This was the first time Disney came up with a feature-length film based on an original script, according to The Daily Beast. There were lots of Disney productions before this, of course, but all had been based on some kind of existing children’s story or fable.

In the press notes for the movie, Roy Disney, co-founder of The Walt Disney Company, was quoted as saying:

In the early days, Walt adapted many of Aesop's fables for animation and used animal characters like Mickey and Donald to tell his stories. Later Bambi, Lady and the Tramp and One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and some of the True Life Adventures further explored the approach of telling stories about animals in human terms and with strong moral themes. I think Lion King very much has its roots in those films and I am personally delighted because it opens up whole new worlds for us in storytelling.

The host of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom and zoologist Jim Fowler visited the Disney animation studios with lions and other animals to help animators with their inspiration. And Fowler was the one who taught animators the classic move lions make of showing affection by rubbing heads, according to the film's press notes.

The film’s creation took a difficult turn after an earthquake temporarily shut down the studios, and as such, a lot of work was completed at the animators’ homes, according to The Sun.

In an early version the story, it was actually called King of the Jungle and centered on a battle between lions and baboons, according to The Daily Beast. (Another fun fact? Lions don’t live in the jungle.)

Jeremy Irons, who voiced Scar, strained his voice during recording for the song "Be Prepared," according to HuffPost. As such, his vocals were completed by his co-star Jim Cummings, who was voicing the laughter for Ed, the hyena who didn’t talk, as Mental Floss reported.

Although most of the movie was done in the traditional hand-drawn animation style, the wildebeest stampede was computer generated, according to Oh My Disney. Still, the scene took three years to make, and required a new computer program that would keep the animals from appearing to pass through one another while they ran, as Oh My Disney explained.

Disney thought the other film they were animating at the same time, Pocahontas, was more likely to be a hit, according to IMDb, so they put their best animators on that and scheduled the “B team” to work on The Lion King.

No real lion roars are heard throughout the film, according to the film's IMDb trivia. In fact, voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice for all the roars since Disney wanted different sounds for each animal, according to his IMDb page.

Elton John created the music for “Circle of Life” in less than two hours, according to lyricist Tim Rice, as reported in the film's press notes.

“He has always said if he doesn't get a tune right in 20 minutes he just throws it away," Rice said in the notes. "I witnessed him create 'Circle of Life' from start to finish. I gave him the lyrics at the beginning of the session at about two in the afternoon. He didn't want it before. By half past three, he'd finished writing and recording a stunning demo."

James Earl Jones is such a classic Mufasa, it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role. But, according to Sean Connery's IMDb page, he was actually Disney’s first choice for the role and the character was "written with him in mind."

There's so much goodness in those two hours of film, and soon we get to relive it all again. And we won't have to wait long now to find out how the new live-action version is going to stack up against this beloved animated classic.

The Lion King hit theaters nationwide on July 19.