- While the animals in "The Lion King" remake look more realistic than in the original, the new Disney film still ignored some facts.
- A real lion's roar doesn't sound as majestic as the ones in the film, although it can travel up to 8 kilometers away.
- Watch the video above to learn more facts about the real animals behind "The Lion King."
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Following is a transcript of the video.
Twenty-five years after roaring into theaters, "The Lion King" is back! This time, with a more realistic look. But is the remake really more true-to-nature than the original? To be fair to Disney, they did fix some mistakes from the original version.
Take Rafiki. In one scene in the 1994 film, he and Simba argue about which of them is a baboon. Clearly Simba's not a baboon. But neither is Rafiki.
He's a different kind of monkey altogether - a mandrill. And what's more, Rafiki has a long tail, yet in real life mandrills are nearly tailless. Luckily, Disney fixed this problem in the remake. So now, Rafiki's looks like the mandrill he's meant to be. But unfortunately, Disney didn't get the mandrills' behavior quite right. See how they're swinging through the trees? Yeaaaaaaah. Mandrills don't really do that. They spend most of their time on the ground, and when they DO take to the trees, they walk across the branches on all fours. This swinging behavior is actually more similar to how a gibbon moves.
But enough about mandrills. What about the lions of "The Lion King"? Well, there are a few problems there, too. Take that iconic lion roar. Sounds majestic, right? Just like the famous MGM roar. Here's the issue: A lion's roar doesn't sound like that. This is a roar. It's not quite as majestic as what you hear in the movie, but that sound can still travel up to 8 kilometers away.
Some of the lions' behavior is also off. And that's not including talking with ghosts. Watch how Simba scampers off with his dad. It's a touching scene, but in real life, Sarabi would never let Simba out of her sight. While lion cubs do play with their fathers, their mothers are extremely protective.
And you can't blame them. Because if a new male comes to town and takes over the pride, he'll try to kill their young cubs. Sound familiar? That's right. Scar's scheme to usurp Mufasa was in line with normal lion behavior. Except, his methods were rather unconventional. Because lions and hyenas don't work together. Ever. In fact, they're major competitors for food in the wild. So it's hard to believe that a lion could convince a horde of hyenas to do his dirty work. Even with a catchy villain song.