The Lion King continuity is all over the place.

[Elton John]

You have the first movie, which i'm pretty sure everyone can agree is 100% canon.

.... Then you have the six new adventures which many enjoyed and think those characters are canon, and others don't.

Then there's the timon and pumbaa show which has a lot of contradictions between everything in the tlk universe.

Then you have simbas pride, which a lot of fans enjoyed and think of as canon. However it expects us to believe that these four characters, zira nuka vitani and kovu were around during scars reign. Also it expects us to believe that scar ain't the daddy yet all three children of zira look ever so much like scars children as well. I like the movie but it definitely has continuity issues with the first.

Then there's the second tlk direct to video movie which messes with continuity even worse than tlk2. Sorry but I don't believe for one second that timon and pumbaa were around for every event of the first movie.


And now there are strong rumors that the lion guard has kiara as a cub. Which messes with tlk2 continuity. Nothing has been proven yet as there are actors saying it takes place post tlk2.

I'm thinking that the lion guard is a soft reboot. Keeping the continuity of the first film and parts of the second that make logical sense but getting rid of what doesn't (which unfortunately means getting rid of popular characters like kovu).

[DGFone]

The main problem with The Lion King was that it was never meant to have continuity in the first place. Always being thought of by Disney, and even by its own production team, as the "B-movie" compared to Pocahontas, The Lion King was meant to be a one-and-done kind of deal.

While I doubt that Disney thought that it would flop, they certainly didn't consider The Lion King as something that would be good enough to warrant a sequel. So when it became the huge hit that it was, Disney was very much caught with their pants down when it came to expanding the story. This is why the continuity never really existed in the first place.

As for the Kiara is a cub rumor: as much fun as I had posting "TLK Continuity 1994-1998 RIP" in that topic, consider the cover of a children's book a legitimate source I do not. Most likely that was handed over to a contractor by the Disney merchandise division, who apart from knowing that Kiara will be in TLG, most likely doesn't know much else about that. Remember that this is the same company, that upon being shown how Simba made his way into the Pride Lands after slinking past the hyenas, agreed that a volcano-powered recoil-mechanism elevator was the way he did it. You can argue that that was simply game-play in the 1994 SNES game, but remember: Dinsey saw that and agreed that it was acceptable story wise. Just look at this video, made about the video game, that describes roughly how Disney operated behind the scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kILeyo1 ... d&t=29m40s

[Elton John]

So what you are saying (I think?) is that anything beyond the first movie can be as canon as you want it to be?

The only thing that disney has embraced past tlk1 is that kiara is the daughter of simba and nala and is likely the cub at the end of tlk1. That's assuming the lion guard is a soft reboot.

[DGFone]

Basically. TLK was never meant to have a canon, so even saying "TLK 2 is canon because it's a movie" is a flimsy excuse at best, since much like TLK:6NA, it was created under Disney's supervision and authority, and under a different team that that which made the first movie.

Which is the same thing happening to TLG right now, I might add.

[TheLionPrince]

@DGFone: "While I doubt that Disney thought that it would flop, they certainly didn't consider The Lion King as something that would be good enough to warrant a sequel. So when it became the huge hit that it was, Disney was very much caught with their pants down when it came to expanding the story. This is why the continuity never really existed in the first place."

Quite the contrary, Disney was reportedly considering a sequel to [i]The Lion King[/i] in May 1994 before the original film was released in the following month:

[quote="[url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4228685.html][i]Chicago Sun-Times[/i][/url]"]A full-blown, theater-quality "Aladdin" sequel would have taken years - and some $40 million - to make. "The Return of Jafar" took 12 months and cost less than $10 million.

Only "animation buffs," Daly says, "can discern the difference between this film and an animated classic."

"The `Aladdin' franchise is so strong we have a built-in awareness," Daly says. The quick release of "The Return of Jafar" gives Disney an opportunity to "capitalize on the franchise while it's still hot."

Disney hopes to sell several million tapes. The studio is so confident, it already is considering a direct-to-video sequel to "The Lion King" - which doesn't even arrive in theaters until June.[/quote]

(Since HighBeam Research requires a subscription monthly/yearly fee, I thought it would be best if I just paste a portion of the text.)

As for the continuity, the events following the first film was never planned out in advance so the writers had to make up the plot as they go along. The trouble with [i]Simba's Pride[/i] is that the story was constantly being re-written with Kovu and Zira to be written as Scar's son and mate, and ultimately replacing the idea with Kovu being Scar's hand-chosen heir. There was also a lack of exposition that would explain the backstories of these new characters. It depends on whether it was deliberate for story and character purposes, the storyboard crew had to press for deadlines in order to get the movie finished on time after so many delays, or it wasn't considered at all.

As for [i]The Lion King 1½[/i], you have to ask yourself does the original filmmakers having involvement with a sequel make it more canon than the others that don't? In that case, [url=http://animatedviews.com/2011/allers-and-minkoff-egacy-of-the-lion-king/][i]The Lion King 1½[/i] did have involvement with Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi[/url], and Allers explained that they attended story meetings where they "worked with them, made suggestions, came up with gags – that sort of thing." So, surely a few of the comedic gags in the film sprouted from them or was approved by them.

Lastly, since the actors and press reports confirm [i]The Lion Guard[/i] is following the events of the first two films, Kiara will likely be the same age as we last left her. Everyone is getting too worked up over a book cover, and not all of the characters in the series have been featured or announced yet.