While The Lion King will always be a beloved and beautifully animated fun-fest, if you
venture back to the Pride Lands as a grown-up, things might not seem as cute as they did
when you were a kid.
Here are some of the things that only adults will notice in The Lion King.
After being convinced he caused Mufasa's death, Simba flees the Pride Lands at Scar’s suggestion.
He's chased by Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed, who have been ordered to kill the cub and leave
the pride open for Scar to rule.
They follow Simba until he escapes them in a gorge, after which he's free to wallow in
his misery.
A following scene shows us his tiny, sleeping body in the midst of a vast, scorched desert;
a victim of the brutal heat and the prey of an oncoming gang of vultures, before, of course,
being saved by Timon and Pumbaa.
Watching this sequence as a child was heartbreaking enough.
After all, Simba is innocent, yet it feels like everyone either hates him or wants him
dead.
Of course, this emotional reaction still stands as adults: nobody wants to see a cute little
lion cub without its family.
But the bleak reality of adulthood lets on another realization: Simba probably would
have perished out there in the desert.
Everything is against him: he's tiny, he's sleeping in direct desert sunlight, he's being
attacked by a bunch of carnivorous birds and, as earlier scenes in the film illustrate,
he has zero idea how to defend himself.
Sorry, but the little dude would've been a total goner.
Simba and Nala’s relationship in The Lion King was so sweet and vital to the storyline
that audiences can’t help but root for them, especially as they’re the film’s only
real romantic couple.
But what if they weren't?
What if there was another couple getting all Hakuna Matata in private, and everyone totally
missed it?
Think about it: what if Timon and Pumbaa were low-key dating?
And if not, why not?
Consider the elements: there's a reason why the "opposites attract" stereotype is a thing,
and this duo could not be more different, yet they're still super happy in each other's
company.
They love each other dearly, despite Timon's constant sassing and Pumbaa's constant gassing.
"This stinks."
"Oh, sorry."
"Not you, them!"
They accept each other's flaws and roll with them, as any unconditional partnership should
do.
Not to mention the fact they make awesome surrogate parents for Simba.
And you know it's not just coincidence that the cub's dancing, singing, and mane-game
gets so much stronger under their tutelage.
But perhaps most importantly of all, their couple name would be Timbaa, and you just
know that's catchy as hell.
Something you might never have realized when watching The Lion King was just how many subtle
jokes the writers slipped into the script as a little treat for the parents who were
coerced into watching it time and time again.
Being able to spot those jokes makes re-watching these movies all the more fun, especially
when you realize how strong the writer's pun game is, because The Lion King is stacked
with word play.
Zazu, sassy soul that he is, gets many of the best lines, with animal-related puns practically
flying out of his beak.
"The buzz from the bees is that the leopards are in a bit of a spot."
"Oh, really?"
"The baboons are going ape..."
"What are you doing, son?"
"...of course, the giraffes are…"
"Pouncing."
It's honestly quite impressive, not to mention smart, and is bound to have you loving this
posh parrot even more than you did already.
"I told the elephants to forget it, but they can't."
"Zazu, would you turn around?"
"Yes, sire.
The cheetahs are…"
"Stay low to the ground."
"... cheetahs never prosper."
When you watched The Lion King as a child, chances are that you didn't pay much attention
to how the film's characters are humanized.
Once you revisit as an adult though, this thought is kind of hard to avoid, and it begs
the question: where the heck are all the African accents?
Flick through the film's main characters and pay attention to their voices, Simba, Nala,
Musafa, Timon and Pumbaa are all American.
Scar and Zazu, meanwhile, sound British.
That's a pretty odd move considering the movie is set in Africa and that you don’t usually
find a bunch of Americans and Brits hanging around the savanna.
While it's still cool to recognize voices like JTT, Rowan Atkinson, Matthew Broderick,
and Whoopi Goldberg, it would have been much, much cooler had Disney included African accents
in the mix, don't you think?
Have you ever noticed how much the Pride Lands change once Musafa dies and Scar takes over?
How it morphs from being luscious, life-filled, and bountiful into some sort of post apocalyptic
wasteland?
Of course you have, this visual switch is so obvious you probably would have noticed
it with your eyes shut.
But did you ever wonder how the heck that landscape change came about so quickly?
As a kid, probably not.
While it's certainly possible for a landscape to change drastically in a short space of
time thanks to droughts, wildfires, and the perils of climate change, how on earth could
one lion be responsible for this?
The film insinuates that Scar's reign is directly responsible for the devastated disaster zone
that the Pride Lands become, that his deceit-ridden leadership caused some sort of ecological
disaster, a disaster that is promptly fixed as soon as Simba takes the throne.
The move is an easy visual symbol that signifies the mood of the land, but let's be honest,
it doesn't actually make any sense.
Okay, so he’s a bit of a wiseacre, but surely that doesn’t warrant the abuse that is constantly
launched towards Zazu throughout the film?
When you were little, it's likely you witnessed the abuse he suffered with a sort of sardonic
glee: after all, his enforcement of boring rules and regulations and his constant playing
by the book was an all-too-real reminder of just the sort of nonsense you had to endure
from our own parents and teachers on the daily.
So of course audiences giggled at his many woes, who wouldn't?
Now though, it’s hard not to just feel sorry for him.
Not just because his pun game is on point, but also because he’s clearly just trying
to be a good person and help everyone get along.
Yet rather than being rewarded for his loyalty and dedication to Mufasa, Simba, and the Pride
Lands, he's taunted mercilessly, used as target practice, trapped in a cage and forced to
sing, threatened with unemployment, and even almost becomes a lion’s lunch.
Give the bird some respect already!
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