Shenzi, Kamari, and Azizi are the secondary antagonists in the 2019 photorealistic CGI remake of The Lion King. In this film, Ed is renamed "Azizi" while Banzai is renamed "Kamari".
They are based on the characters from the 1994 traditional animated film.
Background[]
Personality[]
While Azizi and Kamari's roles are largely the same as their originals, Shenzi is portrayed as a serious leader and doesn't have any trace of the comical side of her original. Shenzi's position as the matriarch of her group is also shown clearly to the point that Azizi and Kamari fear her (the novelization based on the film's plot also describes her as a hyena queen). She is also far more defiant, openly declaring that Mufasa doesn't rule over her and doesn't hesitate to try to eat Simba and Nala despite being warned by Zazu. Also, there is a running gag in the film where Azizi has a personal space issue with Kamari and keeps getting too close to him.
Appearances[]
The Lion King[]
When Simba and Nala trespass in the Elephant Graveyard, the Hyenas swarm around them. Shenzi appears and prepares to attack, Zazu shows up warning that by attacking Simba it would mean starting a war against Mufasa. However, Shenzi says that the hyenas and lions have always been at war and would rather end Mufasa's bloodline. She and the hyenas chase after the cubs, but Mufasa shows up to save them. Shenzi how strong Mufasa is, submits to him so as to not jeopardize her clan's safety.
Unlike in the original, the hyenas are not allied with Scar from the very beginning. They started an alliance with Scar only after Scar personally came to the elephant graveyard and revealed his plan to overthrow Mufasa with a promise that the hyenas will be allowed to hunt in the Pride Lands. Following Scar's plan, Shenzi and the others start the stampede that resulted with Mufasa's death and chase after Simba who survived. Instead of falling and running through a thorn bush, Simba falls off a cliff. Shenzi orders the boys to go down and make sure he's dead, then she wanders off. Too afraid to go down the cliff and believe that no cub would be able to survive that fall, Kamari and Azizi decide to tell Shenzi and Scar that they ate Simba. However, Simba is shown to have survived the fall much to the hyenas' lies.
After the hyenas begin to live in the Pride Lands, they became Scar's personal hunting group, with Scar himself leading them, while the lionesses can only watch from the Pride Rock. Overhunting for years, the Pride Lands became a wasteland with most of the surviving herds leaving the Pride Lands in a disastrous famine. Kamari and Azizi later chase Zazu and banish him from the Pride Lands while Shenzi takes Sarabi to talk to Scar about his kingdom's update. To force Sarabi to become his queen so that the lionesses will accept him as king, Scar enforces a law that the lioness can only eat the hyenas' leftovers, much to his selfish tyranny.
During the confrontation between Simba and Scar, the hyenas support Scar and defend him when Scar orders Simba and his supporters to be killed. In the ensuing battle, Shenzi spots Nala, whom she failed to eat when they first met, and attacks the lioness as she has been wanting to eat her. Despite being smaller, Shenzi puts up a considerable fight against Nala, but is ultimately overpowered and thrown off the rock. Shenzi survives and she, Kamari, and Azizi race to the top of Pride Rock to assist Scar who has been cornered by Simba. However, when they overhear Scar's attempt to pin the blame of Mufasa's death on them by denouncing them as "revolting scavengers" who he planned on killing, they angrily leave to inform the other hyenas that they were being used by Scar.
Furious with his attempt to double cross them, the hyenas corner Scar after he is defeated by Simba. Scar tries to reason with them, but they refuse to buy his excuses with Shenzi saying that there was only one true thing Scar ever said; a hyena's belly is never full. The hyenas attack Scar, who fights back, but quickly overwhelm him with their superior numbers and eat him alive. After Scar's death, Shenzi, Kamari, and Azizi, along with the whole hyena clan, leave the Pride Lands.
Gallery[]
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