History NightmareFuel / TheLionKing1994

[[caption-width-right:350:Yes, my teeth and ambitions are bared!]]

This movie was the darkest of the Classic Disney arc, even if The Lion King wasn't scary enough.

** When the stampede starts and the thrill chords start, we get a good long look at Simba's utterly terrified face. It provides the page image for the OhCrap subsection for animated films. [[OhCrap/AnimatedFilms See for yourself]].

** This was taken from Gaston's original fate from ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'' where he survive his fall, only to be devoured by a pack of wolves.

** The nameless hyenas have no pupils or distinguished physical attributes. They're just heartless, bloodthirsty beasts whom Scar could no longer lie to. Emerging from the flames, all wearing [[SlasherSmile wide toothy grins]] as they slowly surround him, they look like demons ready to drag Scar down to Hell.

** The nameless hyenas have no pupils or distinguished physical attributes. They're just heartless, bloodthirsty beasts whom Scar could no longer lie to.

** Which instantly results in arguably the first time in the film Simba looks downright vicious. Scar's BerserkButton slinks into [[OhCrap simpering terror]] when he realises just who saw that and what they are contemplating.

** ''[[PreMortemOneLiner "Long live]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctJ9jZ-_fFc the king."]]'' The way Jeremy Irons delivers that particular line is spine chilling.

* The hyenas also cause a JumpScare when they start chasing Simba and Nala. The cubs stop short at an exploding steam vent, and from their point of view the hyenas lunge through the flames and shout "BOO!" Yes, even TheVoiceless Ed joins them and he is [[BewareTheSillyOnes genuinely threatening as he says it]]. It doesn't end there, their jaws snap at the camera as well before the cubs take off.

'''Sarabi:''' Then you have sentenced us to death.\\

*** It's telling that Jeremy Irons did this line so many times he eventually blew out his vocal cords and had to be replaced for the rest of the song by Creator/JimCummings. They wanted it to be ''that'' scary.

* When Zazu has been captured by the Hyenas, who like to play with their food...two words: "Birdie Boiler". It's a PlayedForLaughs scene, but to anyone who's ever been bullied, it can come across as pretty unnerving.

** Not to mention the way he says "Oh, no, not the birdie boiler!" hints that it may not be the first time.

** For added nightmares, try listening to it in GERMAN...oh wait, here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC9Pkz9dPMU
*** The Zulu dub is just as bad, if not worse.

* Though it ended up working out just fine, the fierce fight between Simba and Nala in the jungle before they recognize each other has multiple instances of this.
** The most basic is how feral the two lions look. Nala is almost unrecognizable when she first appears and is possibly starving, and Simba, despite living in comfort for years, manages to look just as ferocious to protect his friends.
** The appearance of a new lion in their forest is one for Timon and Pumbaa. They have spent years there without fear in a predator-free-environment, when all of a sudden one of the fiercest predators shows up out of nowhere. If they hadn't of taken Simba in all those years ago they would have been '''dead'''.
** The fight between Simba and Nala could have been this if things had gone [[ForWantOfANail even a little bit different]].
*** For Nala, she was just trying to hunt to survive due to possible starvation. True she was hunting two sentient beings, but to her it is just the circle of life. When another lion she doesn't recognize shows up, she [[OhCrap visibly panics]] for a moment before he pounces violently on her and pins her to the ground, at which point she starts fighting back. She probably [[PoorCommunicationKills thought he was hunting Timon and Pumbaa too]] and was challenging her for them. During the fight she is shown clawing at Simba’s mane and face, as if she is trying to blind him, and finally slams him to the ground to finish him. The fierce look Nala gives Simba after she beats him and has him pinned shows that she was possibly willing to kill one of her own kind just to get some food, and she only softens her look when Simba recognizes her due to her pinning technique.
** If Simba hadn't recognized Nala in that fight, one of two equally bad things could have happened. Either, Nala would have killed her childhood friend without realizing who he was and proceeded to eat Timon and Pumbaa, leaving nobody to stop Scar and return peace to the Pride Lands, or Simba would have killed Nala in self-defence and he would have never learned about what Scar was doing to his home, and nobody else would ever be able to tell him.

-->'''Simba:''' [[TranquilFury Give me one good reason why I shouldn't tear you apart...]]
* "Oh, Simba, you're in trouble again. But this time Daddy isn't here to save you... and now [[PunctuatedForEmphasis EVERYONE KNOWS WHY!!"]]
* Right at the start of the final battle, while Simba tosses a few hyenas around, one gets the jump on him and goes for his throat. If it weren't for Rafiki showing up at that moment, it's possible that hyena would've torn Simba's throat out.
* It's a brief moment, but during the shot where some of the hyenas are running away, one can see Simba and a lioness shoving and knocking hyenas into the fire. That is right: Simba and Nala knocked several hyenas off a cliff and presumably killing them. BewareTheNiceOnes, indeed. Also shows how serious this film is, since this is the first time that we see a Disney animated hero killing someone aside from the main villain intentionally.

** Zazu manages to give the audience a minor JumpScare when he reaches Simba and Nala at the Elephant Graveyard. Just as Simba and Nala are about to check out an elephant corpse, Zazu flies out of nowhere and says "Wrong!". Sure the fact it is just Zazu, it's not really scary,but his sudden appearance and the successful timing of the ScareChord with his wing flap can cause a brief "Oh jeez" moment on the first time around.

'''Scar:''' [[WhamLine Then so be it!]]\\
'''Sarabi:''' ''[Understandably disgusted]'' You can't do that!\\

'''Sarabi:''' ''[Furious]'' If you were ''half'' the king Mufasa was--\\
'''Scar:''' ''[Strikes Sarabi with enough force to knock her down]'' ''[[BerserkButton I am TEN TIMES the king Mufasa was!!!]]''

* The hyenas also cause a JumpScare when they start chasing Simba and Nala. The cubs stop short at an exploding steam vent, and from their point of view the hyenas lunge through the flames and shout "BOO!" Yes, even TheVoiceless Ed joins them and he is [[BewareTheSillyOnes genuinely threatening as he says it]]. It doesn't end there, their jaws snap at the camera as well.

* During the Elephant Graveyard chase, Shenzi comes perilously close to chomping down on Nala, before her cheek is slashed by Simba. It actually draws blood, and Shenzi freezes in pain... before slowly turning to Simba with a completely furious, but subdued growl, Simba having genuinely angered her.
** In the stage version at the end of "Chow Down", the cubs are trying to climb away from the hyenas up the elephant skeleton piece, but the hyenas succeed in dragging down Nala. They lick their chops and cry out "Yum yum yum!" and what not, and we see all three hyenas lunging to bite into Nala before Simba stops them in their tracks with his pitiful roar.

** When the stampede starts and the thrill chords start, we get a good long look at Simba's utterly terrified face. It even used to provide the page image for OhCrap.
*** It still provides the page image for the OhCrap subsection for animated films. [[OhCrap/AnimatedFilms See for yourself]].

** [[http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Lion-King,-The.pdf An early draft]] of this scene has Scar saying, "My friends," when the pack of hyenas approach instead of Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed approaching first and the trio aren't even present. In fact the script implies that [[spoiler:Banzai and Ed die when they are catapulted into a flaming tree; Shenzi is the only one who approaches from behind and hears Scar betraying the hyenas; she disappears after this]]. The final scene is enacted with no dialogue from the hyenas, they just erupt in a "choir" of eerie laughter as Scar [[OhCrap slowly realises he's screwed]].

** Zazu manages to give the audience a minor JumpScare when he reaches Simba and Nala at the Elephant Graveyard. Just as Simba and Nala are about to check out an elephant corpse, Zazu flies out of nowhere and says "Wrong!". Sure the fact it is Zazu quickly turns it into comic relief, but his sudden appearance and the successful timing of the ScareChord with his wing flap can cause a brief "Oh jeez" moment on the first time around.

*** It's telling that Jeremy Irons did this line so many times he eventually blew out his vocal chords and had to be replaced for the rest of the song by Creator/JimCummings. They wanted it to be ''that'' scary.

--> '''Scar/UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler''': Stick with me, and ''you'll never go hungry again!''