Shenzi, Banzai and Ed
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| Shenzi, Banzai and Ed | |
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| First appearance | The Lion King |
| Created by | Jonathan Roberts |
| Voiced by | Shenzi: Whoopi Goldberg (films) Tress MacNeille (Timon and Pumbaa and Kingdom Hearts II) Banzai: Cheech Marin (films, KH II) Rob Paulsen (Timon and Pumbaa) Ed: Jim Cummings |
Shenzi, Banzai and Ed are a fictional trio of villainous spotted hyenas who first appeared in the 1994 Disney animated film The Lion King. They were the loyal followers and minions of Scar. In spite of being perceived as bad guys, they won an undeniable popularity among fans and are appreciated for their humor.
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[edit] The Hyenas
[edit] Shenzi
Shenzi, voiced by Whoopi Goldberg, is the only female of the hyenas. Her name means "savage", "pagan", "uncouth", or "barbarous" in Swahili.
According to Timon in The Lion King 1½, her full name is Shenzi Marie Predatora Veldetta Jacquelina Hyena. She is the de facto leader of the trio and the smartest hyena. This is actually consistent with real spotted hyena behavior, in which the females are generally more powerful physically and politically than the males. She is wounded when Simba takes a swipe at her cheek whilst trying to save Nala. She deals best with Scar and knows how to talk with him.
She has a big, black tuft and a normal, grey snout (unlike Ed and Banzai). The animators apparently designed Shenzi using her voice actor Whoopi Goldberg as a reference, as Shenzi's face resembles Whoopi's to a certain extent. Shenzi was originally going to be male and played by Tommy Chong. [1]
[edit] Banzai
Banzai was voiced by Cheech Marin. His name means "skulk" or "lurk" in Swahili.
In the film, Banzai is the most unfortunate of the hyenas, being wounded twice. His rear end was swiped by Mufasa in the elephant graveyard, and later he became the only hyena to fall into a thorn patch while chasing Simba. He also seems to get hungry more easily than the hyenas, frequently making references to food and being the most discontent of the hyenas when the Pride Lands lacks food under Scar's rule ("It's dinnertime, and we ain't got no stinkin' entrees!")
[edit] Ed
Ed is considered stupid. He almost always has a smile on his face and usually laughs (he never speaks at all; as such, his voice is the same in all his appearances). He has two round cuts on each ear and his tongue is almost always hanging out symbolizing his insanity. He was voiced by Jim Cummings who recorded four hours of all kinds of laughter so that it could be inserted in the movie depending of the situation (such as worried laugh, nervous laugh, etc.)
In the elephant graveyard, Ed was the first to notice Simba and Nala's escape while his two distracted peers were still occupied exchanging jokes such as "lion around" and "Make mine a cub sandwich." When Mufasa attacked them, they got into even more trouble when he confirmed (by nodding) that he knew Simba was Mufasa's son. Later, he laughed at Banzai because his rear end was scratched by Mufasa. Banzai got angry and attacked him, but after the scuffle ended Ed was actually revealed to be biting his own leg.
Although Ed is considered stupid, he understood Scar's betrayal near to the end of the film. When Shenzi and Banzai asked Ed for his opinion on what to do with the fallen Scar, he just gave a sadistic smile, licked his lips, started laughing (a low, frightening chuckle rather than his usual insane laughter), and moved inwards to kill Scar along with the other hyenas.
[edit] The Lion King
The hyenas first appear in the Elephant Graveyard that Simba and Nala venture into. The hyenas, under Scar's orders, chase the cubs in an attempt to kill them, but are frightened off by Mufasa. Afterwards, they help Scar carry out his plan to kill Mufasa by triggering the wildebeest stampede. Immediately after Scar tells Simba to run away and never return, he commands the hyenas to kill Simba too, but Simba eventually eludes the clumsy hyenas. Years into Scar's reign, they complain about lack of food in the Pride Lands but Scar ignores them. When Simba returns to overthrow Scar, the hyenas join the fight, but most are defeated, and Shenzi and Banzai are ruthlessly beaten up by Pumbaa for calling him a "pig". When Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed overhear a helpless Scar telling Simba the hyenas are the enemy, they furiously turn against their master. Together, with the aid of other hyenas, they corner Scar after he is defeated by Simba. Scar tries to straighten this up, knowing that he didn't really mean it, but the hyenas refused to listen and killed him. It's unknown what happened to them after this. It's possible for the hyenas to have been burned alive at Pride Rock. It's also possible they escaped after killing Scar.
[edit] The Lion King II: Simba's Pride
In the direct-to-video sequel The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, the hyenas are only briefly mentioned by Nuka as he and his sister Vitani arrive at the Elephant Graveyard:
| “ | Yeesh. This place is even creepier since the hyenas ran off. | ” |
This implies the hyenas may have survived the fire at Pride Rock.
[edit] The Lion King 1½
In the direct-to-video midquel The Lion King 1½, the hyenas have a fairly major role despite being minor characters in the original film. They can even be called the movie's antagonists.
In their first appearance, they attack a meerkat colony when Timon, who is the sentry on duty of the colony, is daydreaming. They fail to catch any meerkats, but this incident drives Timon to leave the colony to find where he truly belongs. The hyenas make an appearance again during the film's climax at Pride Rock. Some anonymous hyenas are seen chasing Timon and Pumbaa into a cave (after the Hula Song in the first film), and are driven out by Pumbaa's flatulence. Eventually, Timon and Pumbaa are cornered by the hyenas. Timon proposes to Shenzi as a desperate move to buy time for his mother and Uncle Max as they dig a tunnel, which she turns down abruptly. The hyenas then fall into the tunnel, which transports them to the ground just in time for them to confront Scar.
[edit] Backstory
The hyenas were also featured in two spin-off books of The Lion King, set before the events of the original film.
In A Tale of Two Brothers, the young hyenas appear at the beginning where they surround a helpless Rafiki who had just arrived in the Pride Lands. King Ahadi comes to the rescue just in time, with his sons Mufasa and Taka (Scar), and demands the hyenas to leave. The hyenas appear again later, where they advise Scar to make Ahadi think Mufasa was useless by making Mufasa enrage a selfish buffalo. The plan did not turn out well, and Scar's eye was wounded by the buffalo herd in the process, hence the nickname "Scar".
In Friends in Need, the young hyenas appear again at the beginning, where they are preparing to boil a very young Zazu in the elephant graveyard like in the first film. A teenage Mufasa passes by, scares the hyenas away, and befriends Zazu.
[edit] Beyond the films
[edit] The Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa
The three hyenas made occasional appearances in the TV series The Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa. While Jim Cummings reprised his role as Ed, Tress MacNeille and Rob Paulsen replaced Whoopi Goldberg (Shenzi) and Cheech Marin (Banzai) respectively. The hyenas were also more noticeably dimwitted in the series in comparison to the movies.
It should also be pointed out that significant plot points involving the three hyenas and Timon and Pumbaa in this series (particularly, the episode, "Once Upon A Timon"), have since been reconnected by the events that took place in The Lion King 1½.
[edit] Kingdom Hearts II
The hyena trio also appeared in the Disney/Square Enix video game Kingdom Hearts II. In the game, they appeared in the Pride Lands world, and were also Scar's followers.
The hyenas first encountered the game's main protagonists, Sora, Donald Duck, and Goofy, when they first appeared in the Pride Lands and battled with them twice. Later on, Sora and company defeated the hyenas again when they were attempting to kill Timon and Pumbaa, just before helping Simba fight Scar. After Scar was destroyed, the hyenas went back to the Elephant Graveyard and started eating carcasses again, though Shenzi considered it a mixed blessing. The trio had one final part in the story, having some knowledge relating to Scar's "ghost" and forcing Sora and Simba to chase and attack them for answers. Once beaten, Shenzi remembers that Scar's ghost only appears when animals are frightened.
In the English version of the game, Tress MacNeille replaced Whoopi Goldberg as Shenzi's voice whereas Cheech Marin and Jim Cummings reprised their respective roles.
[edit] House of Mouse
The Hyenas were featured in several episodes of House of Mouse, and were part of the Disney villains featured in Mickey's House of Villains.
[edit] Disney theme parks
Appearances by the hyenas at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts are extremely rare. In 2004, they were featured in Disneyland Resort Paris’s The Lion King Carnival, but since that time their most reliable presence has been as part of Walt Disney World Resort’s yearly Mickey’s Boo-To-You Halloween Parade.
[edit] References
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