TAYLORSVILLE, Ky. — For 25 years, "The Lion King" has enthralled audiences young and old with its timeless story and catchy tunes.
"I don't know of anyone who hasn't seen or heard of 'The Lion King,'" Harry Brady said. "If they haven't, they must have been on some other planet."
Brady, who now lives in Taylorsville, Kentucky, saw the movie screened at its very first showing in 1994 at a private event in Hollywood.
"The whole place was cheering at times, was sad at times," he said. "It was like you were at a baseball game or something."
Brady is more than just a fan. He's a veteran in the entertainment industry, spending five years with Disney's animation studio working on several films, including "Aladdin," "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," but one movie sticks out above the rest.
"There's great joy in it. There's sadness in it. It covers the whole thing," he said. "It runs the whole gauntlet of different emotions and feelings and I think that's what makes 'Lion King' the best."
Officially, Brady was known as a courier, someone who helped with transportation at the studio, but he said he did play a small role in creating something that would be heard all around the world - the lion's roar.
Brady said he was asked to help create the perfect lion's roar, which he found at a local hardware store.
"We started putting garbage cans over our heads and roaring," he said.
Brady said he and a colleague ended up bringing five metal trash cans to the studio.
"Everybody's putting the garbage cans over their heads and roaring and they zeroed in on one garbage can and said, 'That's it!'" he said.
With the film's success, Disney is remaking the classic into a live action movie that is opening this week, but Brady said he won't be rushing to the theater for this one.
"I don't think it can come close to the original," he said.
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