The Lion King Set
The Walt Disney Company
Working from only a hand full of color print copies - before the release of Walt Disney’s animated feature movie, “The Lion King”, we were given the challenge of fabricating a large stage set for Walt Disney World’s Resort Decorating division. The set has been used for shows at both Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California. Portions of it were even used at the film’s grand opening at Radio City Music Hall in New York.
A wireless remote controlled “Scar” was produced to sit on top of the Mastodon skull in the Elephant Graveyard. The opening in the center of the skull served as a doorway for Disney guest entering the Lion King show area. Our Scar had the ability to move his head and eyes, wag his tail and “paw” at the guest as they passed underneath. Other animated characters produced for the show included Baby Simba, Mufasa, Sarabi, and Rafiki. These mechanized puppets all climb to the top of Pride Rock at the show finale reproducing the classic “presenting of the new king” pose. A project of this type would typically take months to complete. But due to the aggressive schedule that was requested, we not only made our 17-day deadline but also delivered the set 3 days early.