This is an interesting topic, as I have never really thought about it this in-depth.
I always thought that Sarabi was the lioness that says to Kiara, "My, how you've grown.". But now that I look at that lioness she is missing Sarabi's colored paws and her ear rims, as TLP stated. I also noticed that Sarabi is a bit more of a sand color, whereas that lioness is tawny and a darker brown. It could be Sarabi, and they forgot maybe her colors. Disney did get lazy with these two pictures of Kovu because they are replicas and are switched around:
But that's another thing.
I will just dismiss that, because there is proof as Mrs Depp and Regulus said: Sarabi's voice actor died before the production of TLKSP started. I'm just going to go with that.
FlipMode wrote:I mean Mufasa was in the film even though he was dead. So I think it is reasonable to believe Sarabi was "there" one way or another anyway.
If Sarabi died, why didn't they show her in the sky with Mufasa? That is just beyond me.