Scar (The Lion King) their victims' fears. The original plot of "The Lion King" revolved around a rivalry between lions and baboons. A baboon himself, Scar was their leader. After this plot was abandoned, Scar was re-written into a rogue lion lacking any blood relation to both Mufasa and Simba. The writers eventually decided that making Scar and Mufasa brothers would make the film more interesting. An abandoned character, at one point Scar owned a pet python as a sidekick. Because the film was originally intended to be much more adult-oriented, Scar was to have become infatuated with Simba's childhood friend and eventual love
Simba to pan Simba, describing him as "irritatingly callow." Chris Hick of the "Deseret News" complained about the fact that Simba and the other "characters in "The Lion King" are not as warm and fuzzy as other Disney animated features," crediting this with making "the film a bit tougher to warm [up] to." ComingSoon.net strongly panned Simba as a lead character, writing, "typically for Disney animated fare, it's the hero who is the weak link being both blandly designed and blandly performed." Acknowledging the character's Shakespearean origins, "The Baltimore Sun"s Stephen Hunter gave Simba a negative review, writing, "Alas ...Simba stands