The Lion King: Hakuna Matata (no, NOT the movie...)

[Akril]

Thanks, changa!

(And though I'm not a Monkey Island fan per se (I'm more of a fan of older adventure games in general), I'm definitely familiar with the games, and it's great to see someone else here who knows about the games as well.)

[LilCheetah]

A new story is up: Home Sweet Home http://s281.photobucket.com/albums/kk233/TheLionKingHakunaMatata/23%20Home%20Sweet%20Home/

[LilCheetah]

Double post for a reason. The Missing Monkey is now up, kindly scanned by animon. http://s281.photobucket.com/albums/kk23 ... %20Monkey/

EDIT Pretty In Pink http://s281.photobucket.com/albums/kk23 ... in%20Pink/

[LilCheetah]

I apologize for this being a multiple post but as no one has posted since my last one I would just like to point out that ALL 31 stories are now online. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

http://s281.photobucket.com/albums/kk23 ... unaMatata/

[Akril]

You mean...all the stories are available now!? For reals? Wow, this is truly a landmark day in the TLK fandom.

I admit, when I first saw the "ghost elephant", my first reaction was "Oh my gosh, it's Kia!" and as the story continued, I began noticing several interesting parallels between this story and "Fight for the Throne" (the audio drama that Kia's from.

In FFTT, the story begins with Kopa asking Simba why only lions are kings and not another animal. Simba says that lions kings because they are "strong, mighty and very clever", to which Kopa responds, "But elephants are strong and mighty and clever too." When Simba's throne is usurped, he and Kopa return to the jungle where Simba grew up, and after remaining there for some time, Kopa seeks out an ancient white elephant named Kia (it's not made clear how he knows about Kia) to help Simba win back the throne. Even though Kia does wins the throne, he has no desire to be a king, so he returns to the jungle.

So we now have one old white elephant named Giganta living near the jungle who is a king and another old white elephant named Kia living in the jungle who isn't a king and doesn't want to be king...I smell fan fiction!

As for the rest of the stories, it's nice to see a few new species in the stories (Okapis? And pangolins?? WHEEE!), but the art really has dropped in quality. Simba looks as high as a kite in "The Ghost Elephant" and his colors and anatomy are a bit wonky too.

And the aardvark is named Arnold? (I'm trying my hardest to not imagine him speaking in a thick Austrian accent.) If you're already heading down Alliteration Avenue, why not go all the way and give him a name beginning with two a's?

[LilCheetah]

Yes, they are all complete, thanks to the helpful people I found on the Internet who filled in the gaps!

I too, was disappointed in the drop in quality of the art and the stories. The artwork started off beautifully, but towards the end they began to seem more rushed. Timon suddenly became ugly, and the characters' colours were horrendous (Simba is literally BRIGHT ORANGE in some of them). The story quality too, became increasingly weak. Prickly Problems for example, and Wiseguy the Owl (just one part to that story, where all others came in 2 or 3).

I love what you have written about the two giant aging white elephants from the Jungle. Being not too familiar with FFtT I think it's really interesting that another such animal exists in a completely different part of LK fiction. Giganta and Kia - one and the same? :o Would you mind if I mentioned this in the Hakuna Matata group?

And I think Arnold was a daft name too. Would have been more fitting if the writers chose names that were more African throughout the series. Did you notice that the name "Spike" crops up twice? Once in "Mummy Pumbaa" whereby Pumbaa names an Ostrich chick Spike, and the other in "Prickly Problems" whereby the porcupine that injures Simba is called Spike.

[Akril]

[quote="LilCheetah"]I love what you have written about the two giant aging white elephants from the Jungle. Being not too familiar with FFtT I think it's really interesting that another such animal exists in a completely different part of LK fiction. Giganta and Kia - one and the same? :o Would you mind if I mentioned this in the Hakuna Matata group?[/quote]
Sure! Here's the full text of the story.

[quote]And I think Arnold was a daft name too. Would have been more fitting if the writers chose names that were more African throughout the series. Did you notice that the name "Spike" crops up twice? Once in "Mummy Pumbaa" whereby Pumbaa names an Ostrich chick Spike, and the other in "Prickly Problems" whereby the porcupine that injures Simba is called Spike.[/quote]
Hmm, I didn't notice "Spike" appearing twice -- well spotted!

And yes, there are a number of English names not just in this series, but the comics as well. One theory I concocted to "explain" them was that there are a lot of bird species that spend the winter in sub-saharan Africa but migrate to Europe or Asia for their breeding season (e.g., white storks, hoopoes and barn swallows). Since these birds are born in Europe, it makes sense that they'd have non-African names, and with them returning to Africa every year, other animals might have been inspired to give their offspring names like the birds had, and...well, you probably get the picture by now. : )

(And in Hakuna Matata's defense, TLK did have at least two characters with English names [Ed and Scar, not sure about Timon's name]...and Scar and Zazu had British accents!)

[LilCheetah]

Thanks for the link!

My explanation for the English names is probably because the writers didn't have the time or the patience looking up African names ^^ and of course it is true of what you had said about Ed and Scar; but Scar is likely a nickname anyway and Ed could be short for something

[cleargreenwater]

I dunno, I look at things pretty human-based. I always figured the English accents and non-African words in TLK-land came from the same place they filtered into human society from--a legacy of colonialism and international travel synergy in the human world, especially the accents.

The birds make a lot of sense, though.

Except--leave it to the Hyenas to ruin everything!--I can't exactly picture Banzai interrogating barn swallows to pick up Spanish

(And don't forget Uncle Max & Iron Joe in the non-African names category!)

[crystally]

Um I must be blind, but where are the stories? In that imageshack folder I only see three pics, the title logo, readme, and story index. Where are the actual stories? Sorry for such a stupid question.