Timon and Pumbaa are an animated meerkat and warthog duo introduced in Disney's popular 1994 animated film The Lion King. Timon was portrayed through his many appearances by Nathan Lane (in all three films and early episodes of the show), Max Casella (the original actor in The Lion King Broadway musical), Kevin Schon (in certain episodes of the show), Quinton Flynn (in certain episodes of the show), Bruce Lanoil in the Wild About Safety shorts and Kingdom Hearts II, while Pumbaa is voiced by Ernie Sabella (in all of his animated speaking appearances), and was portrayed by Tom Alan Robbins in the original cast of the Broadway musical. Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella first came to audition for the roles of the hyenas, but when the producers saw how well they worked together they decided to cast them as Timon and Pumbaa. Lyricist Tim Rice however was pulling for Rik Mayall (for Timon) and Adrian Edmondson (for Pumbaa) to play the roles, as he got the idea for the lyrics to "Hakuna Matata" by watching their show Bottom.