by PrincessKiara » December 17th, 2010, 10:55 pm
I love to read TLK books and comics, and I really enjoy the non-movie characters, such as Kopa.
To avoid confusion about Kopa/Kiara, I think it`s good to view the books/comics and the movies as two different universes. The OFFICIAL story from the movies is that Simba has one cub: Kiara, a girl.
It`s important to remember that when the TLK6NA books were written, SP was not even thought of. And, as it`s already been mentioned in this thread, the Disney animators probably don`t even know anything about TLK books, and so they know nothing of Kopa and other cubs from books and comics.
When Disney decided to make a sequel to The Lion King, they had to make Simbas cub a girl in order for the plot to work out. If you look at the cub at the end of TLK, I think it looks like a male. The gender of this cub is never proven in the movie however, and when TLK was made, the birth of the new cub just marked the "..the Circle of Life continues, and Simba and Nala lived happily ever after" moment. So it was easy to make Simbas cub a girl when a sequel was being written, because in the MOVIE TLK it`s never stated that Simba had a son.
I`m a fan/supporter of Kopa, but the fact of the matter is that he doesn`t appear in the movies, just in a series of books. As far as Disney Animation Studios is concerned, Kiara is the only cub of Simba and Nala. The books/comics are not written by the people who work on the movies, and so they contradict the movies they`re based on, and sometimes even eachother.
So yeah, like I said.. Think of the movies and books as two different universes. Trying to fit Kopa into the movie plot won`t work because he`s not a part of that story. It`s the same as trying to explain where Zira was in TLK. Simple: She didn`t exist when TLK was made, she (and Nuka, Vitani, Kovu and Kiara) were made especially for the sequel.
Sorry for the long post.. Again, I`m a huge fan of TLK comics/books, and I support Kopa, it`s just a matter of remembering that the books and movies are two very different things.