Fluffy

Fluffy
Simba
Species	Lion
Close Relations	Son of Simba and Nala, Grandson of Mufasa and Sarabi
Information
Appearances	The Lion King

"Let's just end on the next generation. Here's Fluffy, Simba and Nala's new little cub. Let's just end on Fluffy."

—The Lion King film makers, on the 1995 commentary track of the film, referring to the cub at the end.

Fluffy is what the cub at the end of The Lion King is called. The name was jokingly given to the cub by the film makers during the production of The Lion King. It was never meant to be the cub's final name.

Appearance

Fluffy looks almost exactly like Simba did as an infant cub: yellow eyes, golden-brown fur, tan underbelly and a pink nose. The major difference is that Fluffy has dark ear rings and Simba did not as an infant.

Girl or boy?

Because the gender of the cub is never officially cited, the question often arises whether the film makers intended Fluffy to be a boy or a girl. Some argue that Fluffy was intended to be a boy because of the similarities in appearance to Simba and the dark ear rings. (No female cub in the movies has had dark ear rings like young Simba and Kovu). Others argue that Fluffy wasn't anointed with the fruit juice on the forehead before the presentation like Simba was, which may be a part of the ceremony only celebrated with male cubs. (Which is later supported in The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride when infant Kiara wasn't anointed before being presented by Rafiki).

Who is Fluffy, really?

After the release of The Lion King in 1994, the cub became very popular object of speculation as for who it is. The film's content itself doesn't say anything about the cub apart from its outside appearance. No name or gender is given.

In 1994, few months after the film, was published the book series The Lion King: Six New Adventures, which became the most popular but remained quite unknown as it was released only in USA. In it, Simba and Nala have a son named Kopa. In 1995 the film's creators released a commentary track for the Laserdisc release of the film, wherein they called the cub "Fluffy" and didn't refer to it as either a 'he' or 'she'.

Soon enough Disney's film makers started to create an official sequel film, but the crew was all different from those who created the canon film. The sequel's creators were planning to write the story with two cubs, a boy named Chaka and a girl named Shani, but cut the boy out in early production and developed the story only with the girl who was later renamed to Kiara.

Why they remade the cub's ceremony scene is unknown. Why they redesigned the cub is also unknown. Whatever the motive, the act is retroactive continuity and is very common in fictional film series.

Trivia

• They used the cub from the end of the first film in the sequel's official trailer.