the ideas into words, story artist sketch pictures to match the words, actors perform the words,

and animators put the performances into motion. Add the directors, producers, Editors, musicians, computer Artist and others. Each flooding the film with ideas and creative energy of their own. And what you’ve got is as much a force of nature as it is a film.

To bring the most compelling elements of nature to the Lion King, the first step for the animators was to observe the animals they would be animating.

World famous wildlife expert Jim Fowler came out to the studio and brought a few friends, who made quite an impression on the artists. Animator Rubin Nakino did a detailed study of the way various animals moved. His work became a standard reference for all of the animators on the film. And his drawing for this wildebeest became a herd of hundreds, with the help of disney’s innovative CGI, Computer Generated Imagery, which combines hand drawn animation with computer technology. The computer might be able to keep track of hundreds of stampeding animals, but only a performer with a pencil can combine movement and emotion to bring a believable character to Life. Getting emotional things across and the mechanics and getting it all to work together smoothly. That’s a big challenge. Ellen Woodbury’s Challenge was having to think like a bird. The animators are cast like actors. to match them with characters akin to their own personalities

--Robert Guiallme, Disney's "The Making of the Lion King"

Into the Wilds of Africa!

What better way to get into the life of lions than to go on an African safari! Six people involved in making THE LION KING--including Story Supervisor Brenda Chapman and the directors--spent who weeks in Kenya in 1991 to study the cats up close.  They traveled with three guides, taking photos of lazy lion and hunting lions, mothers with cubs, troops of baboons and herds of elephants.

When a wildebeest stampede charged past the Range Rover, Brenda was hanging out the window, snapping pictures wildly.  But when she tried to photograph a female lion, her highness gave a glare that sent Brenda inside in a flash.  "Lions can leap, you know!" Brenda says!

"We wanted to get a feel for Africa," Says Brenda.  "We took pictures of lion at every angle in ever position. We also picked up traits you don't see at the zoo, like their walk when they're alert and stalking and their serious, piercing stare."

Cubs are afraid of strange Male lions because they may try to take over the pride.  When the African guide laid a tape of a male lion's roar on the car stereo, the babies ran down hiding under their moms.  "I know that sound mean, but we wanted to see how they would really react," says Brenda. "And they bounced right back."

The guides tied a rope to the Range Rover and drove slowly, letting the rope dangle.  Little cubs chased after the rope, batting at it and tying to catch it, like house cats at play.

Warthogs usually shoot their tails straight up and run away when people approach, but Brenda and her team got close enough to touch the hairs on their chins.  "We took pictures of the flat nose, harry face and curvy teeth, which helped the animators create Pumba," says Brenda. "There's a shot in the movie with Pumba looking down at Timon that came straight from a photograph"

Benda says the African adventure helped Disney make one of the best animated feature films ever (If not the best). "We took scenery pictures to help us capture the real African environment.  Like when we saw a whole rainstorm moving across the plains there's a shot in the film like that."

Being on the scene also helped the creators write the story.  The guides told them about some African customs and beliefs which were then used in the movie--like the kids' playground song that Rafiki chants: "Asante sana. Squash banana. We we nugu. Mi mi apana."

"There's a feeling to the place that's hard to describe, " says Brenda. "It's magical, older than time. That's what we tired to capture in THE LION KING.

-- Disney Adventure Magazine, July 30, 1994

The Team

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Rob Minkoff "As a director I help write the story and develop the movie's feel and look, which in this case is very colorful and mystical.  Directors work closely with the animators to discover and create the characters. We also work with the voice over actors on their performances.  In the Elephant Graveyard scene, kid animals are sliding down an elephant's spine. We were tying to get our actor, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, to make that shaky voice.  We tried everything, even holding him upside down and beating him on the back.  Finally it worked to just have him bounce on the balls of his feet while he said lines."

Roger Allers  "We wanted this film to be a hero's journey.  Africa is so big and strong; everyone who went there to research the Film was really inspired after we came back we locked ourselves in a room for a couple of days and jammed, coming up with story ideas.  My favorite scene is the one where the adult Simba looks for his father, sees his reflection in the water, and Rafiki tells him , "You see , he lives in you" that's powerful.

Andres Deja "With Scar, the lion villain, I listened to a tape of the voice-over actor (Jeremy Irons) saying the dialogue while I closed my eye's and visualized the character and made little doodles.  I gave Scar an Icy tight lip look, with a black mane and yellow eyes--something very striking to make him stand out. "I couldn't really use mirrors to animate because I don't walk or act like a lion, so we had a training program with real lions in the studio--a cub, a female and a full grown male.  I had never seen a lion so close.  They're much bigger than I thought and they were in my environment.  Here's a desk, chair and a Lion!"

Mark Henn "I was the lead or supervising animator for young Simba, which means that I set the style or the pattern of a character.  Three or four other animators worked with me on young Simba." Being chosen to animate a character is similar to being cast as an actor for a certain role.  Some actors are better at comedy, some are better at dramatic parts.  Animators are the same way-- they specialize in different things.  I like the lead characters, roles that require a lot of acting, emotion and content"

Ellen Woodbury "I wanted to draw Zazu form the beginning.  I read the script, then I talked to the directors about Zazu's personality.  I also listened to the tape of actor Rowan Atkinson, who plays Zazu's voice, and watched a videotape of him in the recording sessions, to see his expressions.  I got ideas form that.   An animal trainer brought a hornbill and some other African birds to the studio sop we could sketch them.  But I needed to study birds flying and landing too, so I watched crows a lot. They're real easy to find and they're about the same size as hornbills. I also got into the character by taking a test form a psychology book and answering as if I were Zazu.  According to the test, Zazu is organized and interested in civic duties, which fits with his personality in the movie, so I think I have him pretty well down."

Scott Johnson "Sometimes an effect is impossible to do by hand, like the stampeding herd of wildebeests.  We spent years working on that two-and-a half minute scene! We scanned a hand drawn wildebeest into the computer, which then made a wire frame of the animal.  I programmed a skeleton inside the frame, so I could move the character around with the computer mouse.  We animated the animals behaviors in the computer--a gallop, a leap, a head toss--then ran the simulator to guide them, so they didn't run into each other. This is one of the first times we've combined computer and traditional animation. An animator who worked on 101 Dalmatians saw the scene and said, 'Wow, I feel sorry for the animator who had to draw all those wildebeests!' Little did he know."

--Disney Adventures, July 30, 1994