Are Timon & Pumbaa Really Important?

[Timon the great]

This thread is relatively pointless. I know that may sound rude to the topic starter. But what's being asked in this topic is like asking if TLK 1 was really about Simba.

Think about it. If Timon and Pumbaa were never there after young Simba ran away from the Pride Lands and into the desert, how could the movie have actually continued?

[DreamEater]

[quote="Ninaroja"]They were important, in my opinion, because they had a huge impact on the outcome of the story.

Without Timon and Pumbaa:
1. Simba would have died in the desert, been eaten by vultures, or both.
2. Even if he had managed to survive alone, he wouldn't have run into Nala in the jungle were he not living with Timon and Pumbaa.
3. This means he would never have met Rafiki or Mufasa's ghost.
4. Simba would never have been introduced to hakuna matata, and subsequently would never have gone through the character growth needed for him to see the right thing to do and return to Pride Rock to face his past.

Also, I feel like TLK could have been TOO dark without them, not to mention pretty much all of the Disney movies made before/around the time of TLK's release contained comic relief of some sort
(e.g. Genie, the enchanted objects, Sebastian, the gargoyles, Mushuu etc.)[/quote]

You took the words right out of my mouth here.

[Titanics Captain]

Not really..... I don't wee why in fact i think they're almost pointless to to have.

[Carl]

[quote="Timon the great"]This thread is relatively pointless. I know that may sound rude to the topic starter. But what's being asked in this topic is like asking if TLK 1 was really about Simba.

Think about it. If Timon and Pumbaa were never there after young Simba ran away from the Pride Lands and into the desert, how could the movie have actually continued?[/quote]
I concur.

[Regulus]

In the OP's defense:

[quote="SummerSnowLeopard"]I mean, yes they helped Simba and taught him Hakuna Matata, but please take a moment to imagine TLK without Timon and Pumbaa. Other than saving Simba, they didn't do anything important.[/quote]

I think the idea is that Timon and Pumbaa could easily have been replaced with other characters, and the story still would have had the same effect.

[TheLionPrince]

[quote="SummerSnowLeopard"]I mean, yes they helped Simba and taught him Hakuna Matata, but please take a moment to imagine TLK without Timon and Pumbaa. Other than saving Simba, they didn't do anything important.[/quote]

Well, Timon and Pumbaa did serve as a distraction for the hyenas so Simba can get closer to Scar so that served some more importance.

Another thing I may add (that will defend the OP's point) is that in the earlier scripts, Simba made it just fine without too much help after his father died. In the January 1990 script, after the hyenas drive out Simba, Simba ends up being with a meerkat colony known as the Kombli Rangers led by Timon Vandameer and Tesma. There, he learns that size does not always equal strength, and later leaves where he ultimately meets up with Kwashi (an early version of Rafiki) and Zazu where they arrange to defeat Scar. In the May 1990 screenplay, Simba is close to near-death after the hyenas chase him out, and while Zazu tries to fend off against a vulture from eating him, Simba wakes up, and roars scaring away the vulture. He eventually finds some prey to eat, and sometime later decides to return home.

However, just to be fair, Simba in those scripts was an adolescent (think teen Simba in 1½), and his exile period could have been at least a month while the final movie's exile period was for years. So, while Simba was just like a helpless child that still needed caring for, I do somewhat think Simba growing up without Timon and Pumbaa is not too far-fetched.

[DGFone]

In the final version of the movie, Simba wouldn't be able to survive on his own. So while you can replace Timon and Pumbaa, all you will be doing is replacing a meerkat-warthog duo with someone else that will do the exact same job - raising Simba and allowing him to survive post stampede.

Not to mention, it would have been very easy for Nala to miss Simba if she didn't try to eat Pumbaa, who's cries for help lead to the cavalry charge known as Simba. Even if you do replace Timon and Pumbaa, you'll need something edible that Nala can chase. If you just get rid of them, the chances of her walking right by Simba without noticing him are too high.

So in the end, Timon and Pumbaa are very important to the plot.

[Regulus]

[quote="DGFone"]Not to mention, it would have been very easy for Nala to miss Simba if she didn't try to eat Pumbaa, who's cries for help lead to the cavalry charge known as Simba. Even if you do replace Timon and Pumbaa, you'll need something edible that Nala can chase. If you just get rid of them, the chances of her walking right by Simba without noticing him are too high.[/quote]

I disagree. Nala was specifically looking for a male to challenge Scar. The fact that she found Pumbaa first is purely a coincidence.

[DGFone]

^ Except that Simba was living deep in the jungle with Timon and Pumbaa, not where lions live. After all, why did Timon and Pumbaa pick the jungle in the first place? Because it's predator free. So if Nala didn't hunt down Pumbaa into the jungle, she would have walked right by Simba, looking in the savanna around the jungle, but not actually in it.

Without Pumbaa to distract her from her search, Nala would have missed Simba because he was where lions don't go.

[Regulus]

Not necessarily. The jungle is surrounded by desert, and as far as I'm aware, Nala isn't exactly a camel. She would have needed to stop for water anyway.

And, that's assuming that, without Timon and Pumbaa, Simba would have been living in the jungle to begin with. In fact, who is to say that Simba wouldn't have gone back to Pride Rock on his own accord, if Timon and Pumbaa hadn't convinced him otherwise?