Shenzi, Banzai and Ed
From The Unofficial DisneyWiki
Shenzi, Banzai and Ed are a trio of villainous spotted hyenas who first appeared in the 1994 Disney animated film The Lion King as the loyal followers and minions of Scar, and would later re-appear in one sequel and one spin off series.
Contents |
[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 Vendetta Jacquelina Hyena. She is the de facto leader of the trio and the smartest hyena, traits which are consistent with true spotted hyenas: females are larger than the males and dominate them. She has a prominent mohawk-like tuft on her head and lacks the dark grey snout of the other two hyenas. Shenzi was originally going to be male and played by Tommy Chong, reuniting him with his old comedy partner Cheech Marin, who was playing Banzai. Her facial features mimics those of her voice actress, Whoopi Goldberg.
[edit] Banzai
Banzai (voiced by Cheech Marin) is the most accident-prone of the hyenas, being wounded twice, once in a fight with Mufasa, and once by falling into a thornbush while chasing Simba. He is also the greediest, 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!"), to the point that he quietly remarks to his friends that Mufasa was indeed a better king than Scar. His name means "skulk" or "lurk" in Swahili. It can also mean "die with honor" or "ten thousand years" in Japanese.
[edit] Ed
Ed (voiced by Jim Cummings) communicates through laughter, his only line of dialogue being the chorus of the song Be Prepared. He sports a permenant smile on his face, his pupils never leave the centers of his eyes, he has two round cuts on each ear and his tongue is almost always protruding. Ed is shown at times to either act more alert than his peers, or as completely unaware of his surroundings: he is the first to notice Simba and Nala's escape while his two distracted peers were still occupied exchanging jokes. However, when Mufasa attacked them, their situation was worsened when Ed confirmed (by nodding) that he knew Simba was Mufasa's son. During a scuffle with Banzai, he bites his own leg. He is one of the few characters not to have a swahili name.
[edit] Appearances
[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 absolve himself, saying that he did not really mean it. The hyenas refuse to listen and begin to maul him, just before a giant flame engulfs Scar along with the hyenas. Whether they perished in the flames or survived and fled the Pride Lands is unknown, but the latter is more commonly accepted as they are seen later in The Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa.
[edit] The Lion King ll: 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 grown sister Vatani arrive at the Elephant Graveyard. Originally, Zira was going to be accompanied by the hyenas but it was changed to Outsider lions.
[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 away 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 maul 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 teenage hyenas appear again at the beginning, where they are preparing to boil a teenage 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. In the series, they continuously bully Timon and Pumbaa.
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 ll
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.
It is interesting to note that, out of all of the villains (Disney, Final Fantasy, or otherwise) that Sora has faced in the series, Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed are the only ones that have (canonically speaking) come the closest to actually killing him; at the beginning of their first visit, Banzai is just about to bite into an incapacitated Sora (unused to his new lion form), and it is only Scar calling for the hyenas that Sora survives this encounter.
[edit] Disney's 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 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.
