The Lion King [DVD]

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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. Upon meeting each other at the recording studio, the actors, who at the time both co-starred in Guys and Dolls, were asked to record together as hyenas. Additionally, Aquaman is seen eating grass like the gazelles did, and the Batman logo is used in replacement for the rising sun.

The troublemakers of the plains, these three wisecracking goons are always on the lookout for their next meal or an innocent victim to taunt. The script also had its title changed from King of the Jungle to The Lion King, as the setting was not the jungle but the Savannah. 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. The film would currently be the 19th highest-grossing animated film of all time worldwide if it had never been re-released.Allers, Minkoff, Chapman, and Hahn then rewrote the story across two weeks of meetings with directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, who had just finished Beauty and the Beast.

Amid their fight, Scar tries to surreptitiously blame everything on the hyenas, but the hyenas overhear his conversation with Simba and back away growling. The voice actors were chosen for how they fit and could add to the characters – for instance, James Earl Jones was cast because the directors found his voice "powerful" and similar to a lion's roar. Although she and Simba were best friends, the two never admitted to being in love until they were reunited years later.In January 2008, the film, along with the sequels, went back into the moratorium, but new and used copies still sell very well. The VHS Deluxe Edition included the film, an exclusive lithograph of Rafiki and Simba (in some editions), a commemorative "Circle of Life" epigraph, six concept art lithographs, another tape with the half-hour TV show The Making of The Lion King, and a certificate of authenticity. In early versions of the script, Simba would have been much more vicious and had the willingness to kill. Other usages of computer animation were done through CAPS, which helped simulate camera movements such as tracking shots, and was employed on the coloring, lighting, and particle effects.