26 Facts About King Simba

1.

King Simba was inspired by the character Bambi from Disney's Bambi, as well as the stories of Moses and Joseph from the Bible.

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2.

In 1997, The Lion King was adapted into a Broadway musical, with actors Scott Irby-Ranniar and Jason Raize originating the roles of the cub and adult Simba, respectively.

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3.

King Simba is a Swahili word for lion, reflecting King Simba's origins in sub-Saharan Africa.

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4.

King Simba was framed for this terrible murder, and on the one hand you can say it wasn't his fault, but he wasn't a stand-up guy, so a little bit of the theme of the movie is you have to stand up for yourself if you know you're right.

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5.

Idea for The Lion King Simba originated from Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg in 1988 and was originally conceived under the title King Simba of the Jungle.

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6.

Unlike the studio's three previous films The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin which are essentially love stories, The Lion King revolves around Simba's relationship with his father instead, which Allers identified as "The real heart and emotional underpinning of the whole story".

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7.

Role of animating Simba was divided between Ruben A Aquino and Mark Henn, the former of whom was the first animator to be assigned to the project.

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8.

The Lion King Simba was Disney's first animated feature film to feature absolutely no humans since Robin Hood.

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9.

Actor Jonathan Taylor Thomas, who provided the voice of young King Simba, served as inspiration for the design and personality of King Simba.

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10.

When King Simba is discovered by his childhood friend; a lioness named Nala, she confronts him, warning him of Scar's tyranny and begging him to return home.

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11.

However, Simba refuses out of guilt of his father's death until a wise mandrill named Rafiki leads him to Mufasa's ghost, who convinces him to return home and take his rightful place as king.

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12.

At first thrown by the fact that he is alive, Scar soon regains composure and forces King Simba to reveal that he is responsible for Mufasa's death, while cornering him at the edge of Pride Rock, hoping to subject him to a similar fate as his father.

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13.

One day when Kiara is a young cub, King Simba discovers that she has disobeyed him by visiting the forbidden Outlands, home to an enemy pride of Scar's followers known as the Outsiders, and befriending a young member of the pride named Kovu.

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14.

King Simba reluctantly accepts, but distrusts Kovu because of his similarities to Scar, and continues to treat him ruthlessly.

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15.

Glover said that "[The Lion King Simba is] a timeless story, but [he thinks] the way Favreau has constructed it, it's a very timely story as well" and said that "[he] just wanted to be a part of a global good".

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16.

McCrary said that "Donald Glover is so talented that [he] actually did have to take it into consideration, because if King Simba is going to grow up to be some sort of figure and you know of it, you have to keep that motive".

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17.

King Simba makes several appearances, including one episode in which Timon drags him out to try to revive Pumbaa's lost memory.

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18.

King Simba appears in a music video of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".

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19.

King Simba was featured as a guest in the animated series House of Mouse, in which he alternates between being a cub and an adult.

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20.

Success of The Lion King Simba led to the production of a Broadway musical based on the film.

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21.

Since the film's 1994 debut, King Simba has appeared as a playable character in a variety of video game releases, both directly and indirectly associated with the franchise.

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22.

The character's first appearance as a video game character was in The Lion King Simba, which was released by Virgin Interactive on November 1,1994, for the video game platforms Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Game Gear, Nintendo Entertainment System, and PC.

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23.

Additionally, Simba appears in the Square Enix Kingdom Hearts video game franchise as a friend and ally of the series' main character, Sora, appearing as a character to summon in Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts III, and a companion in battle in Kingdom Hearts II.

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24.

King Simba appeared as one of the main characters at Epcot's Land Pavilion 12-minute edutainment film Circle of Life: An Environmental Fable, until its closure in 2018.

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25.

King Simba currently appears in animatronic form in Festival of the Lion King at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

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26.

King Simba stands in for Hamlet, but he's a lot less complicated; in fact, he's less complicated than Morris the Cat or Sylvester.

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