The Lion King (Mufasa) is a 1994 American animated epic musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. The story takes place in a kingdom of lions in Africa. Later that day, Scar tricks Simba into exploring an elephant graveyard, forbidden by Mufasa, with his best friend, female lion cub Nala (Niketa Calame), despite the protests of Mufasa's hornbill majordomo Zazu. At the graveyard, the cubs are attacked by three spotted hyenas, Shenzi, Banzai and Ed before Mufasa, having been alerted to the scene by Zazu, rescues them and willingly forgives Simba for his actions. Later that night, the hyenas, who are allianced with Scar, plot with him to kill Mufasa and Simba, who are both unaware of their intentions.

The spotted hyena is very vocal, producing a number of different sounds consisting of whoops, grunts, groans, lows, giggles, yells, growls, laughs and whines. The striped hyena is comparatively silent, its vocalizations being limited to a chattering laugh and howling. The cackling sound made by spotted hyenas is not an actual laugh as we would understand it - they are not laughing because they find something amusing. It's pure coincidence that the sound resembles human laughter. It is actually used when the animal is nervous, such as when confronted by lions, or to show submission to a dominant clan member.