Scar (The Lion King) - The Lion King - Shenzi, Banzai and Ed

Shenzi, Banzai and Ed are a spotted hyena trio who are Scar's followers. They serve as the secondary antagonists of The Lion King and the main antagonists of The Lion King 1½, but are comic characters in both films.

• Shenzi (voiced by Whoopi Goldberg) is the only female of the trio. Her name means 'savage' or 'uncouth' in Swahili. She is confident, self-controlled, and the smartest of the three. This makes her the de facto leader of the trio and possibly the entire clan (female dominance is consistent with real-life hyena behaviour). She does not hesitate to follow Scar's orders to attack or to confront him later about the lack of food. Shenzi has a long mane and three prominent bangs hanging over her face. She also lacks the dark grey 'stubble' snout of the males. In The Lion King 1½, Timon addresses her as Shenzi Marie Predatorra Veldetta Jackalina Hyena. Shenzi was originally conceived as a male hyena to be voiced by Tommy Chong, reuniting him with his old comedy partner Cheech Marin, who voiced Banzai.

• Banzai (voiced by Cheech Marin) is the most aggressive and excitable of the trio. He speaks in a raised voice and is quick to get into a fight, having little patience, but submits to Shenzi. He also talks about food frequently. Banzai tends to come out badly in conflict situations: he gets the worst injuries when the trio are attacked by Mufasa (Shenzi and Ed receive only minor scratches, but Banzai moans that he "won't be able to sit for a week"), is knocked into thorn bushes when chasing Simba, and nearly gets into trouble with Scar when he complains about Scar's leadership within the lion's earshot. His name has no meaning in Swahili, but is a battle cry in Japanese (see Banzai charge). His appearance generally resembles the unnamed hyena characters.

• Ed (voiced by Jim Cummings) is the only character aside from Uncle Max to have an English human name. Ed communicates mainly through crazed laughter. He wears a permanent idiotic grin with his tongue usually lolling out, and his eyes never seem to focus on anything properly. In the Special Edition of The Lion King, character profiling suggests that Ed is not actually stupid; he 'knows the score', but he cannot speak. While Shenzi and Banzai are joking with each other about eating Simba and Nala, it is Ed who notices that they have escaped. Jim Cummings recorded over four hours of different laughter clips for use with Ed's dialogue.

The three hyenas first appear in the elephant graveyard where they taunt and chase Simba and Nala, intending to eat them, but are attacked by Mufasa. Scar buys their loyalty with food and promises the whole hyena clan that they will never go hungry if they help him become king. This they do, helping Scar carry out his plan to kill Mufasa by triggering the wildebeest stampede. Scar orders the hyenas to kill Simba, but Simba eludes them by crawling through a thorn-patch. Shenzi decides to tell Scar he is dead, reckoning that Scar will never know better. During Scar's reign, the trio complain about lack of food, but Scar is indifferent. The clan fights on Scar's side when Simba returns, but most are defeated by the lionesses, and Shenzi and Banzai are ruthlessly beaten up by Pumbaa for Banzai calling him a pig as Ed waits outside. The trio then overhear Scar trying to blame them for Mufasa's death and the ruin of the Pride Lands, which infuriates them. Fueled with anger at Scar for his betrayal (as well as, presumably, hunger, from his broken promise of them never going hungry again), the hyenas leap upon Scar and begin to maul him alive shortly before they are all surrounded by the blazing flames.

The hyenas are briefly mentioned in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride by Nuka, who says that they 'ran off' from the elephant graveyard. They were planned to be Zira's minions, but this idea was ditched because the hyenas devoured Scar for his treachery and blaming them for killing his own brother and therefore could not be loyal to Scar in the sequel. They reappear in The Lion King 1½ as the main antagonists. In their first appearance, they attack a meerkat colony while Timon is daydreaming on sentry duty. The trio reappear during the film's climax at Pride Rock, cornering Timon and Pumbaa. Timon proposes marriage to Shenzi as a delaying tactic, which she turns down abruptly. The hyenas then fall into a meerkat tunnel, which transports them to Scar in time to confront him.

The three hyenas make occasional appearances in the Timon & Pumbaa TV series with their own segment "The Laughing Hyenas". In Kingdom Hearts II, the hyenas appear in the Pride Lands world as Scar's followers. They also appear as villains in Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Walt Disney World.