Zazu

If this is where the monarchy is headed, count me out!
Out of service, out of Africa—I wouldn't hang about!

My favorite character in The Lion King is Zazu. This is the red-billed hornbill that describes himself as the King's majordomo. At the beginning of the film, Zazu delivers a morning report to Mufasa and accompanies young Simba and Nala on their way to the water hole. In what has to be a contender for the most iconic musical sequence in the entire Disney repertoire, the cubs manage successfully to ditch Zazu and go instead to an elephant graveyard.

As a kid, I think there is a natural inclination to dislike Zazu. He is the annoying adult character who—much like an overbearing teacher or parent—tries to stop the children from doing the exciting thing they want to do. As I've gotten older, however, I have grown much more sympathetic towards his character. Despite being a bird less than half the size of a lion cub, he is trusted unconditionally by Simba's parents Mufasa and Sarabi to watch over their child. This is an extraordinary responsibility for the little hornbill, one he does not take lightly. In the elephant graveyard, Zazu correctly admonishes Simba and Nala for entering a dangerous location, and although he is far too small to use physical force to bring the children back to safety, he tries his utmost best to convince them to return home.

When the hyenas discover the children in the elephant graveyard, Zazu places himself between the children and the hyenas in an attempt to protect them (and perhaps to restrain them from doing anything stupid). For such a tiny bird, it is difficult to imagine the amount of bravery this must require. If the hyenas wanted to eat Zazu, they could have done so easily. Given his responsibility to them, there was no way Zazu was going to abandon the lion cubs by flying away, and there was no way Zazu could have defended the lion cubs if the hyenas had physically attacked. At one point during the scene, one of the hyenas grabbed Zazu by the tail feathers, and that was all that was necessary for the hyenas to capture him.

Most of Zazu's other lines in the film are comedic in nature. Scar imprisons Zazu after he usurps the throne, and in one scene Zazu laments his predicament by singing the African-American spiritual "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen", but after Scar silences him and instead asks him to sing something "with a little bounce in it", Zazu starts singing the classic Disney World song "It's a small world". Another hilarious scene occurs after Mufasa rescues Simba from the elephant graveyard. Sternly, Mufasa asks Zazu to take Nala home and to call Simba over, saying, "I need to teach my son a lesson." Zazu flies over to where Simba is, says, "Come, Nala," then puts his wings on Simba's shoulders and says, "Simba... good luck."

In the original film, Zazu is voiced by Rowan Atkinson, whom you may also know for portraying the character Mr. Bean. I enjoy hearing Atkinson speak. Because he is most famous for his role as a bumbling, mostly silent character, to realize that behind Mr. Bean is this highly eloquent and extremely intelligent man is quite the juxtaposition. See this interview on The Graham Norton Show. Originally, Atkinson didn't even want to voice Zazu—as a "visual artist", he felt that vocal work was rather "pointless" to his career. In the end, however, after The Lion King became arguably the most monumental Disney film ever made, he stated that was proud to have been a part of such an epic production. See this interview on PeopleTV's Couch Surfing. In the 2019 remake of the film, Zazu is voiced by John Oliver, and while Oliver does an acceptable job bringing the character to life, with all due respect to him, I think Atkinson is quite a difficult act to follow. Zazu's unwavering bravery in the face of a situation that was life-threatening not only to himself but also to the children to whom he was entrusted is extraordinarily admirable. He is also one of the film's funniest characters. For these reasons, I have no regrets dignifying this little bird as my favorite character from The Lion King.