We celebrated one of the biggest animated films in history, The Lion King’s joining the highly celebrated Walt Disney Signature Collectionthis month, by interviewing Ernie Sabella, the voice of Pumbaa, and in fact, spending three days with him at Walt Disney World. It was a thrill and an honor!
First, I want to share Ernie’s extremely touching memory that he shared with us at the D23 Expo:
“I can’t believe that I actually got to live in this world and be part of Disney family.” Ernie Sabella (voice of Pumbaa) shares why being a part of The Lion King has meant so much to him over the years.
My favorite part of our interview was Ernie’s recounting the initial process of getting the role, from almost 25 years ago. The producers had heard about Ernie and Nathan Lane (who voices Timon, Pumbaa’s foil), and had the opportunity to be in New York City when they were performing on Broadway in Guys and Dolls.
“We were doing Guys and Dolls at night, uh, Nathan Lane and I. And it was an audition for something called, I think, King of the Jungle or something like that. And, um, okay, Disney. Wait, they said, uh, to Nathan we want you to read for Hyena. Oh, are there two them? Yeah. All right, come on. I said what? Come on. We’ll read for Hyenas. We’ll get this over with. And, um, we went in to like a little padded booth. And, uh, read the lines, and, uh, a little improv ’cause we worked together. And then he said something, and I said something.”
Ernie and Nathan were asked to come in and audition for these roles, and then heard nothing.
Two months later, Ernie recounted that it occurred to him that they had never heard back, so he called his agent, who said, yeah, they liked you and they want you to come in to start work!
Ernie said he was happy to have the job, but had no recollection of how he had done the voice in the initial audition.
“And, Nathan says to me in the elevator what did we sound like? I said, what? What did we sound like? I don’t remember what we did. That was two months ago. What are they expecting to hear? I said, uh, I don’t– I don’t know. The elevator doors open, and now we’re in a big loft type apartment. And there is Tim Rice, Elton John, Rob, Don, and a big piano. We’re walking very slowly to this piano. And didn’t even want to say hello, might be the wrong voice. So, uh, I’m nodding. Want to come over here? Now, uh, they showed us the drawings. Neither one of us is saying a word. And then we get to the piano. Let’s just read the first scene that you guys appear. And at that time I think I had the first line, which was he’s so cute and all alone. Can we keep him? So, uh, I borrowed from, not knowing at the time, but I must’ve seen the Godfather recently.” Ernie then shared that he tried to do the voice the way he remembered Michael Gazzo, the Godfather movie character, do his soliloquy while on the witness stand. He recited, I do a little of this, a little of that, etc. And he did it in a comedic, raspy voice.
And for eight months they didn’t know if they were going to bein the movie or not, two guys from a little show in NY working with a cast that included some big stars like Whoopi Goldberg and James Earl Jones! they were surprised to hear that the producers loved it! We now know that voice actors for animated movies may only record once every few or more months as the process of making an animated film may take up to two or more years. But Ernie didn’t know this and the assumption was always that the role was not his!
“And now I’m thinking they haven’t fired us yet. They’re writing the– so then we get to Hakuna Matata. And we just kept singing it, you know? And then we came back, another session. Sing that song again. We added this. Hakuna Matata. Not knowing until we saw the first screening, which is half color, half black and white that it was a coming of age, the boy, the teenager, the adult song. And it was really long. And at the end of the song, Hans Zimmer, who I think is very much responsible for the success of this show. Hans Zimmer said to me and to Nathan, you– you play– you play, uh, a mouth instrument. I said I do. I play, trumpet or trombone. Really? Okay, so at the end of the__. And at the end just do whatever you want to do. So, um, [MAKES TRUMPET SOUND] and he kept it in the movie, as they’re coming out of the water. They kept it– they kept it in the movie. And so I went that’s me!”
Ernie had us rolling in the aisles with his funny stories. And how unexpected it all was. And then the conversation turned to gas, and Ernie had said Pumbaa is the only Disney character to have gas in a movie! “And Nathan grabbed the mike and said, actually, it was Snow White, but we don’t talk about it. I mean that stopped everything. He’s so quick.”
Eventually Ernie continued in the role in the next few movies and the TV shows, today he is working on the Disney’s The Lion Guard on the Disney Channel. When reminiscing with Nathan he told him he ended up doing Pumbaa 95 times, Nathan did a spit take! Yeah Ernie said, that’s how we bought the house! Nathan had left the role years earlier, and originally Ernie did not want to work alone, but he always remembered Nathan’s work and that helped him to stay in character when he went solo!
And now he is an icon! He does the voice of Pumbaa for children and adults every time he is asked and he humbly accepts the requests and still sounds exactly as he did 23 plus years ago.
There were many highlights from the three days we spent with Ernie at Walt Disney World. The most memorable moment was when we all attended “The Festival of the Lion King.”
Thanks to Shelby Barone for this clip! Lastly, he did ask for a cameo in the new live action Lion King being worked on! Although he thinks Seth Rogan will do well as Pumbaa!
Ernie is extremely generous of spirit. As I said, we had dinner with him several times and ran into him many times during our Lion King trip:
THE LION KING (on Digital and Disney Movies Anywhere 8/15 & on Blu-ray 8/29)
https://www.facebook.com/DisneyTheLionKing
https://twitter.com/DisneyAnimation (#TheLionKing)
https://www.instagram.com/disneyanimation/
https://www.youtube.com/user/disneyanimation
http://movies.disney.com/the-lion-king
Disclosure: Disney invited me on this press trip and paid all of my expenses. No other compensation was received. All opinions are always 100% my own and honest.
I love Lion King! It’s one of our favorite movies! Loved reading all the things I didn’t; know about it!