Difference between revisions of "Fluffy"

Revision as of 04:01, 6 February 2011

Fluffy
Fluffy
Species	Lion
Close Relations	Father Simba, Mother Nala, Uncle Scar, Grandfather Mufasa and grandmother Sarabi.
Information
Appearances	The Lion King (film), The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, and in numerous books.

"Let's just end on the next generation. Here's Fluffy, Simba and Nala's new little cub. Let's just end on Fluffy."

—The Lion King film makers, on the 1995 commentary track of the film, refering to the cub at the end.

Fluffy is what the cub at the end of The Lion King film was officially called until later given the identity of Kiara in the official storyline.

Appearance

Fluffy looks a lot like its father Simba did as a baby. It has very similar facial features, golden brown fur, paler toes, and big, black pupils without irises. But couple of noticable differences can be found: it has black ear rings whereas Simba didn't and it doesn't have fruit juice 'paint' on its forehead unlike Simba did.

Information

After The Lion King

After the release of the film in June 1994, the cub became very popular object of speculation as for who it is. The film's content itself doesn't say anything about the cub apart from its outside appearence. No name or gender is given. Because of the look-alike appearence to Simba and how no female had been seen with a golden brown fur, many believed it to be a boy and many still refuse to believe it's not. Even the ear rings make some absolutely certain that it's a boy, even though Simba as a baby didn't have them and Simba's mother Sarabi does have them. And even though the fruit juice paint was an essential part of Simba's blessing ceremony in the beginning, the lack of it at the point where the only known baby boy had it, implies that it might be a girl after all - especially when combined to the fact about the ear ring matter.

The original design making its gender unclear and many believing it to be a boy, resulted in some outsider writers creating childrens' books wherein it was visioned as a son. And as no official sequel to the film was in plans, Disney's book apartment approved them, forming a semi-official book universe out of a collection of profit fanfiction stories that contradict each others. In 1994, few months after the film, was published the book series The Lion King: Six New Adventures, which became the most popular but remained quite unknown as it was released only in USA. In it, Simba and Nala have a son named Kopa. In 1995 the film's creators released a commentary track for the Laserdisc release of the film, wherein they called the cub "Fluffy" and didn't refer to it either a 'he' or 'she' - even though Kopa was in Disney's copyrights and there would've been no harm done by turning the cub into him. By Fluffy, they made clear they didn't want Kopa to be the cub in the film, that in the official story the cub would remain without a gender or real name.

Soon enough Disney's film makers started to create an official sequel film, but the crew was all different from those who created the canon film. A rumour has it that the sequel's creators were planning to write two cubs, a boy named Chaka and a girl who had several name options, but cut the boy out in early production and developed the story only with the girl. In 1998, The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride film was released and Fluffy had finally gotten an official gender and name: a girl Kiara.

After The Lion King II: Simba's Pride

But as Kiara's design and the ceremony are obviously different from the first film's version, it has caused confusion among fans - especially those who know about Kopa in the books. There are a few fan theories to connect Kopa into the story, of which the most popular is that Zira killed Kopa before the film's beginning.

Some state that it is entirely impossible for Fluffy to be Kopa because of time gaps and age differences, but Kopa's true age or birth date is never stated, thus indicating that it is possible that Fluffy is Kopa. Again, all Lion King fans have a right to their opinion.

Why they remade the cub's ceremony scene is unknown but it was likely in order to fit in the opening song like the one in the first film. Why they redesigned the cub is unknown but likely they wanted it to look more obviously female, or just less like Simba as in more personal and individual appearence instead of a clone of her father. Whatever the motive, the act is retroactive continuity that is very common in works of fictional series.

One essential thing remains common between Fluffy and Kiara and the ceremony scenes: neither have the fruit juice paint on them when Rafiki holds them up for the kingdom to see. Kiara gets the paint after Rafiki takes her down. Thus, the continuity doesn't completely lack and Kiara and Fluffy blend into one on a practical level.

Fluffy is Kiara in the entity of the movie universe, which forms the official story of The Lion King, while the first film's commentary track proves Fluffy never was even supposed to be officially anyone until Kiara.