The Lion King | 2
History of the 90s
Kathy Kenzora
4.7 • 610 Ratings
🗓️ 24 July 2019
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of host Kathy Kenzora looks at the story of the ultimate underdog or maybe...under cat? This is the little known story of the 1994 animated feature, The Lion King.
Despite being one of Disney’s most cherished movies of all time, the Lion King was never expected to be such a massive hit. The Lion King was considered a filler movie to tide people over until Disney released Pocahontas.
Lion King was the first Disney animated movie based on a completely original story, it had a smaller budget and lesser known directors working on the film.
Most of Disney’s “A-Team” animators chose to work on Pocahontas instead of Lion King because they worried a movie about a talking lion cub would be a flop.
Those that ended up working on it were so dedicated that when an earthquake shutdown Disney studios in 1994, animators worked from their homes to make sure the film was completed on time.
Despite these obstacles, The Lion King was a massive hit, making nearly a billion dollars at the box office and winning several awards including two Oscars. In addition, it spawned the highest grossing Broadway production of all time and of course this year’s live action reboot with Beyoncé and Childish Gambino.
The original Lion King also attracted its fair share of criticisms, including concerns that it portrayed hyenas in a negative light and some suggested it was knock off of a Japanese made American cartoon called Kimba the White Lion.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey there, it's Kathy. I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to History of the 90s |
| 0:04.7 | early and ad-free on Amazon music included with Prime. |
| 0:13.7 | If you were a kid in the 90s, there's a pretty good chance that music was a soundtrack to your childhood. |
| 0:21.4 | You probably also learned your first Swahili phrase, Hakuna Matata. |
| 0:27.2 | The original Lion King was released in 1994, and it was the highest grossing movie worldwide, |
| 0:34.7 | making nearly a billion dollars and beating out other classics released that year, |
| 0:39.7 | including Forrest Gump and Speed. |
| 0:42.5 | So how did a movie that the studio never really believed in that overcame incredible adversity |
| 0:49.3 | many times over go on to become a worldwide cultural phenomenon, a record-setting animated movie, |
| 0:57.8 | a billion-dollar musical. |
| 1:00.0 | And now it's being introduced to a new generation through a live-action remake. |
| 1:06.2 | I'm Kathy Kanzora, and this is the history of the 90s, a podcast about a decade that changed the world. |
| 1:13.0 | On this episode, the story of the ultimate underdog, |
| 1:16.8 | or I guess maybe under cat? |
| 1:19.2 | This is the little-known story of the Lion King. |
| 1:26.4 | High above the English Channel, on a flight from London to Paris in 1988, |
| 1:32.3 | Disney bosses Roy Disney and Jeffrey Katzenberg were chatting with producer Peter Schneider. |
| 1:38.2 | They were on their way to the premiere for the animated film Oliver and Company. |
| 1:43.0 | As they chatted, they threw around some ideas for another animated film |
| 1:47.0 | when someone suggested a coming-of-age tale set in Africa with lions. |
| 1:53.1 | By the fall of 1988, a treatment for the film had been submitted to the studio. |
| 1:59.0 | It was originally called King of the Jungle, |
... |
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