by Panpardus » October 4th, 2016, 8:13 pm
Okay, this is a fun topic...
So when I had some free time a few months back, I decided to try and figure out a realistic timeline of events for the franchise's story arc as a whole. Whether or not this will lead to a fanfic (which I doubt because I don't write fiction very well) I don't know, but I like applying real science -- especially biology -- to movies and TV shows when possible. I know The Lion King plays fast-and-loose with various aspects of lion biology and ecology, but to give Disney credit they are pretty consistent with how the lions age relative to their real-world counterparts. I won't go through every single canon franchise character or detail, and I'll probably start my own new thread that details the full canon timeline, but as far as the characters seen in the original film (note, not including characters who were old enough to live through these events but weren't onscreen because Disney hadn't invented them yet), here's what I've got based on actual biology:
Simba
The first time we see Simba is at his presentation, which is not the day of his birth. Lion cubs don't open their eyes until some point within their first week, and it can take them another week or so before they can actually see clearly, so based on the little stick ball game Rafiki played with Simba in the opening scene, Simba's probably about 2 weeks old at his presentation.
The cubhood scenes all happen within the span of a few days, so the characters don't really age in that span of time. Field researchers can roughly estimate the age of a lion cub by comparing its height to that of its mother, so after looking at some good screenshots it's safe to say that Simba is about 3 months old. This corroborates nicely with that fact that he has already eaten meat -- he asks Timon about antelope and hippo -- as lions usually start weaning around this time.
The last half of the movie (which also spans the course of a few days) jumps ahead about 3 years, a fact which the producers state was intended to be indicated onscreen with text. At about 3.25 years, lions have reached adulthood (it's about the same as the early 20s for humans) and males have relatively small, scraggly manes while still retaining a younger, cub-like expression. This seems to match up pretty well with what we see of Simba at this point in the film, so we're good there.
The final scene of the movie -- the presentation of Kion; yes, Kion, for reasons I'll explain later and elsewhere -- happens about 4 months after the battle at Pride Rock. This assumes that Kiara and Kion are their parents' only cubs, and that they were conceived sometime around the "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" scene, which Simba implies in The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar with the "the talk" gag. So at the end of the movie (and the start of Simba's Pride) Simba is about 3.5 years old.
Nala
Based on the one screenshot I could find of her sort of standing next to Sarafina's front leg -- during Scar's ascension the night of Mufasa's death -- Nala looks to be a little younger than Simba, in the 2-3 month range, but they're basically the same age so no need to rehash everything I said before.
Mufasa
We don't know much about Mufasa's history within canon but based on his size and mane, he seems to be middle-aged in the prime of his life, which for a lion is about 7 years old.
Scar
Assuming he and his brother are litter mates, Scar is also about 7 years old in the first half of the film, then about 10 years old when Simba comes back, which for a human is roughly the equivalent of being in your late 50s to early 60s -- technically a senior citizen, but still fairly physically capable. Most male lions at that age are usually driven out by interlopers if they've been able to hold onto control of their pride and territories for long enough, so the movie works out pretty well in accordance with this.
Sarabi
Lionesses are harder to age than males, and Sarabi already has a fairly stocky build, but I'd place her somewhere in the 5-6 year old range for the first half of the movie, since she's clearly a bit more mature than Nala was at the end of the movie. That would make her 8-9 years old at the end of the film, which is about the cusp of old age in lions and is usually when healthy female individuals really get bulky, which does show a bit in Sarabi's design in the scene where she confronts Scar.
Sarafina
She has a bit of a more youthful look than Sarabi, so I'd pin her at about 4-5 years old in the first half of the movie. This would make her 7-8 years old in the latter half, although she doesn't show up in these scenes and I presume she either died or left. (Maybe something that could be delved into in the remake?)
Timon
For meerkats, young males (as recorded by the Kalahari Meerkat Project, the people behind the Animal Planet show Meerkat Manor -- talk about a throwback) typically leave their homes at around 3 years old, so that's where I'm putting Timon at the start of the movie and around the time he meets Simba. Thus, he'd be about 6 years old in the second half of the movie, and with the protection from predators afforded to him by Simba's inclusion of him in the lion family, he could reach a lifespan of up to 14 years or so, so it's not unrealistic for him to still be pretty spry throughout the entire story arc seen in the cartoon films.
Pumbaa
These figures aren't as well-detailed as with lions and we don't know much about Pumbaa's history, but since he seems to be an adult that would put him at minimally 2 years old when we first see him, then minimally 5 years old in the second half of the movie. As a warthog, he'd have a minimum lifespan of about 10-12 years, so there's nothing wrong with him being around through the end of the second movie.
Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed
They all seem like adults throughout the film and don't age much, so I'm going to put a conservative estimate of 3 and 6 years for all of them for the first and second halves of the film, respectively. (3 years is the age of maturity in spotted hyenas, but they can normally live for about 12-15 years under good conditions.) For now I'm not assuming that Janja or any of the other hyenas seen in The Lion Guard are related to any of the original trio, as there's not real evidence for that and it would change my estimates.
Rafiki
Assuming Rafiki is just a mandrill with an abnormally long tail (although I'm toying with looking into the possibility of hybridization between mandrills and baboons, specifically olive baboons which are the only baboon species whose range fairly overlaps the mandrill's), and knowing that they can live up to 20 years in the wild and over 30 years in captivity, it would be fair to put him at minimally 13 years old at the start of the film, which is probably already on the older side for this species. It lends a lot to his fairly static old man appearance.
Zazu
Assuming Zazu is just a stylized red billed hornbill, he's got a pretty long life ahead of him. Birds in general are pretty long-lived animals, and according to the sources I've been able to pull up hornbills can live for some 40 years or so, though they usually go about 15 years in the wild. Since they reach maturity anywhere between 1-3 years old, Zazu could be at least 3 at the start of the film although we don't know enough about canon events before The Lion King film to pinpoint when he started out being Mufasa's majordomo or if he served the previous king.
I think that covers everyone from the first movie. Like I said, I'll write a longer post on the other characters and the entire cartoon timeline eventually. I might even get to it later today when I have a little more time...