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|games = ''[[The Lion King (video game)|The Lion King]]<br>[[The Lion King: Operation Pridelands|Operation Pridelands]]'' (mentioned)<br>''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]<br>[[Disney Crossy Road]]<br>[[Disney Sorcerer's Arena]]<br>[[Disney Dreamlight Valley]]''

 

|games = ''[[The Lion King (video game)|The Lion King]]<br>[[The Lion King: Operation Pridelands|Operation Pridelands]]'' (mentioned)<br>''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]<br>[[Disney Crossy Road]]<br>[[Disney Sorcerer's Arena]]<br>[[Disney Dreamlight Valley]]''

 

|rides = [[Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom]]<br>[[Happily Ever After (fireworks show)|Happily Ever After]]

 

|rides = [[Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom]]<br>[[Happily Ever After (fireworks show)|Happily Ever After]]

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|leaders = <nowiki>[Zuhour]](former leader) †</nowiki>

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|leaders = <nowiki>[[Zuhour]](former leader) †</nowiki>

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<nowiki>[Scar]] † (formerly, betrayed)</nowiki><br><nowiki>[[Shenzi]</nowiki>

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<nowiki>[[Scar]] † (formerly, betrayed)</nowiki><br><nowiki>[[Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed|Shenzi]]</nowiki>

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|members = [[Banzai, and Ed]]

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|members = [[Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed|Banzai and Ed]]

 

Banzai's father †<br>Deceased Hyena †<br>Numerous other unnamed members<br>[[Janja's Clan]] (descendants)

 

Banzai's father †<br>Deceased Hyena †<br>Numerous other unnamed members<br>[[Janja's Clan]] (descendants)

 

|headquarters = [[Elephant Graveyard]] (formerly)<br>[[Pride Lands]] (formerly)

 

|headquarters = [[Elephant Graveyard]] (formerly)<br>[[Pride Lands]] (formerly)

The Hyenas are major antagonists of Disney's 1994 animated feature film The Lion King. They work for Scar until the end of the film when they kill him for his betrayal and deception.

Although only three affect the plot of the movie directly, the hyenas are perceived by most animals as being crazy, malicious, and dim-witted minions of Scar. They resent the lions for being "at the top of the food chain," and are willing to work for Scar to gain preying rights in the Pride Lands. They also don't respect the Circle of Life and are very greedy, having no problem with over hunting the Pride Lands.

The only named members of the clan are Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed. In nature, hyena clans are matriarchies, run by the females. Male hyenas have their own hierarchy within a clan, but even the highest-ranking male hyena ranks lower than the lowest ranking female pup. The only way a male can gain rank within a hyena clan is through performing services for high-ranking females.

Due to the obedience of all the other hyenas, it seems that Shenzi is the Matriarch of the Clan. She has total authority over them, and in return, it seems that they are loyal to her command, which makes her a force to be reckoned with, despite her loud and rather obnoxious sense of humor. She prompts the clan to ally with Scar, approaches him during the food shortage, and informs the clan of his betrayal at the climax.

Banzai would appear to be Shenzi's second-in-command. But with the social structure of hyenas in mind, it is likely that he is simply the highest-ranking male of the clan, giving him authority over all other males, as long as there aren't any females around. Just the same, he is unquestioningly loyal to Shenzi, obeying her orders and supporting her decisions.

Ed appears to be less intelligent than either Shenzi or Banzai, but it seems that where they go, he goes. It is said that "Ed knows the score". He certainly doesn't take his orders from Banzai though, and both Shenzi and Banzai can interpret his laughter into coherent speech. The most likely conclusion is that he is another high-ranking male, keeping Shenzi in touch with the needs and opinions of the lower ranks among the clan.

The clan itself is first mentioned when Zazu (upon learning the news from a gopher) informs Mufasa while the latter was attempting to train Simba at pouncing that some hyenas were currently in the Pride Lands (apparently causing some trouble), thus forcing Mufasa to break off the training to dispel the situation, although it is never specified whether Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed were involved in this particular raid or whether it was unnamed members of the group. The hyenas first appear in the Elephant Graveyard during the song' Be Prepared when Scar, along with Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed, plan to dispose of his brother Mufasa and his nephew Simba to become the new King of the Pride Lands. Following Mufasa's death at the paws of Scar and Simba's self-exile, the hyenas invade the Pride Lands as Scar takes the throne in Pride Rock, as he allows them to hunt down as much as they want, much to their delight.

Even though it would have seemed the hyenas have finally achieved what they came for, the Pride Lands start to dry out of food and water, and hyenas start to complain due to their hunger. Unconcerned by the hyenas' hunger Scar rebukes them sharply and does not allow them to complain nor compare him to Mufasa. When a young adult Simba returns to overthrow Scar, the hyenas join in the fight against Simba, Nala, Sarabi, the other lions, Timon, Pumbaa, and Rafiki. Many hyenas are killed in the battle, whilst others are sent fleeing from the Pride Lands amongst a wildfire, in fear. When Simba confronts Scar on top of Pride Rock, the helpless king sells out his minions, attempting to deceive his nephew into believing that Mufasa's death was their idea, without knowing that Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed (who came to help their king) overheard and became angry at their master's lie and betrayal, but Simba correctly refuses to believe him. After Simba defeats Scar by throwing him off Pride Rock, Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed along with the other hyenas appear on the scene, having previously overheard Scar's treachery against them. A terrified Scar tries to explain himself, but the hyenas refuse to listen to him, as they are fed up with his broken promises of never going hungry again, betrayal, and also realizing that Scar was only using the hyenas as his own personal gain. Giving in to their hunger, the angry hyenas kill Scar as the fire sweeps over their shadows.

The hyenas do not appear in the sequel, but they are mentioned by Nuka, who was visiting the abandoned elephant graveyard with his sister Vitani, as their mother Zira (the leader of the Outsiders) plans to overthrow Simba to have her son Kovu become the new King in order to avenge Scar's death. Nuka commented that the elephant graveyard has become even creepier since the hyenas ran off, implying that some of them may have survived the battle of Pride Rock and fled the Pride Lands, leaving the Elephant Graveyard dormant. However, Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed's fates have been left unconfirmed.

Zira believed that Simba was responsible for Scar's death, but was unaware that the hyenas killed him because he blamed them for killing his own brother Mufasa. However, Kovu soon learned the truth from Simba after having a change of heart and successfully convinced the Outsiders to make peace with the Pridelanders, though Zira ends up falling to her death in a gorge after refusing to give up her revenge against Simba for Scar and Nuka's deaths, much to Kovu's dismay.

When Timon and Pumbaa venture into a different section of the Elephant Graveyard where Scar's hyena army is singing "Be Prepared" while marching as Timon and Pumbaa watch in shock as the hyenas march and river dances away from the scene. Later on in the film, after Timon and Pumbaa perform their hula song to clear the way for Simba to confront Scar, some of the hyenas pursue them only to flee after being gassed by Pumbaa's stench. After Timon reunites with his mother and his uncle, Pumbaa notices the hyenas protecting Scar while Simba is dangling from the edge of Pride Rock. Timon coordinates a plan for Ma and Uncle Max to dig a tunnel to trap the hyenas while he and Pumbaa try to get the hyenas away from Simba.

When Simba goes after Scar, the hyenas follow him and try to prevent him from reaching Scar, but are distracted by Timon and Pumbaa, who insult the hyena pack with an offensive joke. Ed stupidly laughs at it, to which Banzai slaps him for. The hyenas go after Timon and Pumbaa and manage to corner them at the edge of Pride Rock. Timon and Pumbaa try several tactics to stall them while Uncle Max and Ma dig a tunnel underneath them to make them fall off of Pride Rock. But when the trap tunnel initially fails, the hyenas move in to kill Ma, Pumbaa, and Uncle Max. Unwilling to give up, Timon jumps down between Shenzi's legs and bravely completes the tunnel. The hyenas then fall through the ground and plummet to the bottom of Pride Rock, where they meet Scar after he is thrown off a cliff by Simba.

The clan also appeared in the 2019 remake as Scar's minions. A notable difference in the scene where Simba and Nala arrive in the Elephant Graveyard, there are various hyenas in the clan encountering the two cubs whereas in the animated version, only Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed themselves were present when the cubs first arrive in the area. When Simba roars to call for help, Mufasa battles the whole clan to save his son from the hyenas. Mufasa was able to save the cubs as he takes Simba home to teach his son a lesson whenever he gets into danger. Meanwhile, Scar plans on taking over Pride Rock as the king for the hyenas to get more food during the musical number "Be Prepared" after expressing themselves of what Mufasa did to the hyenas.

The next day, Shenzi, Kamari, Azizi, and a few other hyenas attack a large herd of wildebeests and cause them to stampede and later one of the unnamed hyenas joins the chase to kill Simba, though this same clan member accidentally falls to its death off of a cliff trying to bite him. Meanwhile, when Simba is banished, Scar at Pride Rock explains that Mufasa and Simba are gone, telling him that he is the new king with the hyena clan taking over, putting the Pride Lands in danger. Years later in Pride Rock, the hyena clan is later seen hunting wildebeests and antelopes to deliver more food to the lionesses, much to Scar's tyrannical rule of destroying the Pride Lands.

Back at Pride Rock, Simba, Nala, Timon, Pumbaa, and Zazu come across the deserted Pride Lands where they discover too many hyenas under Scar's rule as the two are told that they must think of a plan to distract the hyenas to get to Pride Rock. A notable difference in this scene is when Timon and Pumbaa perform "Be Our Guest" to distract the hyenas instead of doing the hula scene. The hyenas are then seen present during the final battle against Scar as Scar and the hyenas corner Simba with Scar explaining to him that if he is really a true king or not before trying to fall off the ledge in despondency.

Later, when Scar's cover is blown, the evil king orders the hyenas to kill all the other lions. The hyenas then start attacking Simba during the final battle as Nala calls the other lionesses to fight back. During the battle, Shenzi engages Nala in single combat but loses. Timon, Pumbaa, Zazu, and Rafiki also help fight the hyenas while Simba manages to chase Scar to end his tyranny. Shenzi, Kamari, and Azizi follow to assist Scar, but back down when they overhear him blaming them for Mufasa's death and claiming that he was planning on killing them.

Later, after Simba throws Scar off a cliff during the final battle, the remaining hyenas encircle Scar, who plans on building a bigger army to take revenge against Simba. However, the hyenas refuse to listen and reveal that they overheard his betrayal. Scar tries to talk his way out of the situation, but Shenzi, unforgiving, coldly orders her clan to attack their treacherous master. Cornered and outnumbered, Scar tries to fight off the hyenas as they attack him, but is quickly overpowered and eaten alive, ending his tyranny. After Scar's death, the whole hyena clan leaves the Pride Lands.

The clan are return in Mufasa: The Lion King since Shenzi and her clan are no longer enemies of lions so they reformed and come back to Pride Lands. During opening the movie, reformed Shenzi and her clan are on their way to Pride Rock and all the other animals of the Pride Lands gather at the Pride Rock since Simba celebrates to honor to his father to bring the peace of the Circle of Life. Together, Mufasa and his friends reached Milele. At that moment, Shenzi and her clan and other animals approached Mufasa. Suddenly, the Outsiders approached, and Kiros revealed that Taka had betrayed Mufasa. Horrified, Mufasa wondered why Taka would do such a thing, and he accused Mufasa of having taken Obasi, Eshe, and Sarabi away from him. In a desperate bid for help, Mufasa rallied the animals who lived at Milele to his cause, including the hyena clan, arguing that the Outsiders would simply kill them next. Persuaded by his speech, the animals, including Shenzi and her clan, pledged themselves to him and began to fight the Outsiders, while Mufasa took on Kiros. After Kiros and his pride are gone, Mufasa to become the new king and founder of Milele and the hyenas bow and respect for the new king.

Although their role in killing Scar was retained in the Wonderful World of Reading novelization, the motives were slightly different as the narrative implied they killed Scar simply because he lost to Simba due to it saying "Although Scar had worked alongside the Hyenas, they were not loyal to him," with it omitting Scar's earlier attempts at pinning the blame for Mufasa's death on the Hyenas to save his own skin from his nephew that had acted as their motivation for turning against Scar.

Although they are officially spotted hyenas they constantly utter wolf growls, barks, and snarls as well as dog whines and yelps and seldomly utter actual hyena vocalizations.

The clan appears in Disney Dreamlight Valley, where they are shown as silhouettes with orange glowing eyes. In this game, the make actual hyena vocalizations. The player helps Nala prevent the clan from reaching them. After reuniting Nala and Simba, the player helps the two fend off the hyenas one last time.

In Mufasa: The Lion King, the clan used to Pride Lands before they were banished in the Elephant Graveyard after Shenzi and her clan has left the Pride Lands and they return in the Pride Lands as their descendants can live there as reformed.

External links

• Hyena Clan on Villains Wiki