The Lion King - Production

The Lion King is an animated musical film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. Its development began in 1988, between Jeffrey Katzenberg, Roy E. Disney and Peter Schneider whilst in Europe promoting Oliver & Company. By fall, Thomas Disch had written the first treatment for the project (which was then known as The King of the Kalahari, later King of the Jungle, finally The Lion King) and submitted it to the studio. 


George Scribner signed on as director and was paired with Roger Allers. In November 1991, the two directors, along with a group of animators and artists, travelled to East Africa to research on the film's setting and animals. It was from this trip, that the group was introduced to the phrase "Hakuna Matata" by their tour guide. 

However once they returned, Scribner stepped down from his position and went on to be a consultant for the project, leaving Allers to be paired with director Rob Minkoff. 

A big issue concerning production at the time was that animators at the studio were given a choice to either work on The Lion King or Pocahontas. Unfortunately, since The Lion King was completely untested and is the first animated film that is not based on pre existing source material, many of the professional animators went on to work for Pocahontas. This left The Lion King team to be filled up with first timers and animal enthusiasts.


Nevertheless, Andreas Deja (supervising animator of Scar) signed on, along with Tony Award-winner Tim Rice as a lyricist (who is responsible for bringing in Elton John to the project). 

Therefore despite the hurdles the animation was completed and released in 1994 and has successfully became one of the highest grossing 2D animated film in the US of all time. 

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