by DGFone » September 12th, 2015, 6:50 am
Another way to look at Zazu is as a form of a squire. While he doesn't have any promotions to look forward to, he does many things that a squire would be told do to, assuming off course, that he will be able to physically carry out the task.
Is it a good thing or a bad thing that he is chosen as a babysitter? On one hand, he is very fast and able to alert Mufasa very quickly if Simba is in danger, such as during the adventure to the elephant graveyard. On the other hand, it also means that he is unavailable for his other roles because he is occupied, and he is also not the most capable of creatures in stopping a lion cub with a mindful of mischief. Had Zazu been something other than a bird, it would have been very possible that he would simply have been strong enough to strong-arm Simba and Nala into staying in the Pride Lands.