To Catch a Thief...

[atouchofgrace]

About the age thing...
How old they really are and how they age doesn't really matter to understand this movie.
Rafiki = elder
Mufasa, Sarabi, Sarafina, Scar, the hyenas, Timon, Pumbaa, Zazu = adults
Simba, Nala = young adults
Cub Simba, cub Nala = children
Baby Simba = baby
Fluffy = baby
And that's it.

[SuperBabySimba]

^
Yeah, for an individual film/story part that's very true. But in my experience people have been wondering how many years Simba was in exile (perhaps in means to write fanfiction or just out of general interest), and for the same reason people may try to figure out the meant age difference between Kovu and Fluffy/Kiara. And especially as the last mentioned case is literally linking two story parts from completely different makers, (SP's makers made Kovu be born during TLK's timeline), I consider it most reliable to think from real life point of view.

Especially as the films lack evidence of them using some other way--and if you try it, the real life aging process actually fits the timeline the two movies combined might form: Kovu does look like a 2+ year old lion (perhaps a bit small for his age because of lack of good food all his life - Nuka could've been born and grown up when there was still food). Kiara does look like she could be 7 months old. This results in 13+ months between their births - likely more, which could be seasons just enough for the nature to recover from the ashes like it does in the end of TLK. Realistic aging process seems to fit all that is essential to the timeline the two movies combine. So I see no reason to doubt it just might apply to them.

[SnowyCheetah]

Maybe it does. In general, though, my point still stands, the makers of TLK did not always use accurate information, or accurately reproduce real-life conditions.

[SuperBabySimba]

[quote="SnowyCheetah"]Maybe it does. In general, though, my point still stands, the makers of TLK did not always use accurate information, or accurately reproduce real-life conditions.[/quote]

Yep, that is true, for places and behaviour anyway.

[SummerSnowLeopard]

[quote="atouchofgrace"]I agree with you, Snowy. It seems that fans like to use real life lion reality to support certain theories but then deny it to support others.
TLK is fictional. Even Thomas Schumacher, TLK's executive producer, described Nala as a "10 year old child". Of course he was not talking about lion age.[/quote]
Yes. I've seen this all the time. "Well, Mufasa's like 50 and Sarabi's like 45! Just like a real lion!" People shouldn't compare TLK Lions to real Lions. It makes their arguments incorrect.