My Lion King Forum

This is about the scene where Simba is running through the desert with the awesome music and chanting in the background. And when my family and I were watching it recently, we, all being runners, start discussing how lions run.

Disney drew lions realistically in The Lion King, so it's safe to assume that they also drew Simba's run as lions run in real life. (And based on videos I saw of real lions running, it is in fact correct). Problem though. For one, lions have a bad ratio of lung/body size. This means that they will run out of blood oxygen, and therefore energy, very fast. Because of this, lions have a poor endurance. Beat one at a sprint (or get a head start) and you can outrun one any day of the weak. And two, they have fur and don't sweat. In Africa, they can over heat very quickly in the mid-day sun. But the most important aspect is the run itself. Lions don't run efficiently. At all. Their entire body moves up and down (fighting gravity more than they need), they have four limbs to provide energy for, and they're heavy.

So this got me thinking. In the desert, there's no water. So Simba had to cross it in less then a drink's fill, and then some because the Pridelands are dried up. So I will give him less then a day in crossing the distance between the jungle and the Pridelands. But lions don't run very fast. And for the most part, Simba would have to walk.


So I reckon that the jungle is very close to the Pridelands. At most, the diameter of the Pridelands away (roughly 10 miles).

By comparison, a fit, well motivated human can cross that distance on foot in about two hours.

Think about it though. Biomes are huge. In real life, even a human can't walk through a desert in one day. If you're lucky, you *might* be able to drive through a desert in one day, but that's being very optimistic.

The only exception would be if the route through the desert is really like some sort of detour. Like, if Simba doesn't have to walk through the whole desert, but just through part of it, to get from the jungle to the Pridelands.



It could be possible that the Pridelands are located in the grassland of south Africa, with the jungle being west of there (or is that east? The globe is confusing, being backwards on the other side), and the desert being south of that.

It makes sense too. Simba flees the Pridelands going towards the sun as it is setting, which is west. So, I'd say this is accurate. And, in that case, a mere 10 mile journey through the desert would be reasonable.

Although, satellite photos aren't helping me to agree with this. You just can't walk 10 miles and go from jungle to desert to grassland. Heck, 10 miles could be the diameter of a small mountain.

You could still be able to see Priderock from 10 miles away. Maybe as many as 20 on a clear day. And I'm just guessing here, I actually have no idea. If something is 300 feet high at sea level, it can be seen from 23 miles away. I'd say pride rock is probably at least 500ft above the nearby plains, but the mountains around the jungle are probably at least 2-3 times higher. They're huge, and could probably be seen from who knows how far away.

There: Savanna, desert, and tropical forest all in one point. Problem solved. Nah, JK.

If you really want to get into it, there are what are called micro-climates, where the environment varies greatly over a small geographic area. And yes, Simba did not run through an entire desert, but only a small branch of one. But it could really be that the Pridelands are somewhere around that location where all three major environments meet.

I added more information to my previous post. I'm thinking the distance must be at least 40 or 50 miles. It would have to be, or else you could see the jungle waterfall from the top of Priderock. The whole distance wouldn't be desert, though.

Well, I've never analyzed the scene nearly that much, but your conclusion does make sense when you consider that the distance couldn't be any more than Simba could cover without food as a cub.