Turns out fans of the original âThe Lion Kingâ donât need to see the new remake to see living versions of Simba and Scar out in the real world.
The Dallas Zoo has revealed the actual cub they say served as inspiration for animators, and movie fans have spotted a one-eyed lion âScarâ in Kenya.
Audiences have been flocking to cinemas to watch Mufasa, Simba and Scar again on-screen in Disney's new âThe Lion Kingâ remake -- which has led to the House of Mouse earning US$185 million in its opening weekend.
Like the team who created the original 1994 version, Disneyâs animators needed inspiration from real animals for the remake. And the Dallas Zoo say their lion cub could have been one of the real-life models.
In a , the zoo in Texas says the movements and behaviours of their lion cub Bahati were captured on video and sent to the animation team as reference for the Simba character.
âThe world's most famous lion cub may have gotten some of his moves from our very own Bahati,â the zooâs post read. It was accompanied by video of the adorable cub mewing.
Years ahead of the filmâs release this summer, the zoo says they sent footage of Bahiti when the cub was only a month old.
âFrom walking on wobbly new legs to licking milk droplets off of her face, we captured every moment, no matter how small,â the post continued, before encouraging people watching the new film to âlet us know if you see any bit of baby Bahati in Simba.â
The lion cub isnât so little anymore as Bahati is now a fully-grown, two-and-a-half-year-old lioness. The cub was actually extra special to the zoo. According to a zoo blog post from 2017, she was âthe first lion cub born at the Dallas Zoo in 43 years.â
A better inspiration for Scar spotted in Kenya
While some moviegoers have praised how Simba appears in the film, others have criticized the way the CGI characters appear less emotive or donât look like their animated counterparts.
Fans have criticized the appearance of the classic character Scar, played by Jeremy Irons in the original and Chiwetel Ejiofor in the remake. In particular, many are upset that the remakeâs version doesnât have a black mane and only has subtle scarring across his eye.
But a lion in Kenyaâs Maasai Mara National Reserve park might have served as a better inspiration for the animators.
Italian amateur photographer Fabrizio Bignotti was touring the park when he noticed a lion with a wound on the left side of its face -- just like the animated character.
The lionâs name is Benna and he reportedly lost his eye fighting a rival lion, Bignotti told the U.K. tabloid The Daily Mail.
Animators used virtual reality tech unavailable in 1994
The animation studio which provided the visual effects was The Moving Picture Company, which had worked on Disneyâs other computer-generated, live-action 2016 remake âThe Jungle Book.â
According to the , animators used a combination of virtual reality/augmented reality technology and motion capture to of the animals just right.
During the original 1994 movieâs production, animators actually went to the Miami Zoo to study and see many of the animals used in their film. Some even travelled to Kenya to model the iconic Pride Lands seen in the movie.