My Lion King Forum

Yes, here's another round of one of the Crazy Cat's brain farts.

As a kid, I took the official explanation of Rafiki finding out that Simba was alive for what it was without thinking about it. Now as I am older, I felt kind of nitpicky.

So Simba lay down due to depression and I guess his smell and scent (and maybe hairs) were in the plants and flowers which presumably Mufasa's spirit carried to Rafiki's magic tree. Rafiki's sniffs said flowers and somehow he is able to magically confirm that Simba is still out there in the flesh. Okay, on one hand, I can buy that Rafiki confirming Simba's existence on a purely spiritual/existential plane, but I think it would have been better if there had been something more concrete, i.e. maybe Rafiki having a hair that belonged to little Simba that he stashed somewhere in his tree (he's a hoarder) and he compares that to the hair/smells from the flowers and plants Mufasa brought to him. In some cultures during a Baptism, the priest cuts off the baby's hair. Rafiki could have done that and do a comparison.

Anyways, that's my two cents/weirdo observation. Has anyone else had a little itch about this scene?

As a side note, Jafar knowing where Aladdin lived always stood out to me as weird. How the Hell did he know? If he had told the guards to check all empty roofs, I would have bought it, but it seemed too coincidental and magical too me. Yes, I know in Disney movies you are supposed to suspend disbelief. LOL!

ETA: Maybe he saw where exactly in the crystal ball but still, Agrabah must have an infinite number on those. :p

I wouldn't be surprised if Rafiki memorized Simba's scent from the few times he was with Simba, even if Simba himself doesn't remember those.

As for the depressed leaves thing: Simba did basically collapse on the ground as he sighed, forcing a lot of stuff away from him. As for that stuff getting all the way to Rafiki: If Mufasa can appear as a cloud next to Simba, who didn't say that these same kings (probably Mufasa) can't give the leaves a 'slight' nudge in the right direction? If Rafiki already can recognize Simba's scent, all he needs to do is get a hold of some fresh evidence that Simba is still alive - in the form of these leaves and dirt that Simba blew off.

Yeah, I actually think an animal's scent marker doesn't change very much over the course of their lives, animals recognize each other primarily by their scent. Add to that that cats grow up to mark, and I'd imagine sniff identification was *very* possible.

From what I read about The Lion King musical, it is a little more concrete because after Simba sings "Endless Night", Rafiki hears his voice through the wind, and concludes it is Simba's. My only problem with that is that Simba's voice has deepened now that he has matured into a young adult.

All I can add to this argument is that mandrills just have an excellent sense of smell according to this website, and a study was made that shown that female mandrills have a keen sense of smell when they sniff out the males whose body odor is different giving an indication that their genetic makeup is unlike theirs before they mate.

Like ClearGreenWater said, animals recognize each other through sense of smell. So, I conclude in the movie that after Rafiki smelled Simba's scent in the dust, he followed the direction in which the scent came from, and it became more and more obvious that the prince is very much alive and well.

And about the Aladdin thing, all we are shown that Jafar sees Aladdin and a disguised Jasmine walk up into his room through his crystall ball. I just conclude Jafar's crystal ball just did have a direct location on Aladdin and Jasmine's whereabouts.

The part about Rafiki knowing that Simba was alive, is simple for me to understand.

But I'm still skeptical about how Rafiki actually knew where Simba was. The only logical explanation I can think of right now to something like this, would have to be that Rafiki would've already known about the jungle. However, based on what TLK 3 shows, he may very well have already known about it, since he came back to help Timon there.

Then again in TLK 1, on this scene of Rafiki finding out about Simba, we may have also been lead to assume that he already knew about Simba's whereabouts, just from when he says, "It is time!"

It could be that Rafiki knew enough about air currents to know that if some clumps of dirt in the air came from a certain direction, then they came from anywhere along this certain geographical area... After all, as the shaman, Rafiki is the closes thing to a scientist that the Pride Lands have, and I don't really think that he won't know a lot despite not having equipment or technology.

After all, it wasn't just Simba's scent that Rafiki got, but also bits of the ground that Simba tore up as he slid himself down on that rock as he breathed out. So what Rafiki found was Simba's scent on some plant matter that can only come from the jungle (jungle flora is very noticeably different to savanna flora). So I think it what happened was that Rafiki first found out where the leaves came from - after all, he didn't really pay much attention to it at first, and it was only after he realized that Simba's scent was there as well that he knew that Simba was still alive - as well as where he is.

I think it definitely has to do with scent. It wouldn't surprise me that Rafiki already knew of the jungle. I think when he caught the smell of Simba and recognized where the plant remains came from he could conclude the general location of Simba.