Disney’s animated movies are known for their beautiful princess and fairy-tale endings, but there’s always something darker in most of the Disney films. We saw it in the 1942 Disney movie Bambi when Bambi’s mother was killed, and we saw it again when Mufasa’s brother Scar killed him in the 1994 film The Lion king. But if Disney stuck with the original Lion King’s storyboard plan, then the ending of the 1994 movie, The Lion King, would have been disturbing to the audience.
Get Ready For Many Disney Spoilers
The original versions of Lion King’s storyboards that are now made available online by Disney, show us that the final battle between Scar and Simba was different than what we saw in the movie. According to the original Lion King storyboard, it’s Scar who initially won the fight against Simba, and he went on to throw Simba from the Pride rock.
Just before the true heir to the throne was being thrown down from the cliff, Scar says Goodnight, sweet prince. Believing that Simba is dead, Scars laughs evilly as the flames draw closer to him in the alternate darker ending. It’s not all terrifying news, though. In the end, it turns out that Simba survived the fall and the flames burned Scar to death.
Okay, we all know that the original ending was disturbing when the hyenas eat Scar alive. But this original storyboard ending was arguably the worst. Even as Scar is being burned, he is still happy and has the same evil laugh knowing that he killed his nephew Simba. The pain of death is not able to distract him from his apparent victory against his brother and nephew.
But Disney decided not to go with this ending because it was more disturbing, and they also thought that including the hyenas would be more dramatic.
Interestingly enough, the team behind another Disney movie ‘Beauty and the beast’ originally wanted the villain Gaston to be killed similarly. Except wolves rather than hyenas would have eaten him. At that time, Disney deemed this ending to be disturbing, but when the lion king came after a few years, the Hyenas eating the villain Scar seemed better to producers in comparison to the original storyboard ending.
Since then, several Disney movie villains have got even more disturbing ends. Mr. Clayton was hanged to death in the movie Tarzan, and then Frollo plunged to death in the film “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”.
Well, there is scientific evidence that displays that PG (Parental Guidance) movies are becoming more violent.
Conclusion
The original storyboard ending of the Lion King movie was Scar throwing Simba from the Pride rock, and the flames burning Scar to death was surely more terrifying than Hyenas eating him.
Disney is known to make some of the best-animated movies, especially for children, but nowadays, their endings are becoming more violent. There are chances that Disney is going to continue following the same theme for their future movies too.
