Eddie Murphy as Timon

[Scarthetrueking]

[Sigurd]

He is too recognizable and the role doesn’t fit him. So no.

[Timon the great]

I'm not too surprised that Eddie Murphy was originally planned to or be a potential voice actor for Timon given that Nathan Lane was in fact Not originally hired to voice Timon until the creators came up with the idea to create Timon and Pumbaa as a duo on this film (after seeing how Lane and Ernie Sabella performed together originally voicing the hyenas).
But I guess since Eddie Murphy wasn't given the role, this could explain why Disney ultimately hired him to voice Mushu in the original Mulan film a few years later in the later 90s.

When it comes to me seeing my favorite characters, I don't see their voice actor as them. I appreciate that the actors give personality in the animation of the character. But that doesn't mean I can't see that character as an individual completely on their own just like any person in real life. Also, basing a character design on the voice actor for that character isn't necessarily unique or creative. That's technically just a 'cut corners' method for their creation, and I'd never encourage that.

[Elton John]

i'm pretty sure they chose Eddie Murphey to voice Mushu in Mulan as Robin Williams as Genie was a huge success that started off a trend of comedic actors being specifically chosen to voice side characters.

big budget animated disney movies have years of pre production and years of production. frozen was a success in 2013 but we didn't see another genuine princess musical until moana in late 2016. i heard that Gigantic was going to be a musical but that movie got canned.

Like Danny Devito in Hercules, Jason Alexander in Hunchback, Rosie Odonnel in Tarzan.

Except Genie worked the best out of all those because he was specifically crafted around Robin Williams, Robin Williams was still in his prime when Aladdin came out and Eddie's best movies were in the 80's and he kept sinking lower and lower to the point of giving us Norbit and Pluto Nash...

The Hyenas in The Lion King, were chosen to be voiced by Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin. Though Whoopi was a big name back then Cheech Marin was bigger when he made stoner comedies with Chong (buddy duo cheech and chong).

Aladdin became a success how far into the lion kings development? probably too far to just recast actors with contracts.
Though i'm not sure they were actively trying to get famous comedic actors as some sort of mandate by the time The Lion King released. AFAIK Pocahontas didn't have that sort of thing.

[TheLionPrince]

> The Hyenas in The Lion King, were chosen to be voiced by Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin. Though Whoopi was a big name back then Cheech Marin was bigger when he made stoner comedies with Chong (buddy duo cheech and chong).

The idea for the hyenas was to reunite Cheech and Chong. They managed to get Cheech Marin, but they couldn't get Tommy Chong for availability reasons. At the D23 Expo back in 2017, the filmmakers recalled that Whoopi Goldberg had wanted to be in a Disney film so they put Shenzi into the film for her.

Here's the link to the Expo event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0knWuAPBFw

> Aladdin became a success how far into the lion kings development? probably too far to just recast actors with contracts.
Though i'm not sure they were actively trying to get famous comedic actors as some sort of mandate by the time The Lion King released. AFAIK Pocahontas didn't have that sort of thing.

Well, John Candy was originally slated to voice a turkey named Redfeather in "Pocahontas", but he died of a heart attack in March 1994. They then tried making the character into a silent character, but his animator Nik Ranieri found feathers difficult to make animation gestures with. Ultimately, Redfeather was written out of the script and replaced with Meeko and Flit in order to preserve the seriousness of the film.

[Elton John]

i remember that cheech and chong thing. they broke up previously as a comedic duo. though it worked for the best as having shenzi, a female hyena made sense as female hyenas are matriarchs.

though that john candy thing i didn't know. loved that man. i did watch camp candy as a kid (didn't really watch his movies until i got older) and my mom telling me he died was a bit of a shock as he was fairly young at the time.

i had the mindset back then as a kid that if you weren't murdered or got into some nasty accident you probably lived to a ripe old age.

[MeerkatOnTheMoon]

Oh yes I remember reading about their plan to reunite Cheech and Chong as the hyenas. Having Whoopi onboard as Shenzi really worked, though. And yes, female hyenas are matriarchs so that makes sense.

Back then, they had a list of actors auditioning for the hyenas from what I saw on IMDb. Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella also originally auditioned for the hyenas from their interviews. It was supposed to be just Nathan but he recommended Ernie as well so both went in together - they were starring on the Broadway revival of "Guys and Dolls" that time.
A couple months later, Disney called that they got the parts of Timon and Pumbaa, and they were confused at first, since they recorded their auditions as the hyenas. Lol. If I'm not mistaken, they were the first two in any Disney film who got to record their voices together in the same booth during production.

Sad that John Candy passed away or he would've been part of the Pocahontas cast. Meeko and Flit were wonderful additions to the movie.

[Elton John]

Meeko worked cause' he didn't say a word and looked cute and did cute things and was fairly irrelevant to the overall plot.

Imagine them messing up Meeko by giving him a miscast voice actor or bad set of lines and giving him more plot importance at the same time.

[MeerkatOnTheMoon]

Yeah. For this movie it was best that these animals be the realistic type given the dramatic arc of the plot.