The development of '' The Lion King '' coincided with that of '' Pocahontas '' , which most of the animators of Walt Disney Feature Animation decided to work on instead , believing it would be the more prestigious and successful of the two . The story artists also did not have much faith in the project , with Chapman declaring she was reluctant to accept the job " because the story was n't very good " , and writer Burny Mattinson saying to co-worker Joe Ranft " I do n't know who is going to want to watch that one . " Most of the leading animators either were doing their first major work supervising a character , or had much interest in animating an animal . Thirteen of these supervising animators , both in California and in Florida , were responsible for establishing the personalities and setting the tone for the film 's main characters . The animation leads for the main characters included Mark Henn on young Simba , Ruben A. Aquino on adult Simba , Andreas Deja on Scar , Aaron Blaise on young Nala , Anthony DeRosa on adult Nala , and Tony Fucile on Mufasa . Nearly 20 minutes of the film , including the " I Just Ca n't Wait to Be King " sequence , were animated at the Disney-MGM Studios facility . More than 600 artists , animators , and technicians contributed to '' The Lion King '' . Weeks before the film was to be released , the 1994 Northridge earthquake shut down the studio and required the animators to finish their work from home
1994 Northridge earthquake
1994 Northridge earthquake
The Lion King