My Lion King Forum

I know animals grow up fast, but I'd think at least a little more time would have passed between Simba's presentation and his time as a cub.

Well, since I don't consider this canon, it doesn't really matter to me. But for those who do...feel free to share your opinions here.

TLK 1.5 was mostly made for a laugh. As far as the canon of Simba's age goes, this depiction is inaccurate. Of course, it doesn't explicitly say in 1.5 that it has only been a day, does it? It's been a while since I saw 1.5, but I always took it as there were multiple unimportant days in gaps like that in movies. The same with Simba's Pride and Kovu's speedy transformation. I always just assumed there were days between that didn't need to be detailed in the movie for lack of plot material.

[quote="Simba the Lion King"]I know animals grow up fast, but I'd think at least a little more time would have passed between Simba's presentation and his time as a cub.[/quote]

I believe somewhere in the script it states that approximately 6 months pass between Zazu confronting Scar for missing the ceremony and Muffy showing Simba around the Pridelands.

Assuming Simba was about a day old during the presentation, that would mean Simba was about 6 months old for all the cub Simba scenes.

This is another common swipe at the film, but because Arbystrider brought it up, I looked up the August 1993 draft of the script written by the screenwriters found on Internet Movie Script Database (imsdb.com). The attachment of the script clearly states "months later" when we first see cub Simba since Mufasa's confrontation with Scar and Rafiki creates his emblem of Simba. How many months later, we will probably never know, though I estimate no more than 6 to 7 months.

I recall DGFone posting a few years back when we are discussing the longevity of Simba's exile that when the directors wanted to input "Kenya, 2 years later", it doesn't make any sense since time and location relates more with humans, not animals. Although Timon and Pumbaa are in a theater, the film somewhat respects that concept by not having any caption of any sorts apart from title cards, end credits, and sing-along lyrics.

BTW, I apologize if you find the attachment too small.

[quote="TheLionPrince"]
I recall DGFone posting a few years back when we are discussing the longevity of Simba's exile that when the directors wanted to input "Kenya, 2 years later", it doesn't make any sense since time and location relates more with humans, not animals. [/quote]

This is most likely back from when The Lion King was in a very early draft, when it was more in the plans to be a sort of "animated National Geographic Special" than an actual Disney style musical. It will make sense to include such information in that case, as time and location progression is always specified in these documentaries. When the script was changed to more like in the final movie, and the theme started to really leave the documentary style, the "Kenya, 2 years later was removed as it would jar audiences away from the movie.

However, even though they removed the title card displaying the time change, I don't think that the internal time change was changes - it takes time for animals to grow up, not to mention that it will take time for the drought to hit the Pride Lands and ruin them into a desolate wasteland.

By this extension, we can safely assume that Simba is not one day old when he is seen as a cub, but rather that it was used for comedic effect in TLK 1.5.

From what was heard on the audio commentary, the directors deemed the concept "too retro" for the movie. It is possible it could relate to the documentary style version during the film's early production stages, though.