How Kenya inspired the making of Lion King Film

Many world acclaimed films have been shot partly or wholly in Kenya, earning the country a spot in the global entertainment map, among them, are The Constant Gardener and Nowhere in Africa. Then there are those that have served as a marketing tool for Kenya’s tourism sector. Notably, the 2003 Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life is one such movie that sought to showcase Kenya’s scenic magnificence while exploring its rich culture.

And further still, there are others that have helped in Kenya’s conservation efforts with the proceeds going directly towards conservation. The live-action remake of the 1994 blockbuster movie Lion King has managed to do all the three.

But before the script was final, before the cast was fully assembled and before the digital sets could be designed, filmmakers committed to doing their homework to ensure the authenticity and believability of the creatures and habitats that would ultimately be created for the film.

“What was unique about the 1994 film was that a lot of research was conducted to come up with the animation. And although it was 2D and stylized, one can still see and understand where they drew their inspiration from.” 

“We tried to go back to the source material, and we looked at where the original founders scouted,’’ says Jon Favreau, director of the new Lion King.

The search led them to the African Savanna, where a tremendous amount of research was carried out, leading to Favreau coming to Kenya on a six-month safari before meeting with Disney about remaking of “The Lion King.”

The research took several forms, beginning with intensive studies of imagery and film—filmmakers watched documentaries that captured the migration of animals in Africa, among other phenomena. 

The goal of the extensive trip to Kenya, of course, was to capture the majesty and beauty — as well as the rugged and sometimes ruthless reality — of the landscape. Critical to the outcome of the film was capturing the true behavior and mannerisms of the stars of their film — the lions, hyenas, and warthogs because these characters have an impact on people of a certain generation around the globe.

So to avoid heading down a slippery slope toward an unbelievable, unrelatable and unemotional film, the producers kept everything as natural as possible – the right species, the right colors of rocks, the light of a sunrise or sunset, the night sky, the right types of plants, varying terrains, different climates.

Here are the places from Maasai Mara to Amboseli National Park to Samburu that inspired filmmakers to build breathtaking scenes for Lion King from real-life locations that pay homage to the original film.

Pride lands

Maasai Mara which is part of Serengeti National Park, inspired the Pride Lands. Filmmakers photographed iconic grasslands and acacia trees, as well as the ever-changing skies. Wild animals that include lions, leopards, cheetah, wildebeest, cape buffalo, zebra and antelope reside here.

Pride Rock

Pride Rock is an iconic site ingrained in audiences’ memories since 1994. In the original film, Pride Rock stands as a rock tower in the middle of a huge verdant green landscape, entirely unmotivated by hills or other rocks. Building that in the animated world, our concern going in was, where did those rocks come from?

The question served as a starting point for production designer James Chinlund and his team. “How much other terrain, rock, landscape could we bring in to make Pride Rock feel familiar,” he says, “like the Pride Rock we know and love, but at the same time feel motivated by geology and the terrain around it, so that you accept it visually? If you see a rock formation in the middle of a plain landscape, alarm bells immediately go off in your mind signaling something isn’t quite right. A lot of what we were doing on such spaces generally involved trying to capture the romantic quality from the original film, while making it feel grounded in reality.

 “So, finding a way to anchor Pride Rock into the terrain that felt familiar and real was a challenge,” continues Chinlund. “That’s why our Pride Lands and Pride Rock are direct amalgams of things we saw in Kenya.” 

There are, in fact, rocks on the landscape that forms directly from actual scans of rocks we found in Chyulu Hills. The textures and colors and qualities of the rock that is Pride Rock were based directly on rock formations in Kenya. Borana, located in north-central Kenya, was referenced for the area around Pride Rock.

Watering Hole Challenge Beach in Kenya served as a reference for the watering hole within the Pride Lands.

Simba’s escape

Mount Kenya, with its oversized flora, offered the filmmakers the cloud-forest look they needed for a young Simba as he grew up alongside Timon and Pumbaa – the meerkat and the warthog. Lakes here served as the perfect reference for Simba to see reflections of his deceased father King Mufasa.

The Aberdares waterfalls, including Karuru Waterfall – the tallest in Kenya – provided a point of reconnection for Nala and Simba. It is interesting to note that this is also the same venue where Safaricom shot its ‘Niko Na Safaricom’ advert that features a choir.

Another natural landscape that served as a source of inspiration for the filmmakers is the  Sossusvlei, in Namibia’s Namib Desert with its spectacular sand dunes. This area served as reference for the area where Simba finds himself in after leaving the Pride Lands while Kenya’s Turkana provided additional inspiration. Another site from Namibia is the Sesriem Canyon provided the perfect inspiration for the film’s dramatic scene where a young cub Simba practices his roar. The narrow canyon is more than a half-mile long and up to 100 feet deep.

Other places that inspired different scenes in the movie include the tufas in Mono Lake, California, which provided a corresponding scenario for the Elephant Graveyard.

Besides providing inspiration, three-time Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor Rob Legato said the experience transcended the needs for the film. “There’s something spiritual about being in Africa. There’s something about the collective of nature, how it balances, how one creature behaves and how an animal either eats or creates something that allows the ecological cycle to keep moving. We realized there’s a grand design somewhere. You cannot walk away from a trip like this without some spiritual feeling about the cradle of mankind.”