Samson's Father

Samson's Father is a minor character in Disney's 2006 animated film The Wild.
==Personality==
Although he is Samson's father, not much of his personality is known throughout the film as he only appears in a flashback. In the flashback which is at a circus, he is shown to be extremely abusive and cruel towards his son by telling him to roar like an adult lion. When Samson pleads to his father he can't roar at a mechanical wildebeest, his father forces him to do it immediately to which Samson approached the mechanical wildebeest and attempted to roar at it, but ultimately makes a squeaky growl, disappointing his father and causing the crowd to laugh.
==Role in the film==
His only appearance in the film is in a flashback when Samson reveals to Ryan that he wasn't born in the wild but, in fact a circus. Before this confession, Benny the squirrel was the only one Samson ever told about his dark past.
In the flashback, Samson's Father is shown to have been very strict with Samson when he was a cub and one day he set him out to roar for the audience at the circus but Samson was only able to make a squeaky growl when trying to roar back at the mechanical wildebeest to impress the audience, which caused the audience to laugh at him. After this, Samson's ashamed father told him that if he was born in the wild, he would know how to roar before disowning his son and allowing him to be sent to the zoo without a second thought. It is unknown what happened to him afterwards, though he might still have been working with the circus or have died of old age before the events of the film.
Surrounded by Kazar's predatory wildebeests, Ryan deems Samson a good father, a stark contrast compared to the one his grandfather was.
==Trivia==
*While The Wild itself is criticized for being a copy of Madagascar, Samson's father's voice actor, Kevin Michael Richardson, would coincidentally later voice Maurice and multiple characters in the animated series The Penguins of Madagascar and All Hail King Julien, both of which are inspired by the aforementioned DreamWorks franchise.
*It is possible that Samson’s Father had been abused in the circus years before which could’ve caused his own strictness towards his son.
*It is revealed in novels and books of the movie that Samson's father was the one born in the Wild.
Category:Animated characters
Category:Lions
Category:The Wild characters
Category:Neutral characters
Category:Males
Category:Adults
Category:Parents
Category:Grandparents
Category:Presumably Deceased characters
Category:Anthropomorphic characters
Category:Circus performers
Category:Widows/Widowers