Simba
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| Simba | |
|---|---|
 Simba as a cub |
|
| First appearance | The Lion King |
| Created by | Jonathan Roberts |
| Voiced by | see below |
| Information | |
| Species | African Lion |
| Family | Mufasa (father) Sarabi (mother) Scar (uncle) |
| Spouse(s) | Nala |
| Children | Kopa (son, comics only) Kiara (daughter) |
Simba is a fictional character in Disney's animated feature film The Lion King. He subsequently appears as a major supporting character in the film's direct-to-video sequel, The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998), and direct-to-video parallel, The Lion King 1½. In the first film, Simba's speaking voice is provided by Matthew Broderick as an adult and Jonathan Taylor Thomas as a cub, while his singing voices are provided by Joseph Williams and Jason Weaver, respectively.
Simba is the son of Mufasa and Sarabi, king and queen of the Pride Lands. In the first film, Simba is eager to follow in his father's pawprints and become king, but his inheritance is threatened by his treacherous uncle Scar. By the second film, Simba marries his childhood friend Nala, who becomes his queen, and together they have a daughter named Kiara. He has golden fur and when he grows into an adult, he has a red mane. The name "Simba" comes from the Swahili word for "lion".
Contents |
Appearances []
The Lion King []
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 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 (encouraged by Scar, who is delibrately trying to get him killed) tries to prove himself as brave as Mufasa by venturing into a place known as an "Elephant Graveyard" with his closest friend Nala and, to his annoyance, the hornbill Zazu, who tracks them down. However, the graveyard 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, Zazu escapes and finds Mufasa and warns him of what's happening. Mufasa then manages to scare the hyenas away, threatening to kill them if they ever go near Simba again, and is angered by the fact that his son delibrately disobeyed him. However, he forgives him after lecturing him about the dangers of his actions-it is clear that Simba and Mufasa are very attached to each other.
Scar hatches another plot to kill Simba, and Mufasa too. He lures an unsuspecting Simba into a gorge, telling him that Mufasa has a "surprise" for him and wants him to wait there. He suggests that Simba pass the time by "working on that little roar of his." When Simba asks if he will like the surprise, Scar replies "Simba, it's to die for!"
Scar orders the hyenas to cause a wildebeast stampede in the gorge, hoping that this will lead to Simba being trampled to death. Meanwhile, Simba takes Scar's advice and practices his roar, successfully scaring away a beatle. As a result, when Simba sees the wildebeast stampede headed straight for him, he mistakenly believes he frightened them with his roar, unaware of the fact that they have actually been scared by the hyenas. Simba runs from the wildebeasts and manages to jump and cling on to a branch hanging from a very small tree. Meanwhile, Scar tells Mufasa and Zazu that there is a wildebeast stampede in a gorge, and that Simba is down there (while at the same time pretending to be scared and concerned for Simba's safety). Zazu flies over the stampede and sees Simba hanging from the tree branch, letting Mufasa know where he is. A wildebeast rams and ploughs through the tree Simba is clinging to, and Mufasa leaps into the gorge in the midst of the stampede and catches Simba in his mouth. While Scar knocks out Zazu to stop him going back for help, Mufasa places Simba on a ledge before being carried away back into the stampede, only to then leap from it and cling on to the side of a cliff, which he then tries to climb up.
Mufasa sees Scar looking down on him from the top of the cliff he is trying to climb up and begs his brother to help him. Scar mockingly replies "Long live the king," and throws his brother back into the stampede, and Simba screams in horror as he watches his father fall to his death. After all the wildebeasts have gone, Simba is devastated to find his father dead and weeps quietly. Simba did not see Scar throw Mufasa into the stampede and believes that Mufasa just lost his grip and fell, and therefore when Scar arrives has no idea that he is now speaking to his father's murderer. Scar claims that Simba is responsible for Mufasa's death and Simba, believing that he had scared the wildebeasts with his roar and caused the stampede, believes him. When a horrified Simba asks what he should do, Scar replies "Run. Run away...and never return." Devastated and guilt-ridden, Simba takes Scar's advice, and after he has gone, Scar orders Shenzi, Banzai and Ed to hunt him down and kill him. Simba escapes from the hyenas via a cactus field which is so narrow that only he is small enough to get through it-the hyenas are too big. Deciding that he is as good as dead anyway in the desert with no food and water, and that if he ever comes back they will kill him for good, the hyenas decide to tell Scar that Simba is dead.
While in the desert Simba meets a meerkat named Timon and a warthog called Pumbaa, who introduce him to a carefree lifestyle where they live happily with no rules or responsibilities for them to worry about. When Simba tells them thier advice to "turn his back on the world" is "not what he was taught," Timon replies "Then maybe you need a new lesson," and along with Pumba sings "Hakuna Matada." Simba decides to try out this carefree lifestyle and finds that he enjoys it, and while living with Timon and Pumba this way grows up into a lion, but although he is happy now he never gets over the guilt of causing his father's death. One day he encounters his friend Nala, now a fully-grown lioness after she attempts to hunt down Pumbaa one day, and he learns from her that the Pride Lands have been plunged into turmoil due to Scar's tyrannical reign. 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 who tells Simba that "Simba, you have forgotten me" and that he must take his place in the Circle of Life and become true king of the Pride Lands. Even after this, Simba seems to be unsure about whether or not he should go back to the Pride Lands and face his past, causing Rafiki to bash him over the head with a stick, and respond to Simba asking why he did that by saying "It doesn't matter! It's in the past!" He then tells Simba that although he is aware of the fact that, just like the bump on Simba's head, the past can hurt, the best thing he can do for himself is learn from it. To prove his point, he then swings for Simba with the stick again, and as he had hoped, Simba proves that he has indeed learned from the past by dodging the blow. When Rafiki asks what Simba is going to do now, Simba responds by snatching his stick and throwing it away before taking off at full speed back to the Pride Lands, much to the delight of Rafiki.
At Pride Rock, Simba is horrified to see how much damage Scar has caused, and is joined by Nala, Timon and Pumba, who vow to help him overthrow Scar. Simba sees Scar angrily strike Sarabi in the heat of an arguement with her, and furiously roars at Scar, defending his mother. Both Sarabi and Scar are stunned to see that Simba is alive, and Scar glares at Shenzi, Banzai and Ed as he realizes they lied when they told him Simba was dead. Simba furiously orders Scar to step down from the throne. Scar claims that the hyenas wouldn't let him do that anyway, but Nala, who has gathered the lionesses, makes it clear that they will fight his hyena army if they have to. When Simba asks whether he's going to step down or fight, Scar, remembering that Simba still believes that he is responsible for Mufasa's death, brings it up and forces Simba to admit to this mistaken belief in front of all of the horrified lionesses. He and his hyenas then force Simba backwards to the edge of a cliff, which Simba falls off of by accident and ends up desperately clinging on to the cliff's edge. Planning to throw him off and kill him once and for all, Scar decides to first let Simba know that it was in fact he who murdered Mufasa, which proves to be a mistake for Scar as it causes a now enraged Simba to get a sudden burst of energy and leap up from the cliff's edge before pinning Scar to the ground. Putting his paw on Scar's throat, Simba, finally free of the guilt of causing his father's death, forces his uncle to tell the lionesses the truth about what happened to Mufasa. Enraged, the lionesses fight the hyenas, with help from Rafiki, Timon and Pumba. Simba chases Scar to the edge of a different cliff, and Scar begs for his life, blaming everything that has happened on the hyenas (unaware of the fact that Shenzi, Banzai and Ed are all listening at this point). Simba replies "Why should I believe you? Everything you ever told me was a lie." Simba decides not to kill Scar however, telling him "I'm not like you." When Scar claims to be grateful and asks how he can make it up to Simba, Simba delibrately repeats what Scar had said to him right after telling him that he was responsible for Mufasa's death, "Run. Run away...and never return." Scar seems to be about to take his advice at first-but then surprise attacks him by casting burning cinders into his face. Simba and Scar then have one final battle on top of the cliff and Simba emerges victorious after kicking Scar over the cliff's edge. After the hyenas, enraged that he had earlier tried to blame them for everything he had done, surround Scar and kill him, Simba climbs to the top of another cliff and triumphantly roars. At the end of the film, it is revealed that he later married Nala and with her fathered a daughter called Kiara, who appears in the sequel.
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride []
In The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, Simba, who is now a secondary character of the sequel, has a daughter named Kiara to whom he is very strict and protective, fearing for his daughter's safety, and later learns that over-protectiveness makes it worse and doesn't help the situation. One day, Simba lets his daughter out to play, but sends Timon and Pumbaa to watch over her (much like how his mother did to him and Nala by having Zazu watch over them in the first Lion King movie). Unknown to Simba, Timon and Pumbaa begin to argue about food and Kiara slips away from them unnoticed.
Against her father's wishes, 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. Zira tells Simba that the Pride Lands should have belonged to Scar. Simba, horrified by what she said reminds them that he already banished her from the Pride Lands and tells her and Kovu to leave. After the confrontation, Simba talks with Kiara about being part of the great Circle of Life and explains to her that "we 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 that she may come to harm and sends Timon and Pumbaa out to watch her again, against Nala's advice. After Kiara discovers that her father sent his baby-sitters to spy on her, she runs away, only to be trapped in a fire that Nuka and Vitani, Kovu's brother and sister, have set. Kiara tries to escape but loses consciousness in the smoke. Kovu rescues her, and Simba tries to send him away, but Nala convinces him to accept Kovu into the pride, although Simba is unwilling to do so, and allows the young Outlander to sleep outside the den.
Simba later has a nightmare of Mufasa's death. In the nightmare, Mufasa is climbing the cliff, calling out to Simba for help. 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 a panicked and horrified Simba off the cliff and as he falls into the stampede to his death, he wakes up and looks outside the den it's still night and looks at Nala who is happily asleep then goes back to sleep. Unknown to Simba, Zira has secretly trained Kovu to infiltrate his pride and overthrow him.
Simba, who is hesitant to trust the young rogue lion around his daughter while seeking council from the Great Kings of the Past, later gradually begins to gain Kovu's trust, 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 the king 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 out 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, causing him to physically resemble Scar, as seen in Simba's dream. Kovu flees to the Pride Lands in shame.
Realizing that Kovu had dark motives when he saved Kiara, Simba banishes the Outlander, refusing to accept his apologies knowing that he and Zira are avenging his uncle's death who was killed by the hyenas for blaming them for killing his own brother and ignoring Rafiki who was been watching them sadly for exiling Kovu. Kiara is upset at this and begs her father to reconsider, but Simba stubbornly refuses and strictly forbids her to leave Pride Rock and confines her to the den. Kiara angrily defies her father that he will never be like his father, Mufasa. Simba is horrified at this comment and Kiara then runs away to find Kovu. Unknown to Simba, his father has already forgiven Kovu. The two young lions reunite in the desert later that night. As Simba enters the cave to find his defiant 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 and orders Zazu to find Kiara.
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 "we 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 finally accepts Kovu and the other Outsiders into his pride, and accepts that Kiara is old enough to make her own decisions in life. The two united prides head back to Pride Rock where Kovu becomes Kiara's mate and Simba's son-in-law and future king. In celebration, Kovu, Kiara, Simba and Nala walk up to the promontory of Pride Rock and proudly roar out across the kingdom. The Pridelanders and Outlanders roar in response as well. Simba looks up to the sky where his father tells him "Well done, my son, we are one." praising him for his decision to bring the Outlanders into his pride and the death of Zira.
The Lion King 1½ []
In the 2004 direct-to-video interquel The Lion King 1½, Simba plays a smaller role as the film is centered around Timon and Pumbaa. However, more is revealed about his life in the jungle with them after his exile.
Simba proves to be troublesome 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 thanks Timon and Pumbaa saying that he would not have made it without them. He is last seen during the reprise of "Digga Tunnah" at the end of the film, celebrating with Timon, his meerkat family, and Pumbaa.
Beyond the films []
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 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.
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.
He appears as one of the main characters at Epcot's Land Pavilion 70-minute edutainment film Circle of Life: An Environmental Fable.
Video games []
Simba features as the main playable character in The Lion King and The Lion King: Simba's Mighty Adventure.
Simba also features in the Nintendo DS video game Disney Friends as a cub.
The Kingdom Hearts series []
Kingdom Hearts []
In Kingdom Hearts, adult Simba appears as a summon spirit whose world has been destroyed.
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories []
In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, he appears as a summon card.[1]
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 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 returns later, Simba has 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.
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.
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) Matthew Broderick (adult voice) |
