Benjamin R. Lionheart

### Likes

His family, being with Abby, having fun, relaxing, celebrations, perfection, equality, filing documents, organization, geometry, cleanliness, planning parties, dancing

### Dislikes

Red Bird, pressure, lies, embarrassment, living in fear, Flash getting overwhelmed, bullies, threats to his family, friends and kingdom

### Powers and abilities

Physical strength
Martial art skills

## Family information

### Parents

King Basel † (father)
Queen Efua † (mother)

### Children

Barry (younger son)
Flash (older son)

**Benjamin R. Lionheart** (also nicknamed as **Ben**) is the deuteragonist of the feature film, *Animal Planet* and a major character in the *Enchanted Pup* franchise. He's the second-born son of King Basel and Queen Efua and the younger brother of Prince Theodore. As an adult, he works as the working assistant as his brother who runs as the mayor. Although he's content with his job, he wishes to help his kingdom just like his father did. When the kingdom is threatened by the evil monarch, Red Bird, Benjamin teams up with the Enchanted Pup to save the kingdom. Once Red Bird is defeated, Benjamin makes his decision to assume his role as the new king of Basel's Garden.

## Background

Benjamin was born to King Basel and Queen Efua, rulers of Basel's Garden. His older brother, Theodore was the firstborn of the royal family and the future king of Basel's Garden. The princes were given an expensive education and during the weekends, their parents gave, Benjamin, lectures on what it takes to become a successful and responsible monarch. Theodore became interested in politics. He ran for mayor of the kingdom. After the lectures were over for a day, Benjamin spend some time with his childhood friends, Owen and Surly.

As an adult, Benjamin met a beautiful lioness named Abby and they soon got married. Abby gave birth to two sons named Flash and Barry. For Theodore, he became the mayor of the garden and Benjamin was made the official city manager. Both Theodore and Benjamin successfully managed to maintain peace and tranquility in the garden. Sometime after Ben and Abby's fifth wedding anniversary, a menacing and dangerous bird who is nicknamed Red Bird infiltrates Basel's Garden and seeks sanctuary inside the Bungle Jungle Volcano.

He invites mammals to play poker and they gamble for their money. However, Red Bird plays dirty and when he's close to lose to the mammal, the Bird cheats. Once that mammal loses the game, Red Bird kills that mammal by pushing into the pit of lava. The BPD captures Red Bird but as soon as he enters jail, his sons free him and head back to his volcanic lair. Fearing that his brother is in danger, Benjamin begins to help the BPD with bringing Red Bird to justice.

### Development

Benjamin was originally going to be a fox who went by the name, Benjamin Todd Fox. Elkwood wanted his character to be similar to the Disney character, Nick Wilde, whom the storywriter immediately liked since the Zootopia teaser trailer was released. A few years later, Benjamin was changed into a lion and his reason for doing that, so he could be related to the mayor of Animal Town, who was a lion.

### Personality

Benjamin is generally charismatic, sophisticated, gentlemanly and suave. While his brother is busy with maintaining order and balance in the city, Ben is focused with organizing the files, attending council meetings and helping the universe protectors with whatever job, he assigned him to do. From studying textbooks to attending extra curriculum activities, Ben became diligent and determined with completing his duties. Ben's hard-working ethics doesn't keep him from having fun, though. Benjamin manages to let loose and have fun with his family and friends. Also, Ben's hard-working ethics helps him to encourage other mammals to follow dreams, no matter what kind of species, they are.

In world-wide situations, Ben stays calm and advise panicking mammals to stay calm as well. He believes that there's always a solution to a problem. During his adventure to fight Red Bird and his henchmen, Ben was forced to put his polite and soft-spoken attitude for a fierce and determined one, as he had to be trained to become a solider. Also, Ben has a low tolerance for bullies and when the Rock Brothers were cruelly harassing Hansel, Ben often told them to back off but when their antics were getting him into trouble with his hardcore cousin, General Coby, Ben attempted to beat them up only for Surly and Owen to hold him back. Ben's kinder and compassionate side when he began to bond with Hansel and developed a close friendship with him.

Benjamin was very insecure about becoming the new king of Basel's Garden. He was afraid of letting his father down if he made a mistake ruling the kingdom. He saw his father as a perfect king and didn't want to let him down.

In the cartoon series, Ben retains his hard-working ethics, optimism and loyalty. In other episodes where he serves as a main character, Ben's bravery will be put to the test as when he needs to overcome his insecurities, defeat the villain and save his kingdom.

### Physical appearance

Benjamin is a slender and muscular lion with golden fur. He has large golden mane. He has a cream muzzle and hairy tip on his tail.

At work, he wears a blue dress shirt with black pants. After hours, he wears a blue sweat shirt and olive shorts.

By the end of the film, after being crowned king, Benjamin wears green royal clothing along with a golden crown that his late father wore and long green cape with a lion symbol

## Appearances

### Animal Planet

Ben is introduced at the beginning of the film. When his father, King Basel is murdered by Red Bird, Chief Yak and Officer Stripes report the bad news to the Mayor and his family. Benjamin and Theodore are shocked and saddened by the death of their father as well as their parental figure. Theodore gives his workers jobs for them to do to end the Bird's reign of terror. Ben offered to sign up for the mammal army and Theodore asked his brother, if he was up to the task. Ben answered his brother by telling him that he'll do anything to protect his family and friends.

In the film, Ben is seen exiting Joe's Diner with Owen and Surly. As they began to walk back, they spot Hansel and the gang being chased by Red Bird's chicks. Ben and his friends decided to rescue the gang by turning the Joe's Diner sign into a slingshot. When the gang was behind Owen and Surly, Ben released a rope and the chicks were slingshot back to their lair. Ben, Hansel and the gang officially meet and Hansel reveals himself as the Enchanted Pup. Benjamin knows the Enchanted Pup as the protector of the galaxy. He figured that he could free the garden from Red Bird's reign. Just then, Mr. Mole notified Ben about a meeting at city hall.

Ben happily escorts Hansel and the gang to City Hall, where they meet Theodore. Theodore tells the gang about his father's death and how Red Bird is responsible for it along with the other murders he committed. Hansel happily agrees to help the mammals with defeating Red Bird. Later that evening, Ben takes Hansel over to his apartment to meet his family. After meeting the family, Ben bids his family, a farewell and says that he'll see them very soon. Ben, Hansel and the gang depart from the garden and meet up with the volunteer mammal soldiers at camp. The soldiers are trained by Benjamin and Theodore's tough-as-nails cousin, General Coby. At the camp, Hansel was harassed by the mammal soldiers, Rockhead, Rockeye and Rocktail, wolves who bullied Benjamin, Owen and Surly when they were in elementary school.

Despite a few struggles and confrontations with the General, Hansel managed to befriend the General and soldiers by showing the army, his powerful magic and how it can defeat Red Bird, if they give him a chance. In doing so, Hansel earns the respect of the General and the soldiers. Benjamin Owen and Surly bond with Hansel while ice-skating on the river that he created with his magic. The Rock Brothers join in and apologize to Hansel for bullying him and the Pup befriends him. The next day, the General has notified the army, that they are suitable with fighting Red Bird and his army. Before boarding a train to the Sahara Desert, Coby told Hansel that none of this would've been possible if it wasn't for him.

The soldiers boarded a train to the Sahara Desert and as they entered the Sahara Desert, they discovered that buildings have been destroyed and the plant life, there as well. Suddenly, a horde of robots appeared and attacked the army. Several of the robots were destroyed but more came out of Red Bird's lair. Red Bird, himself came out of the lair and led the robots to terminate his enemies. Worse of all, the soldiers only had one more laser cartridge for the laser gun. Hansel looked at the inside of Red Bird's lair and saw tons of gas canisters and a row of runaway edge lights. Seeing how that will generate a massive explosion, Hansel grabbed the last laser cartridge and headed over to the front of edge lights and aimed the laser guns at Red Bird's lair.

Benjamin helped him position the laser gun towards the gas canisters and fired it. The lair's explosion was shifted by the wind speed to the edge lights and destroyed the robot army including Red Bird. Benjamin and Hansel managed to dodge the explosion before it hit them. The mammals cheered for Hansel as he defeated "Red Bird." Benjamin, who was ecstatically happy embraced Hansel. Back in the kingdom, Hansel becomes famous for his heroic actions. Wanting to thank Hansel for all of his help, he tells Horace to arrange a party for him and his family. Unbeknownst to Benjamin, Hansel discovered that with Basel dead, someone needs to take the crown and rule as king. He then learns that Benjamin is the heir to the throne. Hansel decides to help prepare Benjamin to take the opportunity to rule Basel's Garden, he gets the throne room set up and calls Benjamin over there for a surprise.

Benjamin heads over to the palace and discovers that Hansel has set up the throne room for him and that he'll announce his coronation to the kingdom as soon as possible. Instead of being happy or appreciative as Hansel hoped, Benjamin is angry by this. He tells Hansel that he doesn't want to deal with the pressures of ruling a kingdom which is why he has Coby assuming the role as king as soon as the party is over. Hansel insists that Benjamin takes the opportunity to help his people, seeing this as a once in a lifetime opportunity. Benjamin believes that he doesn't deserve the crown and is already happy with the life he has lived. Hansel mentions to Benjamin that as the Enchanted Pup, it is his job to make people's dreams come true and he sees becoming a king as a dream. Having lost patience with Hansel's support, he angrily tells him that he doesn't need him to tell him to what to do with his life and that he didn't need him before and he doesn't need him now. Deeply offended by this, calmy, Hansel sarcastically says sorry for freeing him from Red Bird and leaves the garden with his family. Benjamin immediately regrets what he says and tries to stop Hansel but just ignores him.

A few hours later, Benjamin begins to feel remorse for his actions and realized that Hansel's intend was to help him. He should at least take the risk but before he does, he should apologize to Hansel for yelling at him. Just as he tries to leave the palace, Dr. Claws comes back from the coroner's office to tell the gang that the remains of Red Bird were nothing but scraps of metal. Benjamin has a sudden realization, he remembers that Red Bird was staying at the Bungle Jungle Volcano and wouldn't leave his lair since it would be very risky. He realized that Red Bird was alive. Benjamin then makes a run for the door only to be shot down by a tranquilizer dart by Red Bird, who has his chicks abduct all of the mammals and take them to the Bungle Jungle Volcano to be killed.

Unknown to the entire garden, a young mouse named Squeaky manages to escape Red Bird's attack and get to EverRealm to warn Hansel. Back in the volcano, Red Bird tortures the garden's inhabitants by singing them a song. While he's singing, Benjamin spots Hansel and his family and is happy that they've returned. He watches in suspense as he battles Red Bird who tries to shoot him with a shotgun and then switches to a sword. Fortunately, Hansel overpowers Red Bird who ends up falling into the volcano, killing him. The mammals are freed from their cages and saved from Red Bird at last. Benjamin happily embraces Hansel and apologizes to him for yelling at him and for saying that he didn't appreciate everything that he did, in fact, he is very grateful to have the Enchanted Pup as a friend. Hansel asks Benjamin if he is going to take this opportunity to become king and he willingly accepts.

A coronation is held in the capital city where he is crowned the new king of Basel's Garden with Abby as his queen and Barry and Flash as the princes. He is shown to be a kind and loving ruler as he welcomed Squeaky and his family into the kingdom as a reward for helping Hansel save the kingdom. One day later, Benjamin, Hansel and the gang go over to Rainforest Town for a concert and Ben is last seen dancing along with the music and enjoys his newly-restored friendship with Hansel and the gang.

### The Enchanted Pup: The Series

Taking a few years of the events of *Animal Planet,* Benjamin has perfectly adjusted to his role as king and just like Hansel goes on adventures to protect the kingdom and his family from villains and other antagonists.

## Trivia

* Benjamin suffers from OCD, obsessive-compulsive disorder.