King Leonidas

"STOP...THAT...BALL!!!!"

- King Leonidas' catchphrase.

"GOAL! Game's over, I win!"

- King Leonidas about his soccer victory.

King Leonidas (simply known as Leonidas) is the secondary antagonist of Disney's 1971 film Bedknobs and Broomsticks. He is an anthropomorphic lion who rules the fictional island of Naboobu as its king.

He was voiced by the late Lennie Weinrib.

Role in the film
The King is shown to throw a temper because of an incoming soccer game being cancelled (since there is no one to volunteer for a referee). He also hold a hatred toward humankind, as he puts up a law saying "No Peopling Allowed". However, the arriving Mr. Browne (who is a human) offers to volunteer for the job as referee, which made the King so delighted, that he agrees to set aside his hatred of humans to ensure that everything goes well in the game. With that in mind, as the game starts, the King leads his team into getting a shot, despite the rival team's efforts in stopping them. However, one of the players accidentally pops up the soccer ball with his horn, causing the angry King to let out an extremely loud roar that sends Mr. Browne and all of the team players (including the rival ones) into one of the soccer's nets before blowing the ball into the net to win.

Thanking Browne for helping out, the King cleans him up before bidding goodbye to him, along with Miss Price and the children. However, upon discovering that his precious medallion has been exchanged for the referee's whistle, the King flies into a rage and pursues Ms. Price, Mr. Browne and the children. In a desperate attempt to escape, Ms. Price uses a spell to turn the fearsome lion into a long-tailed rabbit. His final fate remains unknown afterwards as he hops back to his kingdom, though it may be quite possible that he turns back to his original lion form since the spell is temporary and evanescent.

Eventually, the Star disappears after Mr. Browne, Miss Price, and the kids return back to their world, as it turns out that it is actually impossible to take an object out from the fantasy world.

Appearance
King Leonidas is a slender tan lion with a ginger mane and a dark tan nose, he wears a royal golden crown and a red robe. He also wears the Star of Astoroth, a golden medallion inscribed with the words to substituary locomotion spell. He looks somewhat like Prince John, especially since the two also share a short temper, but more like Shere Khan due to their big chins and identical noses.

Personality
Like all lions, King Leonidas is proud, arrogant, manipulative, and egotistical. Even though he is not completely evil, he is very sensitive, cunning, destructive, and temperamental, King Leonidas possesses a deep love for the game of soccer, as seen when the royal championships on his island could not continue when a suitable referee couldn't be found. He is also extremely violent, ferocious, aggressive, and obstreperous when he roars so loud at everything that moved. He is also shown to be very popular, praiseworthy, and straightforward with the rest of the animals, as he wants to put a good soccer game to entertain them, much to their delight.

Powers and Abilities
King Leonidas' voice is quite powerful, which can be expected from a royal lion. His yell to "stop that ball" is powerful enough to blow everyone away to the net from its hurricane-like force. Like the other animals of the isle, he has the persuasive power of speech (with a Boston/Irish accent) and other human attributes due to the spell of the wizard, Astoroth.

Trivia

 * King Leonidas is the Disney character with the most loudest and booming yell ever as he bellowed, "STOP...THAT...BALL!!!!!!".
 * King Leonidas resembles Prince John. As a rabbit, he has a similar look to Skippy from Robin Hood.
 * He is made to look like the movie's main antagonist, but is never seen again after halfway into the movie. The movie's real antagonist is Colonel Heller.