Animation

The Lion King was animated by hand, which means that it was drawn on animation cels, or transparent sheets of plastic, that were then put together to create this feature-length masterpiece. The bulk of the animation was done at the Walt Disney Animation Studios in Florida and California.

Each animation cel reflects one "frame" of the movie. The worldwide standard for movie theater film projectors is about 24 frames per second. And The Lion King's run time lasts quite a few seconds. Some of the scenes in The Lion King were accomplished with the help of computer animation—one example is the wildebeest stampede scene, which took five animators and technicians over two years to complete. Now that's dedication.

Many of the sequences in The Lion King are designed to mimic the movements of a camera. The sweeping establishing shots of the savanna in the beginning are an example of this, as is the shot when Rafiki holds baby Simba up to the assembled crowd. The drawing appears to "move" as though it's being filmed by some dude on a crane with a camera, but really, that effect was achieved with mad art skills.