Do you think of the characters as actually speaking?

[HeartsForTheClueless]

I've always just considered it translated animal language. But it seems like a lot of people think of it as them talking.

Let's take the Rugrats for example..

They don't speak English. They speak baby, yet we understand them.

Or, Garfield and Heatcliff. Neither speak human english, it's translated animal talk.

Or actually, most cases of animals talking in fiction.

Or, within Disney itself, look a other films. Like Aladdin, I doubt they're speaking English (or whatever language the dub you're hearing has them as). They just translate it for convenience.

Do you really want to watch a movie about bunch of animals "speaking" their native animal language, with subtitles?

[SuperBabySimba]

I have always imagined they really speak words. Because:

- Even though Prideland is set to a real life place - there is no humans what-so-ever in any way, involved in TLK.
- The animals do many other human-like stuff too, ie. Mufasa gives Simba a "noggle", Simba and Nala make faces at Zazu, Kiara and Simba extrent their paw for someone else to grab, the animals bow down to the new born prince...
- There is the human type of kingdom element, a monarchy and from father-to-son inheritage style and so on very unlike in real life lion prides.

So, I see every reason to think they also speak human words.

[KiarasMate]

I always thought of it as the characters being able to speak English, mainly because of the fact that animals don't communicate in the manor to which the movies portrayed. Body language, scent and more non-tangible traits make up many species languages and those can't exactly be translated as we as humans barely understand how many species communicate. A lot of it is just speculation and I think, in order to make the movies easier to understand for their target audience, Disney simply had the animals speaking like humans do. Like stated in previous posts, this also helps to aid with the storyline and to help the viewer connect with the characters on a deeper level.

[Arani]

I Agree with KiarasMate. But, does anyone here besides me wish that animals could actually talk to us. It would make life a lot easier. I'm just wondering, because it was something I always wished for so that I could comunicate with my two dogs and understand them, and all animals, better.

[Mike]

Because we never encounter humans in TLK, it doesn't really matter whether they're speaking english or "lion" or something in between. We can understand them, which is all that's really important.

[SilverSimba01]

for some reason, I do belive that the characters speak

[FlipMode]

Their mouths move, and they speak full english sentences so yeah they are speaking. The magic of animation :-0.

Also, [quote]Do you really want to watch a movie about bunch of animals "speaking" their native animal language, with subtitles?[/quote]
Yeah, I do....

[leonina]

[quote]Do you really want to watch a movie about bunch of animals "speaking" their native animal language, with subtitles?[/quote]
Actually i think is better the human translation... We just need to use the imagination.

[Timon the great]

Yes, of course!

Why would TLK characters not be? If they were talking in plain animal language (incoherent sounds to us) then every human would be lost on what the character is communicating. Same goes to the characters having human facial expressions. If these things are not present, then we'd have no way to understand or even believe in them. They'd be just "moving" live objects.

In animated movies, non-human characters need to be humanized in at least one form, in order to be understood. But in TLK, it's basically all ways because the animal characters are the "humans" of the movies.

On a side note (in terms of TLK character to human conversation), take Timon. There's a special feature video about him in the TLK 1.5/3 DVD/Blu-ray releases where he does talk to actual human, Peter Graves

[DGFone]

Also guys, remember that while the characters in The Lion King are lions and other animals, the entire movie is still a human story. Just because the medium used to tell it is slightly different than normal doesn't mean that everything needs to be changed to match reality. After all, if the Lion King was based off of real lions, there wouldn't be that epic son returning home to reclaim a kingdom story. Everything in TLK is more human than animal.

And even in terms of The Lion King, just because we won't necessarily be able to understand what they are saying, it doesn't mean that they won't. Simba and Nala can understand each other when they talk, even if they do communicate in lion-noise, and therefore we the audience understand them as well, even if it is 'dubbed over' by Disney.