My Lion King Forum

I mean, Zazu was barely even in the movie. I wonder why. Does anybody have a reasonable answer?

His role as babysitter was reduced as it was about 'Kiara and Simba's' story, but we did at least get to see him appear every once in a while.

The story for The Lion King II was based on Romeo & Juliet so more screentime was going to focus on the Kiara-Kovu love affair and the strife between their two families. There's not a particular character in the play that is equivalent to Zazu so there's not much in the story for him to do. Not to mention, Zazu's role as majordomo feeds off of Simba's position as king. Notice how about every decision Simba makes as king (or scenes with Mufasa in the first movie), Zazu is also in the scene. If Simba was more than just a supporting character, we would have seen more of Zazu.

Besides his majordomo role, his role as chaperone was transferred over to Timon and Pumbaa.

Maybe, if Timon, Pumbaa, and Zazu could get along , then they could all babysit Kiara, together.

Also it might have grated more that it's not Rowan Atkinson voicing him anymore - he gave Zazu such a character in the first.

Yeah, I'm kinda mad the Rowan didn't come back and did Zazu's voice again...

MooLion wrote:Also it might have grated more that it's not Rowan Atkinson voicing him anymore - he gave Zazu such a character in the first.

I wouldn't be too sure about that. Voice acting for an animated movie usually comes during the time the production team has storyboarded most of the movie. (source) Given what we know, much of the story was revised over and over again to make Kovu and Kiara's romance not incestuous, there's little to no impact that Rowan Atkinson's absence could have made to lessen Zazu's involvement in the role.

Another thing is that Zazu was originally going to be given a love interest named Binti. It remains to be seen what impact she had on the earlier story drafts, but it's enough to speculate Zazu could have been featured more.

Oh, If Binti was in Lion King 2, I would own it, and it would be my most prized possession. She might have had a big impact, being a flirtatious bird and girlfriend. And later, mate.

MooLion wrote:Also it might have grated more that it's not Rowan Atkinson voicing him anymore - he gave Zazu such a character in the first.

When I was younger, I thought Zazu, Timon and Pumbaa were friends, just because of the scene where Pumbaa saves Timon and Zazu in his famous ''Mr. Pig'' scene.

Perrys Girlfriend wrote:Maybe, if Timon, Pumbaa, and Zazu could get along , then they could all babysit Kiara, together.

Poor Kiara!

Regarding Zazu`s role, though, it`s been explained pretty well why he had a much smaller role in the sequel. A lot of Zazus screen time in TLK is due to him trying to keep an eye on the cubs, whereas in SP he only acts as Simbas majordomo, and as SP focuses strongly on Simba, Kiara, Kovu and Zira, a supporting character like Zazu easily fades into the background.