Scar (The Lion King)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Scar is a fictional lion character and the primary villain of Walt Disney Pictures' popular 1994 animated movie The Lion King. He was voiced by Jeremy Irons in the original film and his supervising animator was Andreas Deja. He has since made appearances in other Disney media. Based on literary villains such as Claudius from Hamlet and Iago from Othello, Scar is widely regarded as one of the best Disney villains of all time. [1] He gets his name from the scar on his left eye.
Contents |
[edit] Voices of Scar
| Media | Voice Actor |
| The Lion King (1994) (film) | Jeremy Irons Jim Cummings (singing voice in last part of Be Prepared) |
| The Lion King (1997) (Broadway musical) | John Vickery (original actor) |
| The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998) (film) | Jim Cummings |
| Kingdom Hearts II (2005) (video game) | James Horan |
[edit] The Lion King
Scar is the younger brother of the lion king Mufasa, the uncle of Simba, and second in line to the throne after Simba was born. Scar was jealous of Simba's position as the next king of the Pride Lands, so he plotted to assasinate his brother and nephew, in order to be the next sucessor in his lifetime. It is implied, although never directly stated, that Scar would have been willing to wait out Mufasa's lifetime to become King had Simba not been born. Scar laments "I shall never be King" to a mouse in an early scene soon after Simba is born. Now that Simba was born, Scar would not assume the throne after Mufasa.
To carry out his plans for regicide, Scar recruited three hyenas — Shenzi, Banzai and Ed — who gladly did the scheming lion's bidding for food. At first, there were only three hyenas, but eventually Scar gathered a full army of them. The first attempt by the hyenas to kill Simba was foiled by Mufasa, so Scar lined up his ranks of troops and promised that, in the new era in which he would rule as king, the hyenas would never go hungry again.
With the help of the hyenas, Scar triggered a wildebeest stampede that was meant to kill both Simba and Mufasa, but Mufasa saved his son at the last minute. When Mufasa, clinging to a cliff, pleaded with Scar to help him, Scar leaned over the ledge, pierced Mufasa's paws with his claws, and flung his brother off the cliff to his death with the mocking words "Long live the king". Scar then made Simba believe that the young prince was the one who caused the stampede and in turn killed Mufasa. Simba ran away, overwhelmed by guilt and fear. Scar then ordered Shenzi, Banzai and Ed to chase the cub and kill him. Unknown to Scar, however, the hyenas did not succeed and allowed the cub to flee into the desert to apparent certain death. Scar returned to Pride Rock and claimed the throne for himself.
Under Scar's reign, the kingdom soon began to decline as droughts hit and food became scarce. Years later, to Scar's surprise, Simba returned to challenge his uncle for the throne. Scar threatened to reveal the "truth" about Mufasa's death and backed Simba towards the edge of Pride Rock's promontory. As Simba slipped over the edge and desperately clung to the rock, Scar taunted him by revealing that he had in fact killed Mufasa. Enraged at both murdering his father and playing himself for a fool, Simba leapt upon Scar and forced him to admit his guilt. At that the hyenas lunged at Simba while the lionesses joined the battle.
Eventually Simba had Scar trapped on the summit and slowly approached his uncle. Terrified, Scar pleaded for his life, blaming his crimes on the hyenas, unaware that Shenzi, Banzai and Ed had followed him and heard Scar's condemnation. Simba, not willing to sink to Scar's level, spared his life and banished him from the Pride Lands. Scar began to walk off, but then suddenly flung some burning embers into Simba's eyes, resuming the fight. A fierce battle ensued, but Scar seriously underestimated his young enemy's fighting skill and was thrown from the summit by Simba.
The hyenas, determined to get revenge on Scar for denouncing them as "the enemy," surrounded their fallen leader. Scar tried to talk his way out of the situation, but the hyenas leapt upon Scar and tore into his body. His screams were drowned out by the hyenas' laughter.
[edit] The Lion King II: Simba's Pride
In the direct-to-video sequel The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, it is revealed that Scar had a group of lioness followers who were exiled by Simba after he became king. They were led by a lioness named Zira, who may or may not have been Scar's mate. Zira had a son with a lion (hinted as Scar), Nuka, and a daughter, Vitani. In the film, Zira attempted to use Kovu, a lion originally chosen to inherit Scar's throne but of no relation to Scar, to kill Simba and become king. Kovu is very similar to Scar in appearance (despite not being his son) and even gains a scar on his eye after being slashed by Zira.
In the film Scar only appears three times, the first time in Simba's nightmare. In the nightmare, Mufasa clings to the cliff above the stampede as in the first film, and Simba tries to reach down to help his father. However, Scar appears on the ledge and grabs Simba's paws. Mufasa falls, and then as Simba looks at Scar, he changes to Kovu. Kovu then flashes an evil grin and throws Simba into the stampede, as a repeat of Scar's actions in the first film. He later appears when Kovu and Kiara are looking at the stars when Kovu mentions about the two lions fighting; the lions are Simba and Scar fighting for the positon of King of Pride Rock. He appears another time when Kovu is banished from the Pride Lands by Simba. As Kovu looks into a stream, Scar's reflection is shown instead of his own, much like in the first movie in which Simba was instructed by Rafiki to look into the water and sees Mufasa's reflection. Given Kovu had rejected defending his legacy, the young lion flees that vision in panic.
[edit] The Lion King 1½
In the direct-to-video midquel The Lion King 1½ (2004), Scar makes a few brief, non-speaking appearances in the scenes for which he was present in the original film.
[edit] The Lion King musical
In the Broadway musical based on the original film, Scar is portrayed by a human actor in an African-style costume with a lion-face headpiece that comes down over the actor's face when they lean forward, giving them a more "animal" look. The original Broadway actor of Scar was John Vickery. Scar's role is expanded upon with the song The Madness of King Scar. In it, Scar begins to express doubts about his reign, highlighting that he might be losing the respect of the lionesses and that he needs a queen. He attempts to woo Nala, only to be met with a slap from her.
[edit] Kingdom Hearts II
Besides appearing in various Lion King video games, Scar also appears in the popular Disney/Square Enix game Kingdom Hearts II as the primary villain of the world Pride Lands, voiced by James Horan. Much like in the film, Scar murdered Mufusa to become king, and under his reign the Pride Lands suffered a drought and food became scarce.
Prior to the game's main protagonists' (Sora, Donald Duck and Goofy) arrival at the Pride Lands, Pete (who appears in this world as a large lion) offered Scar use of the Heartless to maintain his hold on the throne. Sora (in the form of a lion cub, a change brought on by his magical clothes) managed to bring Simba back to the Pride Lands so he could challenge his uncle for the throne. While Sora and his group were busy saving Timon and Pumbaa from Shenzi, Banzai and Ed, the battle between Scar and Simba took place, and in the end Scar was thrown from the summit by Simba.
But this was not the end. As Pete explained, the hate and jealousy Scar felt in his heart had turned him into a Heartless, and the eerily flaming lion attacked Sora and company. During the fight with Scar, the plateau all the combatants are standing on is surrounded by a dark sky, and elephant bones can be seen through the ground. Simba and Sora defeated Scar once more. Sora, Donald and Goofy then left, assuming the world to now be safe.
By the time Sora returned to the Pride Lands to see how Simba was faring, rumors of Scar's ghost haunting the Pride Lands had driven Simba into doubt. But once he overcame this problem, the "ghost" is found to be the interaction of Simba's lack of confidence and Scar's Heartless spirit. Multiple copies of Scar's "ghost" then combined to form a gigantic Groundshaker Heartless that was eventually defeated by Simba and Sora.
Since Scar became a Heartless, his body and soul should have become a Nobody. However, nothing is mentioned in Pride Lands, Twilight Town (where Nobodies are born), or anywhere else in the game of this matter.
[edit] Backstory
According to the novel series The Lion King: Six New Adventures, Scar was once called Taka, which is Swahili for "dirt" or "trash". In A Tale of Two Brothers, one of the books in the set, Taka is angry that Mufasa was chosen to be the heir to the throne and not him. He gets even angrier when his father King Ahadi breaks his promise of going hunting with him to solve the drought problems in the Pride Lands instead. Taka wanders off to talk to Shenzi, Banzai and Ed, who tell him that if Mufasa is made to look like a failure, then he will look good in comparison and soon take the throne.
Taka then tricks his brother into going down to the waterhole, where a Cape buffalo named Boma is refusing to share the water. The Pride Lands is in a terrible drought and any water there is is precious. Mufasa begins reasoning with Boma, when Taka roars and says that Boma must move by order of the Lion King, or Mufasa will face Boma in combat. Boma charges out of the water at Mufasa. Mufasa escapes to safety with Rafiki the mandrill, but Boma says that his herd will get Taka. Mufasa runs back to find Taka being attacked by Boma's herd. The largest of the buffaloes slashes Taka with his horns causing Taka to be knocked unconscious. Mufasa leaps in to save his brother and the buffaloes ready themselves to attack again.
Before they can do so, however, Ahadi appears with a large herd of animals. The herd surrounds the buffaloes and ends the fight. Later on, Rafiki examines Taka and finds a deep cut on Taka's left eye, which cannot be fully healed. Taka then asks that he be called Scar from now on as a reminder of how he foolishly allowed his anger to rule him.
[edit] Other appearances
Scar made a very brief, non-speaking appearance in an episode of the animated TV series The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa (1995-1999) in which Timon tries to revive Pumbaa's wiped memory. He also appeared briefly in another TV series House of Mouse (2001-2003).
Scar also briefly appeared in Disney's 1997 animated film Hercules as a mere lion skin, similar to the Nemean Lion. In that particular scene, Hercules is wearing Scar's skin while being sketched by an artist. It is possible that it was a deliberate inside-joke by Scar's supervising animator Andreas Deja, who was also the supervising animator of adult Hercules.
Scar appears in Festival of the Lion King, an attraction in Disney's Animal Kingdom and Hong Kong Disneyland. The attraction is a shortened version of the Broadway musical, and Scar is also portrayed by a human actor like in the musical. He also appears as one of the villains The Queen evokes to fight Mickey Mouse in the Disney-MGM Studios version of Fantasmic! Nighttime Show Spectacular.
[edit] See also
- Scar in the Disney Archives-villains
[edit] References
| The Lion King | |
|---|---|
| Films | The Lion King | The Lion King II: Simba's Pride | The Lion King 1½ |
| Characters | Ahadi | Kiara | Kopa | Kovu | Ma | Mohatu | Mufasa | Nala | Nuka | Rafiki | Sarabi | Sarafina | Scar | Shenzi, Banzai and Ed | Simba | Timon and Pumbaa | Tojo | Uncle Max | Uru | Vitani | Zazu | Zira |
| Songs | "Circle of Life" | "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" | "Be Prepared" | "Hakuna Matata" | "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" |
| Books | The Lion King: Six New Adventures | The Lion King: The Brightest Star |
| Games | The Lion King | Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games |
| Other media | Original motion picture soundtrack | Circle of Life: An Environmental Fable | Rhythm of the Pride Lands | The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa | Broadway musical | Festival of the Lion King | Festival of the Lion King soundtrack |
| Misc | Kings of the Pride Lands | The Lion King family |
| See also | "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" | Kingdom Hearts II | Kimba the White Lion controversy |
Categories: Animation villains | Computer and video game bosses | Disney animated features canon villains | Disney villains | Kingdom Hearts villains | Fictional dictators | Fictional kings | Fictional lions | Fictional murderers | Fictional narcissists | Fictional megalomaniacs | Film villains | Musical theatre characters | The Lion King characters | Fictional fathers
