Everyone knows the story of "The Lion King," right? Or were we all just totally confused?
According to Rob Minkoff and Don Hahn — the director and producer of the animated classic — the plot isn’t so simple.
Evil uncle Scar didn’t kill his brother Mufasa … and the two lions aren’t even brothers!
Prior to the film’s Aug. 29 digital HD release, Minkoff and Hahn sat down with Hello Giggles to realign the famous family tree.
Hahn off-handedly caused an existential crisis for "Lion King" lovers when he said, “Scar and Mufasa couldn’t really be from the same gene pool.”
According to Hahn, that’s just not how lion prides work.
“The way lions operate in the wild … when the male lion gets old, another rogue lion comes and kills the head of the pride … then the new younger lion kills the king and then he kills all the babies. Now he’s the new lion that’s running the pride,” Hahn explained.
Basically, lion brothers just don’t really exist, but of course, that’s the drama!
At one point in the film, Scar says to Mufasa, “I’m from the shallow end of the gene pool.”
There is no “shallow end” per se but it makes for some great brotherly competition.
“Occasionally there are prides that do have two male lions, it's an interesting dynamic because they’re not equals. One lion will always kind of be off in the shadows. We were trying to use those animal truths to underpin the story,” says Hahn.
The story is the perfect blend of simple, emotional, ethical and, now, lion pride biology.
Minkoff and Hahn clearly took lion family dynamics into account. Now the film is timeless and true in a whole new way.