Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed

Shenzi, Banzai and Ed are a trio of villainous spotted hyenas who first appeared in the 1994 Disney animated film The Lion King as the loyal followers and minions of Scar, and would later re-appear in one sequel and one spin-off series.

While not especially bright, the hyenas do display a degree of competance rarely associated with comic-relief lackeys, generally foiled by their adversaries' own luck. They corner Simba (foiled only by Mufasa's unexpected rescue), successfully drive the stampede into the gorge, and would have captured the young Simba had he not escaped through the thorn bushes through which they could not pass. Despite this, and their loyalty to Scar, he has an extremely low opinion of them, considering them to be stupid and incompetant. He also abuses them verbally and physically throughout the movie, several times and got one hyena killed.

Shenzi
Shenzi (voiced by Whoopi Goldberg) is the only female of the trio. According to Timon in The Lion King 1½, her full name is Shenzi Marie Predatora Vendetta Jacquelina Hyena. Her name means "savage", "pagan", "uncouth", or "barbarous" in Swahili. Her distinguishing features are five prominent bangs hanging over her face and a mane that reaches all the way to her bangs. She also lacks the dark grey 'stubble' snout of the males, and the dark patches around her eyes are shaped to resemble heavily applied eye-shadow.

She is assertive, collected and possesses a considerable amount of self-control, only very rarely losing her temper. This makes her the de facto leader of the trio, and apparently the Matriarch of the clan of hyenas. Her authority is so absolute that she has no need to exert physical force over other hyenas - Banzai and Ed consistently follow her orders without her needing to fight them - whether they are to stop fighting, remain where they are, or even to lie to Scar.

Shenzi's primary concern is the well-being of her Clan. She allies the Clan with Scar even though the hyenas dislike the lions simply to provide for them, tells Scar that Simba is dead to get them into the Pride Lands, and is even unafraid of informing him that there's no food or water left, meaning the Clan is starving. When Scar tries to pin Mufasa's death on the hyenas at the end, she doesn't hesitate to inform the Clan of his betrayal, resulting in his elimination. And in Simba's Pride, she presumably has taken the Clan away from the Elephant Graveyard to find better hunting grounds.

Shenzi was originally going to be male and played by Tommy Chong, reuniting him with his old comedy partner Cheech Marin, who was playing Banzai, but apparently the two had had a falling out. Many of Shenzi's facial expressions were copied from her voice actress, Whoopi Goldberg.

Banzai
Banzai (voiced by Cheech Marin) is the most aggressive of the trio. Unlike the calmer, more intelligent Shenzi, he has almost no self-control, and is always ready to lash out or start a fight. However, because he thinks with his muscles first and his head second, and has a tendency to speak without thinking, he is not the leader of the trio and always submits to Shenzi, consistently obeying her orders.

His name means "skulk" or "lurk" in Swahili. It can also mean "die with honor" or "ten thousand years" in Japanese, possibly a reference to his aggressive nature but more likely coincidental. His most distinguishing feature is his unusually heavy eyebrows. Apart from these, he is the model for most generic hyenas. He is the greediest of the three, frequently making references to being hungry, and asking for food. He also usually speaks and acts without thinking, losing his temper with Ed twice, and complaining when the Pride Lands lacks food under Scar's rule ("It's dinnertime, and we ain't got no stinkin' entrees!"). He even quietly remarks to his friends that Mufasa ran the Pride Lands better than Scar.

He is wounded twice in the film, the first time in taking the worst injuries during the fight with Mufasa, resulting in visible scratches on his rear, and secondly when he is knocked into a thorn patch while chasing Simba out of the Pride Lands.

Ed
Ed (voiced by Jim Cummings) is one of the few characters not to have a Swahili name. However there exists in English the word eddy meaning whirlpool.

Ed is apparently the 'crazy guy' of the trio. His distinguishing features are two round cuts on each ear, and that he is constantly grinning, his tongue often lolls from his mouth, and his eyes rarely seem to focus on anything. Also, he has no eyebrows. He communicates through laughter, his only line of dialogue being the chorus of the song Be Prepared (mostly because Jim Cummings was filling in Jeremy Irons'/Scar's lines at this point). When amused by anything, he cannot control his laughter.

In the Special Edition of The Lion King, character profiling reveals that Ed is neither stupid or completely insane; he "knows the score". However, for whatever reason, he chooses not to do so. He often displays lucidity, being the first to notice Simba, Nala and Zazu escaping while his two peers are busy cracking jokes. When Shenzi comments that the hyenas would be running the show if the lions weren't around, he nods in agreement, listening to the conversation. And when Scar betrays the hyenas at the end, he understands that they have been betrayed just as well as Shenzi and Banzai, and is just as angry as they are. However when they were attacked by Mufasa and Shenzi and Banzai denied knowing that Simba was his son, Ed confirmed it, during a scuffle with Banzai, he chews on his own leg obliviously, has numerous 'episodes' during which he stares vacantly, and cannot control his laughter. Ed's behaviour is reminiscent of a Manic Depressive (aka Bipolar Disorder).

Jim Cummings recorded over four hours of various laughter clips for any situation Ed might be in; excited, amused, angry, etc.

The Lion King
The hyenas first appear in the Elephant Graveyard that Simba and Nala venture into. The hyenas, under Scar's orders, chase the cubs in an attempt to kill them. While in pursuit, Shenzi catches up with Nala, and is about to savage her when she is struck by Simba, which results in three visible scratches on her face. The hyenas push Zazu into a 'birdie boiler', and corner Simba and Nala but are thwarted by Mufasa's arrival. They attack him but are quickly defeated and frightened off.

Later, Scar arrives in the Elephant Graveyard, revealing his plot to kill both Mufasa and Simba during the song "Be Prepared".

Afterwards, they help Scar carry out his plan to kill Mufasa by triggering the wildebeest stampede. Immediately after Scar tells Simba to run away and never return, he commands the hyenas to kill Simba too, but Simba falls into thorny bushes where the hyenas cannot follow him. Shenzi decides that Simba is as good as dead out alone in the desert, that if he survives he probably won't come back (not unreasonable assumptions), and that IF he comes back, they'll kill him then. The entire pack then enters the Pride Lands.

Years into Scar's reign, the hyenas' excessive presence in the Pride Lands has damaged the ecological balance. They come to Scar's cave to inform him that there's no food or water, and that the lionesses refuse to follow his orders. Banzai quietly remarks that things were better under Mufasa. Angry at being compared unfavourably to his brother, Scar throws them out without listening to their complaints.

When Simba returns to overthrow Scar, Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed grew worried when Scar learned that Simba was alive and backed away, but then the hyenas demonstrate their continued loyalty to Scar by joining the fight on his side, but most are defeated, and Shenzi and Banzai are ruthlessly beaten up by Pumbaa for calling him a "pig" while Ed watches. When Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed overhear Scar trying to foist all blame for the plot on them to Simba, they furiously turn against their former boss. Alerting the other hyenas to his treachery, they corner Scar after he is defeated by Simba. Scar frantically tries to absolve himself, but the hyenas have had enough of his lies, derogatory treatment, and broken promises, and the flames rise up just as the pack leaps upon him, to conveniently conceal his violent death.

The Lion King II: Simba's Pride
In the direct-to-video sequel The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, the hyenas are only briefly mentioned by Nuka as he and his grown sister Vitani arrive at the Elephant Graveyard. He says simply that they have "run away". Originally, Zira was going to be accompanied by the hyenas but it was changed to being Outsider Lions.

The Lion King 1½
In the direct-to-video midquel The Lion King 1½, the hyenas have a fairly major role in setting the story rolling and serve as the film's main antagonists (seeing as Scar has no lines and makes only very brief appearances).

In their first appearance, they attack a meerkat colony when Timon, who is the sentry on duty of the colony, is daydreaming. They fail to catch any meerkats, but this incident drives Timon to leave the colony to find where he truly belongs. The hyenas make an appearance again during the film's climax at Pride Rock. Some anonymous hyenas are seen chasing Timon and Pumbaa into a cave (after the Hula Song in the first film), and are driven away by Pumbaa's flatulence.

Timon and Pumbaa insult the hyenas to get them away from Simba so that he has a better chance against Scar - Ed as usual laughs at the joke, and Banzai hits him, while Shenzi tells them, "For your last meal, you're gonna eat those words." Eventually, Timon and Pumbaa are cornered by the hyenas.

Timon first balances plates, then performs the can-can, which stalls the hyenas briefly, then breakdances with Pumbaa, which Shenzi applauds to before simply agreeing with Banzai to eat them. Finally, he proposes to Shenzi as a desperate move to buy time for his mother and Uncle Max as they dig a tunnel, which she turns down, becoming more and more disgusted at his proposal. Banzai seems to realise Timon is trying to buy time for something, and says, "I say we skip the wedding and get straight to the buffet!" However, this has bought just enough time and the hyenas then fall into the tunnel, which transports them to base of Pride Rock, just in time for them to find Scar and kill him.

Backstory
The hyenas were also featured in two spin-off books of The Lion King, set before the events of the original film.

In A Tale of Two Brothers, the young hyenas appear at the beginning where they surround a helpless Rafiki who had just arrived in the Pride Lands. King Ahadi comes to the rescue just in time, with his sons Mufasa and Taka (Scar), and demands that the hyenas leave. The hyenas appear again later, where Shenzi advises Scar to make himself look good by making Mufasa look bad. Scar decided to incite a Cape Buffalo called Boma to fight Mufasa. The plan did not turn out well, and Scar's eye was wounded by the buffalo herd in the process, hence the nickname "Scar".

In Friends in Need, the teenage hyenas appear again at the beginning, where they are preparing to boil a teenage Zazu in the elephant graveyard like in the first film. A teenage Mufasa passes by, scares the hyenas away, and befriends Zazu.

The Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa
The three hyenas made occasional appearances in the TV series The Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa. While Jim Cummings reprised his role as Ed, Tress MacNeille and Rob Paulsen replaced Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin. The hyenas were also more noticeably dim-witted in the series in comparison to the movies.

The hyenas had four "skits" in which they starred, usually trying to get an easy meal. These were called "The Laughing Hyenas".

TV Dinner: The hyenas observe a nature documentary made about an armadillo in the Serengeti. This is pretty impressive for a start, as armadillos are not native to ANY part of Africa, only the Americas. The three of them decide that they too can be stars and get great meals. For the host Martin Partin, Shenzi demonstrates ballet dancing, Banzai performs a singing act, and Ed attempts slapstick comedy, but they are turned down abruptly. When the armadillo gets a movie deal, they are offered jobs, but decide that they'd rather be directors, and have Martin Partin for lunch.

Can't Take A Yolk: Shenzi wakes up, and wakes up Banzai, who wakes up Ed. While Banzai and Ed fight, Shenzi spots a mother ostrich nursing an egg, and persuades Banzai that the egg would make an excellent breakfast. First they attempt to creep up on the egg, but find it's heavily alarmed. Then they try to crush the mother ostrich with a large rock, but get crushed themselves. Then they try to tunnel up under the egg, but end up tunnelling to China, and get crushed by a cart. Then they redirect an elephant to crush both mother and egg, but get crushed by the elephant. Finally Shenzi has them disguise themselves as ostriches and persuades the mother to put her head in the sand, while they steal the egg and substitute a rock. However, as they argue over who gets to eat the egg, it hatches into a huge ostrich, and they are knocked into a canyon and squashed by a large rock.

Cooked Goose: Two snooty Cheetahs have found that the hyena trio is disturbing their hunts, so they decide to send them on wild goose chases to get them out of the way. First they try giving them a treasure map where X marks the spot, but the hyenas don't know how you spell 'X'. Then they try catapulting the hyenas via Serengeti Shuttle into a volcano, but the hyenas just come back, suspicious about the lack of seatbelts, airbags, and lack of peanuts. Finally they decide that if they split the hyenas up, telling each one that they are the brains of the bunch and giving them directions to the North Pole. Unfortunately the hyenas meet up there and realise they've been conned. Back in the Serengeti, they find the Cheetahs again, who are so stuffed full from eating that they cannot outrun the hyenas. Just as the hyenas are about to eat them, a wild goose arrives and asks them which way is south, as he's headed for a wild goose convention. The five of them direct him, then chase him.

Big Top Breakfast: The hyenas are walking along, complaining about how hungry they are. Banzai comments that he's so hungry he could eat a circus monkey, and a crate with Simon the circus monkey on it lands on the three of them. They promptly start arguing about who gets to eat him, allowing him to escape. Shenzi suggests that they pretend to be monkeys and hide in a barrel, and Banzai suggests that "Hey, we can build an environment suitable and comfortable for all species in the class known as Chimpanzee." Ed however, discovers that the crate the monkey landed with is full of circus stuff. Shenzi promptly constructs an elaborate circus, and posing as ringmaster, gets Simon to dive into their cooking pot. He breaks out, and hides in a circus cannon, which Banzai fires. The cannon explodes, and the hyenas are left charred and monkey-less. Banzai complains that he is so hungry that he could eat a blue whale, and one promptly lands on the three of them.

House of Mouse
The Hyenas were featured in several episodes of House of Mouse, and were part of the entourage of Disney villains featured in Mickey's House of Villains. Banzai appeared in the song It's Our House Now!

The Lion King (SNES)
While hyenas were a common enemy in the Lion King SNES release, none of the hyenas fought were Shenzi, Banzai or Ed. Even the end of level boss hyena was not one of them. Once defeated, each hyena performed Ed's drooling 'salute' briefly before collapsing. Banzai was seen leaping into thorn bushes, and had one line, "If you ever come back, we'll kill ya!"

First Visit
In the game, the trio are desperate for food and try and eat Sora, Donald Duck, and Goofy. Banzai almost killed Sora but were stopped when Scar roared. The hyena trio ran to Scar to see what he wanted with other hyenas.

The hyena trio was seen again at Pride Rock and were about to attack Sora,Donald and Goofy but Scar roared then the hyena trio looked up and saw Scar and Pete. When Nala knocked down Scar and told Sora, Donald and Goofy to run.The three heroes ran with Shenzi, Banzai and Ed and other hyenas in pursuit. Sora, Donald, Goofy and Nala managed to get away from the hyenas. The hyena trio is later seen again at Pride Rock preventing Simba from getting to Scar. Sora then told Simba to go after Scar while his friends handle the hyenas. Timon and Pumbaa knocked the hyenas into the air but they were chased into Pride Rock by the hyena trio and other hyenas. Sora, Donald and Goofy battled the hyena trio inside Pride Rock. The trio was easily defeated and ran away out of Pride Rock.

Second Visit
Later on in the game, the trio of hyenas are fought again for information on the source of Scar's Ghost. They know nothing of the ghost, and taunt Simba about it. They also seem to have somewhat of a grudge against Sora, Donald, and Goofy, as it was thanks to their part in overthrowing Scar that they were sent back to the Elephant Graveyard to only eat scraps.

Disney Parks
Appearances by the hyenas at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts are extremely rare. In 2004, they were featured in Disneyland Resort Paris’s The Lion King Carnival, but since that time their most reliable presence has been as part of Walt Disney World Resort’s yearly Mickey’s Boo-To-You Halloween Parade.

Trivia

 * Shenzi's position as leader of the hyenas is very like that of real life - real spotted hyenas are matriarchal, and females dominate the males. For male hyenas to have any real power within a clan, they have usually performed long-time services for high-ranking females.
 * Shenzi is probably NOT Banzai's sister. Reasons include (but are not limited to):
 * 1) No canon material - whether movies, theatre, comics, books or games - EVER refers to the three hyenas as being siblings. If Disney intended them to be related, they would surely have mentioned it at least ONCE.
 * 2) In Disney's Broadway production of The Lion King, in the song "Chow Down", Shenzi says to Banzai, "Now wasn't it her [Nala's] mom, ate your dad?" By Disney's incest and adultery-free logic, this would mean Shenzi's parents are not Banzai's parents.
 * 3) Shenzi calls Banzai 'honey' and 'baby' on several occasions. In the TLH episode "TV Dinner" Banzai calls Shenzi 'girlfriend' (albeit in the context of 'a girl-friend', not 'my girlfriend'). These are terms which siblings would be highly unlikely to use on each other.
 * 4) Male hyenas usually migrate from their birth clans to join another when they reach sexual maturity, while females often stay with their clan life-long, inheriting the status of their mother - meaning that Shenzi is probably also the daughter of a high-ranking female.