The Lion King (1941)
The initial planning for this film dates back to the production of
Cinderella in 1937 when Walt expressed interest in developing another tale from France (emphasizing that France was where the tale
Cendrillon was initially published in 1697 and Reynard’s popularity in France caused the French word for "fox" to change from "goupil" to "renard"). Walt immediately assigned this story to Dorothy Blank (who previously worked on
Cinderella) and Al Perkins to develop a suitable treatment for the myth. There was one problem, though. How on earth do you make a character so unrepentantly awful into someone sympathetic enough for the audience to root for? Unlike
Robin Hood, who at least limits his thievery to a corrupt, oppressive government, Reynard has a rap sheet 1,000 miles long and is willing to commit any crime, even mass murder, to get what he wants.
Walt expressed such concerns during a story meeting for
Reynard The Fox on February 12, 1938. He emphasized that the main character was a crook and there was no hope for a Robin Hood angle for Reynard. With the core audience comprising adults and kids alike, having him as a sympathetic protagonist of the story would be very difficult to pull off. [1] Someone suggested making Reynard more heroic by having him be a good guy pretending to be evil or simply be a victim of his past. Disney noted the fox that maybe, just maybe, could be more than just the sly fox stereotype but someone who started on the right path and lost his way, and his personal circumstances would force him to rely on his wits.[2] Someone else suggested another idea: that Disney make Reynard the main antagonist and tell it through the eyes of the royal lion King Nobel. The writers generally agreed that the king was more sympathetic in the original stories than Reynard himself, even though he was very spiteful and avaricious in the initial proposed treatment. Granted, he was originally the villain in the story as Reynard was the protagonist and point of view character. From a different perspective, King Noble the Lion might be more noble than one might predict.
For over a year, most of the focus for the film lay in writing the final script, fleshing out the different characters from the Reynard myths, and animating animals more realistic than in
Cinderella but not quite as realistic as what would've been required in the proposed
Bambi feature since they are more anthropomorphized. The last story meeting for the film, retitled
The Lion King by then, took place on June 27, 1939, as the script neared completion. Animation began on August 29 but did not go into full swing until the following June as animation for
The Jungle Book was at its height in 1939, and most of the voice recording took place between January and March 1940. By early 1941, the animation process launched into crunch time as
The Jungle Book disappointed at the box office, and Disney needed a box office hit to turn things around. Its tentative release date was August 15, 1941. However, the Disney animators' strike began on May 29 and delayed its release as most of Disney’s animation staff were striking. Hence, production on
The Lion King was not complete until September 11, when Disney handed the finished product to RKO Radio Pictures for distribution.
The Lion King begins with Reynard the fox in the countryside planning out a series of deceptions and disguises, which he only got away with in the past due to witty last-minute escapes. Undesratbaly frustrated with all the devious escapades that wreaked havoc across the kingdom, King Noble, the great lion, orders Reynard’s capture and that he brought to the royal court to be tried for his crimes ranging from larceny to arson to murder. During the trial, Reynard disguises himself as a goat and laughs throughout the proceedings. When Noble discovers his disguise, he immediately sentences Reynard to be hanged on the gallows. Before his execution, Reynard confesses, much to the horror of King Noble, that he and his father tried overthrowing the monarch, spinning up a tale that it was payback for the monarchy stealing his father’s wealth and hiding it in a volcano. Reynard leads the King and all of the kingdom’s subjects to the volcano and pushes Noble into it. The King only barely manages to climb out when it explodes, killing many people. Deciding that the fox is now the most wanted fugitive in all the realms, the titular lion king escapes and releases notorious criminal Ysegrim the Wolf, Reynard’s cousin [3], to pursue the fox once and for all.
The Lion King premiered on October 23, 1941, in New York City before its wide release through the rest of the nation only eight days later. With a budget of $1.1 million, it was far more modest than the two movies that came before it. Fortunately, it earned $1.9 million in domestic box office rentals, earning Disney a profit and making it the most successful Disney film in North America since
Cinderella. It was also the only Disney film from the 1940s that audiences at the time connected with. Like in
The Jungle Book, there were plenty of dark elements, but much of it was played for laughs here. Critics praised The Lion King for its plot, characters, music, and voice acting, with special praise given to Reynard the Fox for his effective villainy and King Noble as a surprisingly sympathetic protagonist. While there weren’t many songs, two musical numbers, Pink Elephants on Parade (played while King Noble gets drunk) and Casey Jr. (played when Reynard stows away on a train) are two of the most remembered. Overall, while
The Lion King is not considered the objectively best Disney movie of the 1940s, The Lion King is one of the most fondly remembered today.
Voice Cast:
- Herman Bing as King Noble
- Walter Catlett as Reynard The Fox
- Verna Felton as Queen Noble
- Sterling Holloway as Bruin The Bear
- Edward Brophy as Tibert the Cat
- Billy Bletcher as Ysegrim the Wolf
- Cliff Edwards as Grimbard the Badger
- Margaret Wright as Casey Jr.
[1] Paraphrased from American Classic Screen Features as edited by John C. Tibbetts and James M. Welsh when Disney attempted to adapt Reynard IOTL.
[2] See above note.
[3] Combining the roles of Grimbard and Ysegrim in the myths.