My Lion King Forum

Does anyone know why Nathan Lane isn't voicing Timon in this (or anything other than the movies)? Ernie Sabella has been Pumbaa in everything.

I don't think it's a matter of money, because Disney got James Earl Jones back for Mufasa, who is undoubtedly one of the most expensive living voice actors.

I'm not disappointed by Kevin Schon's performance (he voiced Timon in the TV series Timon & Pumbaa, too), I'm just curious.

Based on what I know he's in a broadway musical called 'the producers' with matthew broderick.

I will admit that my info on him might be woefully outdated.

Moka wrote:Does anyone know why Nathan Lane isn't voicing Timon in this (or anything other than the movies)? Ernie Sabella has been Pumbaa in everything.

Actually, Lane did voice Timon in a couple of the earlier "Timon and Pumbaa" TV show episodes before Kevin Schon and Quinton Flynn completely took over and for all of the other media about him like the "Wild about Safety" online videos, after Lion King 1 1/2.

As far as everything else goes that you wrote, from everything I know about Lane, he's a very talented person and is/has been a pretty busy guy in years past and pretty much does everything in Hollywood. Not just films and television. On the other hand, some people move onto other things in their life and career, and I'm pretty sure The Producers with Matthew Broderick a short while after LK 1 1/2 was released, really took his mind off of Disney (along with Broderick's).

And, as far I know about Sabella, he isn't as widely popular of a guy as Lane is as I've only seen that Sabella simply does / voices characters from TV, film and animation.

I'm just glad that Lane came back to voicing my fave one more time on his own film of 1 1/2, and he won the Annie award (animated film/media awards) or DVD Exclusive award for best character acting in this film by voicing Timon. But what's surprising about all this though, when I watched the 15 minute making of the Lion King 1 1/2 documentary on blu-ray version of the film, Nathan Lane isn't shown much at all like Sabella is...
* But at least Lane gave Timon lots of life here.

Oh gosh yes he's a fantastic actor. I loved him in The Bird Cage. I know he's a busy guy, and voice acting for kids shows is probably not high on his list, it just seemed odd to me they got James Earl Jones but not Nathan Lane.

James Earl Jones is mostly retired but seems to be the kind of person who would gladly reprise an iconic role of his for a cameo.

To answer your question, it depends if the casting director(s) of The Lion Guard even approached Lane about reprising the role to begin with. If he wasn't, he wasn't. If he was approached, he either outright declined or had to decline because of scheduling conflicts since he's a relatively busy Broadway actor and singer and sporadically making television appearances, wouldn't pay him enough money, or some other reason. His career in films isn't as active as it was back in the 1990s. Nevertheless, it's always cheaper to hire Kevin Schon to voice Timon.

Lane always struck me as one of the many cast members who enjoyed being in The Lion King, and even talked about his experiences on the Pride of The Lion King documentary film on the 2011 Diamond Edition release. I doubt he decided to just "move on".

Elton John wrote:Based on what I know he's in a broadway musical called 'the producers' with matthew broderick.

I will admit that my info on him might be woefully outdated.

Yes, it is woefully outdated. They both starred in the Broadway musical production of The Producers from 2001 onwards to the mid-2000s. However, they both did a Broadway production of It's Only a Play last year.