Simba
| Simba | |
|---|---|
 Simba as a cub |
|
| First appearance | The Lion King |
| Created by | Jonathan Roberts |
| Voiced by | see below |
| Species | Lion |
| Relatives | Mate: Nala Children: Kiara in Simba's Pride and Kopa in TLK: SNA Parents: Mufasa and Sarabi Uncle: Scar Aunt: Zira in Simba's Pride Mother-in-law: Sarafina Son-in-law: Kovu |
Simba is a title character and the main protagonist of Disney's most successful animated feature film, The Lion King. He is the son of Mufasa and Sarabi,[1] nephew of Scar and Zira, mate of Nala, and father of Kiara and Kopa (Kopa is only mentioned in the books "The Lion King:Six New Adventures). He has golden fur and when he grows into an adult, he has an auburn mane. The name "Simba" comes from the Swahili word for lion.[2]
Contents |
[edit] Appearances
[edit] The Lion King
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Simba |
Simba is the prince of the Pride Lands, born to King Mufasa and Queen Sarabi. Simba anticipates becoming the king of Pride Rock one day, much to the chagrin of his envious uncle Scar, who desires to become the king one day himself. Simba is a playful little cub who dreams of reigning over the Pride Lands and spends his days romping around with his close friend Nala, but is oblivious to his uncle's strong hatred of him and is unaware of Scar's plans to kill him so he can become the heir to the throne. Admiring the extraordinary courage possessed by his father, Simba tries to prove himself as brave as Mufasa by venturing into an area containing the dilapidated, brittle skeletons of dead elephants known as the "Elephant Graveyard" with his closest friend and betrothed, Nala. However, such a land is the territory of Scar's three hyena comrades, Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed, who attempt to fulfill the commands assigned to them by Scar by trying to kill Simba and Nala. Fortunately, King Mufasa manages to ward off the hyenas and is angered by Simba's disobedience, but soon forgives him after lecturing him about the dangers of his actions. Simba is very attached to his father, and is crushed when Scar successfully murders him by dropping him into a valley overflowing with a herd of stampeding wildebeests. After the stampede has ended, Simba is convinced that he is the reason for his father's death and is commanded by his uncle, who lusts for power, to flee from home shortly before sending Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed after him in hopes of terminating him also. Luckily, Simba escapes from the clutches of the three and winds up meeting a meerkat named Timon and a warthog called Pumbaa, who introduce him to a carefree lifestyle known as "Hakuna Matata" through song and take him to their beautiful home to live. Simba matures into adulthood while living with Timon and Pumbaa, and soon winds up running into an adult version of his friend Nala after she attempts to hunt down Pumbaa one day, and he learns from her that the Pride Lands have been sent beneath a state of turmoil under Scar's reign, and she pleads for him to return home so he can become the king. However, still feeling guilty about his father's death, Simba refuses to go to Pride Rock until being convinced by the mystic mandrill, Rafiki, into doing so and encountering the ghost of Mufasa. Simba confronts Scar with the assistance of Nala, Timon, and Pumbaa, as well as Sarabi, the lionesses, and Rafiki, and just as Scar is about to kill Simba in a similar manner to the way in which he murdered Mufasa, he confesses the truth to Simba that he was the killer of Mufasa, who manages to pin him to the ground calling him a "Murderer!" and force him to admit the truth to everybody else. Simba successfully manages to defeat Scar and takes over as king, marrying Nala and giving birth to a daughter called Kiara, who appears in the sequel.
[edit] The Lion King II: Simba's Pride
In The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, Simba has fathered a daughter named Kiara. He is now portrayed as a loving but a concerned and over-protective father. One day Simba lets his daughter out to play, but sends Timon and Pumbaa to watch over her. Unknown to Simba, Timon and Pumbaa begin to argue about "grubs," and Kiara slips away from them unnoticed.
Kiara ends up crossing over into the Outlands where she meets Kovu, an Outlander cub whose pride was exiled by Simba because of their loyalty to Scar. The two play tag until Simba leaps in to confront Zira, his uncle's widow, who was watching the two cubs play. After the confrontation, Simba talks with Kiara and explains to her that they "are one."
When Kiara is grown into a young lioness, she heads out into the Pride Lands alone for her first hunt. Simba is worried for her safety and sends Timon and Pumbaa out to watch her again, against Nala's advice. After Kiara discovers that her father sent his friends to spy on her, she runs away only to be trapped in a fire that Vitani and Nuka, Kovu's brother and sister, have set. Kiara tries to run out, but chokes and loses consciousness. Kovu rescues her, and Simba at first tries to send him away, but Nala convinces him to accept Kovu into the pride.
Simba later has a nightmare of Mufasa's death. In the nightmare, Mufasa is climbing the cliff, calling out to Simba for help; calling this the "Endless Nightmare." Simba goes to help him, but hears an evil laugh behind him and sees Scar walking towards them. As Simba reaches out for his father, Scar grabs his paw with his claws. At that moment, Mufasa calls out for Simba one last time as he slips down the cliff and falls to his death. Simba looks back at Scar, but he has morphed into Kovu. Kovu laughs as he throws Simba off the cliff and as he falls into the stampede, he wakes up. Unknown to Simba, Zira has secretly trained Kovu to infiltrate his pride and kill him.
Simba gradually begins to trust Kovu, and Kiara and Kovu begin to fall in love. Soon Kovu begins to question his loyalty to the Outsiders.
After a few days, Simba takes Kovu out for a walk and tells him the real story about Scar. Zira and the other Outlanders ambush Kovu and Simba while they are walking, reigniting Simba's distrust in Kovu. Kovu tries to convince Simba that he had nothing to do with the attack, and even tries to protect Simba, but is knocked down by Vitani. Simba is injured but leaps up a log dam to safety, causing a few logs to fall and crush Nuka. Kovu is blamed for the death and Zira strikes him in anger, scarring his eye, making him look like Scar. Kovu flees to the Pride Lands in shame.
Simba, realizing that Kovu had dark motives when he saved Kiara, exiles the lion, refusing to accept his apologies. Kiara is upset at this and begs her father to reconsider, but Simba refuses and strictly forbids her to leave Pride Rock and confines her to the den. And Kiara angrily shouts at her father, saying, YOU WILL NEVER BE MUFASA!! Simba is horrified about this comment and Kiara then runs away to find Kovu. The two young lions reunite in the desert later that night. As Simba enters the cave to find his daughter gone, Zazu arrives and announces that the Outsiders have initiated a war. Simba, along with Nala, Timon, and Pumbaa, heads out to fight with his pride.
After a lengthy battle, Simba and Zira confront each other directly. Kiara and Kovu leap into the middle of this confrontation and end the war, convincing both sides that they "are one." The Outsiders, after learning of their leader's true nature, willing to kill her allies just to avenge Scar, abandon Zira entirely and join Simba's pride. Zira, enraged and refusing to put the past behind her, tries to leap at Simba only to be knocked aside by Kiara. The two lionesses tumble into the gorge, which is now full of raging water from the damaged log dam. Zira, refusing Kiara's offers of aid, slips and falls to her death in the swollen river below.
After Simba and Kiara climb back up to safety, Simba realizes his mistake and accepts Kovu and the other Outsiders into his pride, and finally reconciles with his daughter. The two united prides head back to Pride Rock where Kovu becomes Kiara's mate. In celebration, Kovu, Kiara, Simba and Nala walk up to the promontory of Pride Rock and roar out across the kingdom. Simba looks up to the sky where his father tells him "Well done, my son," praising him for his decision to bring the Outlanders into the pride.
[edit] The Lion King 1½
In the 2004 direct-to-video interquel The Lion King 1½, more is revealed about Simba's life in the jungle with Timon and Pumbaa after his exile and for the first ever time we hear him speak while he is Adolescent where as in the First Lion King film he can only been seen walking brielfy across the log with Timon and Pumbaa while he is changing from the stages of a Lion Cub to an Adult Lion he shares the same voice actor as he does when he is adult while he is adolescent .
Simba proves to be a handful, as he scales tall and dangerous trees and swims over waterfalls, not caring about the danger he's in and Timon's frantic efforts to discipline him. As An Adolescent Lion, he has beaten Timon in every kind of bug eating contest, along with a snail slurping contest that is shown. In one scene it is revealed that he had been having quite a lot of nightmares, presumably about Mufasa's death. In the final scene, before Simba made his mighty roar, he thanked the two saying that he would not have made it without them.
[edit] Beyond the films
[edit] Books
In a set of books titled The Lion King: Six New Adventures, released shortly after the original The Lion King film was released, Simba has a son named Kopa, a gold-coloured cub with a brown tuft of fur on his head. No reference is made to Kopa in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride which was released after the books were published. This indicates the cub at the end of the original The Lion King is intended to be Kiara.
[edit] TV series
Simba makes occasional brief appearances in the Timon and Pumbaa TV animated series. This includes one episode in which Timon drags him out to try to revive Pumbaa's lost memory.
In the episode "Congo On Like This," Timon and Pumbaa suspect that Simba has reverted back to his carnivorous nature. The episode "Shake Your Djibouti" features Simba again where Timon and Pumbaa are forced to train Simba to protect them from a laboratory monster. Another episode entitled "Rome Alone" sees Simba being captured by Romans, and forced into gladiatorial battle with another lion called Claudius. Simba also appears in a music video of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" starring Timon and Pumbaa.
Simba was featured as one of the guests in the animated series House of Mouse where he tends to alternate between cub and adult versions.
[edit] Disney parks
Live versions of Simba also appear in the Lion King musical and in the parades and shows at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.
Simba was also the main character in "Legend of the Lion King," a former Fantasyland attraction in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, which retold the story of the film using fully articulated puppets. Other Disney attractions that have featured Simba include the Mickey's PhilharMagic 3D show and the Hong Kong Disneyland version of It's a Small World.
[edit] Video games
In the video games based on the films, Simba is usually the main playable character.
Simba also features in the Nintendo DS video game Disney Friends as a cub.
[edit] The Kingdom Hearts series
[edit] Kingdom Hearts
In Kingdom Hearts, adult Simba appears as a summon spirit whose world has been destroyed.
[edit] Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, he appears as a summon card.[3]
[edit] Kingdom Hearts II
Simba plays a much more active role in Kingdom Hearts II as a full-fledged partner rather than a summon. When the main protagonists (Sora, Donald and Goofy) explore the jungle in the Pride Lands world, Simba is being attacked by Heartless (which he easily defeats), and then almost attacks them, not recognizing them at first as they were turned into jungle animals due to Sora's enchanted clothes; however, when he realizes who they are, he is overjoyed to see them, but surprised as to how their appearances had changed. Initially, Simba refuses to go back to the Pride Lands, stating he was "not who he used to be." His father, Mufasa, comes to him and tells him to go back; afterwards, he accompanies Sora, Donald, and Goofy to Pride Rock for a climactic battle with both the hyenas Shenzi, Banzai, Ed and Scar, who had been turned into a Heartless because of his anger and jealousy.
Sora left after the successful coronation of Simba. When Sora returned, Simba had been driven into doubt by rumors of Scar's ghost. He later gained confidence and stood up to Scar's ghost, which was a manifestation of Simba's uncertainty and fear, with help from Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Simba then has to prove himself as leader in a fight with a huge Heartless.
There is a continuity error with Jiminy's Journal from Kingdom Hearts, the first game in the series. In the journal it states that Simba was already King of the Pride Lands when he was a Summon, but in the second game he was not King until Sora, Donald and Goofy helped him defeat Scar.
Cam Clarke (Simba's speaking voice in Timon and Pumbaa and singing voice in The Lion King II) voices Simba in the above two appearances, with an archival recording of Jonathan Taylor Thomas used for Young Simba in a flashback sequence in Kingdom Hearts II.
[edit] Portrayers of Simba
| Media | Actor |
| The Lion King (1994) (film) | Jonathan Taylor Thomas (cub voice) Matthew Broderick (adult voice) Jason Weaver (cub singing voice) Joseph Williams (adult singing voice) Evan Saucedo (The Morning Report sequence cub singing voice) (2003 Special Edition) Frank Welker (adult roaring vocals) |
| The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa (1995) (TV series) | Cam Clarke (adult voice) |
| The Lion King (1997) (Broadway musical) | Scott Irby-Ranniar (cub) (original actor) Jason Raize (adult) (original actor) |
| The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998) (film) | Matthew Broderick (adult voice) Cam Clarke (adult singing voice) |
| The Lion King 1½ (2004) (film) | Matt Weinberg (cub voice) (Post-movie merchandise) Matthew Broderick (adolescent and adult voice) |
| Kingdom Hearts II (2006) (video game) | Jonathan Taylor Thomas (cub voice) (archive recording) Cam Clarke (adult voice) |
[edit] References
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