DISNEY ANIMATOR / THE REAL LION KING

it's me again. many do not believe that I worked for Disney as an animator. I worked there for some time in the past. I've worked on many projects but the most memorable assignment happened in early 1993, while I was working on The Lion King.

working on The Lion King was an amazing experience. I've never seen a lion my entire life. so, the studio sent me on a trip to Africa to draw lions and observe them in the wild. I went to the wild, alone, armed only with pencils, a Leica camera and a sketch pad.

being an expert animal ranger/tracker, it took me only 20 minutes to find a pride of lions. everything went well for the first half an hour. then, one of the lion cubs approached me. I played with it for a moment and that's when all hell broke loose.

the cubs mother and another lioness ran towards me and started attacking. I did not want to hurt it but after 50+ minutes of struggling, I was left with no choice but to defend myself. so I punched the two wild lioness. here's a picture I took after the incident.

I was left with only a few minor scratches. on my way to the hotel, I walk pass an African village where the village headman was shocked to see me and was in utter disbelief after he heard what had happened to me. he later gathered all the tribesmen and bestowed me with an African name meaning "THE LION KING".

when I returned to the studio, I told the directors, Roger and Rob about that incident. after they heard of my African name, they really liked it...A LOT! so they changed the original title of the movie, which was "King of the Jungle" to "The Lion King". here's proof of the original title:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110357/trivia

and the rest as they say, is history!

here are my other photos from the years I worked there.




I really enjoyed my work as an animator with Disney and was quite sad when I left. gossips started flying around that I was dating one of the Disneyland staffs. so, to reduce the office tension, I had to go. by the way, in case you're wondering, here's her picture:

no, she's not the one in the middle.
she's in the Minnie Mouse costume!