The Lion King hidden details: production secrets behind Disney's 1994 classic

The Lion King hidden details: a story built from Hamlet and the Bible

When Allers and Minkoff pitched the revised story, Michael Eisner suggested making it more Shakespearean and proposed King Lear. Associate producer Maureen Donley pointed out it already resembled Hamlet, and Allers recalled Jeffrey Katzenberg asking them to put in as much Hamlet as they could. The team felt that was forced and also looked to the stories of Joseph and Moses. The result is a son exiled after his uncle kills his father, who later returns guided by his father's ghost.

Early treatments looked very different. A 1989 version introduced the name Simba but had him raised by baboons and fighting an evil jackal.

The stampede took years

The wildebeest stampede lasts about two and a half minutes. Animators built several distinct wildebeest in a 3D computer program, multiplied them into hundreds, shaded them to look hand-drawn and gave them randomised paths down the hillside. Five specially trained animators and technicians spent more than two years on the sequence.

The studio's Computer Animation Production System also simulated camera moves such as tracking shots. Six months before release, the 1994 Northridge earthquake shut the studio and animators finished their work remotely.

Casting happy accidents

Several of the best-known voices came about by chance. Nathan Lane auditioned for Zazu and Ernie Sabella for a hyena. They were starring together in Guys and Dolls on Broadway, recorded together, and the directors liked their chemistry so much they cast them as Timon and Pumbaa.

The hyenas were meant to reunite Cheech and Chong. Cheech Marin signed on as Banzai, but Tommy Chong was unavailable, so the part became Shenzi, voiced by Whoopi Goldberg, who insisted on being in the film.

• James Earl Jones was cast as Mufasa because the directors found his voice powerful and similar to a lion's roar.
• Rowan Atkinson initially did not want to voice Zazu and was persuaded by his Mr. Bean collaborator Robin Driscoll.
• Matthew Broderick recorded with another actor only once and learned Moira Kelly voiced Nala at the premiere.
• Jason Weaver recorded young Simba's songs on the day of what was supposed to be his audition.

Who really sang Be Prepared

Jeremy Irons voiced Scar, but Jim Cummings, who also voiced the hyena Ed, partially provided Scar's singing voice on Be Prepared. Accounts say Cummings took over the last part of the song after Irons strained his voice.

The songs came from Tim Rice and Elton John after Rice's first choice, ABBA, fell through because Benny Andersson was busy. Hans Zimmer, who lost his father as a child, drew on that experience for the music around Mufasa's death.

Research trips and real animals

The crew visited Kenya, and the Pride Lands are modelled on a Kenyan national park they saw. Wildlife expert Jim Fowler brought lions and other animals to the studio so animators could study them, and the team also observed animals at Miami MetroZoo. To avoid looking like a nature documentary shot on telephoto lenses, the film used varied focal lengths. Original director George Scribner had wanted exactly that documentary style and left when the studio turned the film into a musical.

Questions people ask