The Lion King (Work In Progress Edition)

For those of you who consider yourselves true animation fans, have I got a treat for you.  With special thanks being awarded to Elijah Frederick on YouTube, I have discovered an extremely rare video that was probably bootlegged onto the internet.  This video is a full length story reel of one of our all time favorite Disney films, The Lion King.  The film is about 98% uncolored animation and storyboards with little to no fully colored scenes.  While it is no difficult task at all to acquire a completed and remastered copy, for fans of not only the medium of animation but also the process, it is a must see.  It shows us just how difficult it can be to create the animated films and the whole process of how these films come to life.  It really is an extraordinary find and one I am extremely pleased I found.

1. The Film Itself: Deep in the heart of Africa, a young lion cub is born to proud parents and rulers of the Pridelands, King Mufasa and Queen Sarabi.  As in tradition, the baby is presented to the animals of the land and is honored as the future king (Circle of Life)  The young cub, Simba, begins his journey to kingship by learning from hsi father about what it means to be a king and how he must keep the land connected in the mythical circle of life.

Mufasa's brother, Scar, is jealous of Simba for taking his place in line for the throne and plots to kill the cub.  Scar insinuates that Simba should explore the Elephant Graveyard, beyond the limits of the Pridelands, as "only the bravest lions go there".  Taking his friend Nala with him, Simba evades the hornbill Zazu (I Just Can't Wait To Be King) and manages to arrive in the Elephant Graveyard, only to be threatened by hyenas working for Scar.  The cubs try to escape but are cornered in an elephant's ribcage.  Mufasa manages to rescue the cubs and reprimands his son for endangering his friends.  Later that night, Mufasa teaches Simba about the Kings of the Past, who he says will guide his son in his moments of doubt and loneliness.

Infuriated that his hyenas failed to kill Simba, Scar decides to overthrow Mufasa and claim the Pridelands for himself (Be Prepared).  The jealous lion takes Simba to the gorge, where he explains that Mufasa has a surprise for him.  When Simba is in place, Scar signals his hyenas to start a wildebeest stampede.  As it happens, Simba lets out a yelp as the wildebeest start pouring into the gorge.  Simba scurries away from the thundering herd in time for Mufasa to arrive and rescue him, but the King is critcally wounded during the process.  Struggling to climb to safety, Mufasa is surprised by Scar, who throws him back into the gorge, killing him.  Simba approaches his father's corpse and desperately tries to waken him, but Scar arrives and informs him that Mufasa is dead and pins the blame on the cub.  Advising him to run away, Scar watches coldly as Simba runs away from his home, only to send the hyenas out to finish Simba once and for all.  Feeling assured of his success, Scar returns to Pride Rock, where he offers a eulogy for his brother and nephew before claiming the throne and introducing the hyenas as his lackeys and uniting lion and hyena forever (Be Prepared "reprise").

Simba escapes from the hyenas and enters a self-imposed exile far away, where he is taken in by a carefree duo named Timon and Pumbaa, a meerkat and a warthog respectively.  Simba adopts their carefree lifestyle and matures into a lazy and carefree lion.  But eventually, Simba begins to remember his father and is soon plagued by his memories.

One day, Pumbaa is attacked by a lioness trying to eat him.  Simba rescues him, but is beaten by the lioness when she flips him over.  Realizing that the lioness was Nala, the duo reconciles their friendship and even begin to brew a romance.  When the topic of their home comes up, Nala tells Simba about how horrible the kingdom has come during Scar's reign, including the mass migration of the herds and defoliation of the Pride Lands.  Simba, feeling pressured, confesses his guilt to Nala, who agrees to remain in the jungle with Simba and his friends (Can You Feel the Love Tonight).  But a restless Simba is approached by Rafiki, a shaman baboon who shows Simba that his father is still alive inside of him.  Then, the spirit of Mufasa appears in the sky and urges Simba to return and take his place as kingdom.  The following morning, Nala and Simba's friends learn that Simba has left to challenge Scar.  A very patriotic Pumbaa convinces Timon to go, and the trio leaves to follow Simba.

Simba returns to the Pridelands and sees that everything Nala said about Scar's reign was true.  Despite his self-doubts, Simba reminds himself of Mufasa's guidance and summons his courage to return to Pride Rock.  Scar is confronted by the hyenas about the situation, to which Scar deflects the blame at Simba's mother and the lionesses for not hunting.  Scar strikes Sarabi for mentioning Mufasa in front of him, causing Simba to show himself to Scar.  Enraged by his nephews survival and appearance, Scar maniacally confesses to murdering Mufasa before siccing his  hyenas on Simba.  Simba's friends arrive in time to drive off the hyenas while Simba fights Scar.  Scar begs for mercy, but as Simba helps Scar, the evil lion hurls Simba over the cliff to the ground below.  Scar laughs mercilessly as the flames engulf him.  Simba survives his fall and takes his place as king.  With the rightful king restored, the kingdom begins to return to it's lush form.  Simba and Nala introduce their new cub to the rest of the kingdom as the circle of life continues.

Changes to the Original: One of the things this version did that I really liked was the added level of depth to Simba's character.  For starters, he views Scar as almost on the same pedestal as his father and is extremely reluctant to turn on him and take the throne from him.  This would have made the betrayal all the more graphic and dark, had it been done properly in their confrontation.  Scar, who gets a serious Macbeth personality in this version, is much more of a standard villain than the ferocious feline we got in the final cut.  And his death, while extremely dark when compared to previous villains defeats, is not nearly as interesting as his demise in the final film.  With that being said, Simba isn't nearly as confident a leader and fighter as the final film would have us believe.  After all, for all we know, Simba's only fight other than the hyenas during his time with Timon and Pumbaa is with Nala.  That is surprisingly effective because we can see more of ourselves in Simba than in the real film.

There are some down sides to the film though, I won't deny it.  The transition from the first to second act is extremely choppy and poorly put together.  It seems to rush the story from Simba joining Timon and Pumbaa and jumps almost immediately to Simba and Nala reuniting in the jungle.  There is a definite void in the story during that time that I think needed to be addressed and thankfully was.  We needed more scenes of the Pridelands during Scar's reign, which was moved until the end in this version.  Granted, it leaves us in suspense over the state of the kingdom, but it also leaves us in a precarious place in terms of Simba's arc as a character.

Overall: While the name certainly speaks more than I could (Work in Progress) about it's own flaws, it is still arguably the most revolutionary Disney film since Fantasia due to it's originality and sheer perfection in story development and boundary breaking animation.   It gives us a more enlightened view on Simba, with the unfortunate casualty of the pace of story.  Nevertheless, it still manages to give us a good portion of the things we loved about the final cut and probably got the people in Disney extremely excited over the potential of a film that could outgross Aladdin at the box office.

Link: http://kickass.to/disney-the-lion-king-workprint-and-little-mermaid-wip-t9137514.html

This torrent also includes pencil test versions of various scenes from The Little Mermaid from the late summer of 1989.

NOTE: Being a torrent, it will take a fairly significant amount of time to download.