The Lion King - The History


The Lion King idea was first developed by Roy Disney, Peter Schieider and Katzenberg while they were out in Europe busy promoting Oliver and company. Katzenberg loved the idea of making a movie set in Africa and started coming up with more ideas of the movie. Thomas Schumancher who was one of the producers jumped onto the project and contributed.

One of the earliest versions drafts of the movie were done by Thomas Disch. The story was first titled, “King of the Kalahari.” Linda Woolverton then spent a year coming up with the script and retitled it, “King of the Beast” and then “King of Jungle”. Woolvertons storyline was based on lions and baboons with Scar being the leader of the baboons and some characters such as Rafiki being a cheetah. The story line was also more violent and not child-friendly. However as more directors and producers hoped on the project things began to change. They later renamed the title to, “The Lion King.”

Pocahontas was also in production during this time. It was a serious drama that Disney was working on and the first time the company was making a film based on a true story. Most of the best animators went on to work on the Pocahontas movie living behind first-timer and animal enthusiasts animators to work on The Lion King.

Animals were also brought into the studio under the supervision of Jim Fowler. Stuart Sumdia conducted lectures on animal movement and skeletal structure. There were a number of things discarded like Mufasa’s song, “King of the wild.” There were additional verses in Hakuna Matata as well.Lion-King-Research-Photography-3

However all these changes proved a success for Disney as The Lion King become one of its best movies at the box office when it was released?

References:

DISNEY, O.
King of the Jungle: The Making of The Lion King. In-text: (Disney, 2017)
: Disney, 0. (2017). King of the Jungle: The Making of The Lion King. Oh My Disney. Retrieved 3 May 2017, from https://ohmy.disney.com/insider/2016/09/17/making-the-lion-king/

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