My Lion King Forum

A simple question I really should have asked ages ago.

Don't really care about them TBH, hence I haven't voted, since I don't like them but equally don't hate them. They're basically just filler characters IMO to serve as Scar's cronies that pretty much all Disney villains have.

I do like them. I like the dark humor and I'm fairly certain that they are just misunderstood and hungry, otherwise they wouldn't have been evil for Scar. I mean, any oppressed group will eventually become violent towards their oppressors, so it's no wonder they don't like lions. And whatever caused the rift and prejudice initially is probably long forgotten by the time the movies occur.

Not really-find them kind of obnoxious

They're great villains

[quote="Ninaroja"]They're basically just filler characters IMO to serve as Scar's cronies that pretty much all Disney villains have.[/quote]



Sorry about that, but...that is soooooo not true!! There is only one Shenzi, one Banzai, and one Ed!

By "cronies that all Disney villains have" I meant stuff like:

Jafar - Iago
Gaston - LeFou and the mob
Sykes - Roscoe and Desoto
The Horned King - That Green guy who's name escapes me
Yzma - Kronk
Lady Tremaine - The Step Sisters
Captain Hook - Mr Smee and the Pirate Crew
Maleficent - Her Goons
Cruella DeVil - Horace and Jasper
Prince John - Sir Hiss and (to a degree) the Sherriff
Madame Medusa - Mr. Snoops
Professor Rattigan - Fidget and the other mice bandits
Ursula - Flotsam and Jetsam
McLeach - Joanna
Hades - Pain and Panic
John Silver - The Alien Pirates
Dr. Facilier - His Friends on the Other Side
Scar - Shenzi Banzai and Ed

And by "filler", for the most part they only serve to do the main villains bidding for them, provide a few laughs when they don't do it right, provide a few laughs when the main villain chastises them for it, at times are complete bumbling idiots (not always), and have little to no bearing on the main story itself.

I respectfully disagree. I see Shenzi, Banzai and Ed as so much more than all the cronies you listed.

^But in what way? Sure, they're not complete imbeciles like some of the other Disney "sub-villains" (apart from Ed) but how are they different from the others based on what I said?

[quote="Ninaroja"] they only serve to do the main villains bidding for them, provide a few laughs when they don't do it right, provide a few laughs when the main villain chastises them for it, at times are complete bumbling idiots (not always), and have little to no bearing on the main story itself.[/quote]

1. Try to kill Simba in the Elephant Graveyard and then after the stampede

2. Are foiled both times, first by Mufasa and then by a thorn patch

3. The entire "Be Prepared" Sequence

4. The short scene before "Be Prepared", basically all of Ed and the bit after Simba escapes

5. They aren't a part of the main story line at all, besides inspiring Scar to kill Mufasa (and even then, that's clutching at straws.)


I'll just state my opinion again to make it clear to everyone: I don't hate the hyenas, but I equally don't particularly like them or think they're anything special. They aren't any of the main factors that make TLK so magical to me.

I don't find Ed a complete imbecile.

Anyways, they are special to me in a way that none of the others you listed are, and I feel that unlike those others, they had potential to be developed into characters who did get focus and/or reformed.

And really, why shouldn't they? Kronk, one of the characters you listed, got his own movie; and Iago and one of the stepsisters reformed. Yet Disney itself seems to give about as much care to the hyenas as you claim, even though they are clearly well-written, well loved, and well portrayed characters who deserve plenty of focus.

Oh, and you forgot that they kill Scar.