Simba
Simba is a fictional lion character and the protagonist of Disney's popular 1994 animated feature film The Lion King. He is the son of Mufasa and Sarabi, the mate of Nala and father of Kiara. His name is Swahili for 'lion'.
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) |
| 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) Matthew Broderick (teenager and adult voice) |
| Kingdom Hearts II (2006) (video game) | Jonathan Taylor Thomas (cub voice) (archive recording) Cam Clarke (adult voice) |
The Lion King
In the opening sequence of The Lion King, Simba is the new-born son of King Mufasa and Queen Sarabi. After being anointed he is held up by the wise mandrill Rafiki atop Pride Rock for all the animals in the Pride Lands to see.
Simba grows up into a lively and rambunctious, if occasionally arrogant, seven month old young cub who believes that being a king is all about doing what you want all day and going wherever you please. Taking advantage of the cub's naive nature, Simba's scheming uncle Scar tells him about the elephant graveyard. Although Scar tells Simba not to go there, he knows that the young cub will do so out of curiosity. Not only does Simba go, but he also brings along his friend, Nala. When they reach the graveyard they are chased by the three hyenas Shenzi, Banzai and Ed, who are actually Scar's minions. Mufasa comes to the rescue of the two cubs after being informed of their plight by Zazu.
Mufasa is upset with Simba, but resolves to not scold his son, and instead teaches him about the great kings of the past up in the stars, who guide and watch over the young prince.
Later, Scar tricks Simba into waiting in a gorge, saying that Simba's father has a "marvelous surprise" waiting. There, Scar commands Shenzi, Banzai and Ed to start a wildebeest stampede into the gorge where Simba is. Mufasa saves Simba from the stampede, but cannot save himself from Scar. Scar grabs the king's paws and throws him into the stampede. Simba is tricked by Scar into thinking that he was responsible for his own father's death, and that he should run away. Emotionally shattered, Simba does so, but Scar sends his hyenas after Simba in an attempt to kill him. Simba escapes into a patch of thorns and wanders off into the desert. The hyenas do not follow him, deciding that he's as good as dead out in the desert.
They were very nearly correct as Simba finally collapses from heat exhaustion. Vultures circle and gather around Simba, but they are scared off by Timon and Pumbaa. Timon and Pumbaa rescue Simba and take him to their jungle home.
Simba grows into an adult lion while living in the jungle. He lives the Hakuna Matata ("No worries, no problems!") lifestyle, but his profound self-recrimination is never far from the surface. The turning point begins when his childhood friend Nala appears, now a fierce young lioness. The childhood friends reconnect and quickly fall in love. Nala later tries to convince Simba to return to the Pride Lands as he is the rightful king. Simba, still deeply guilt ridden by his father's death, refuses both to help her or explain his reasons. He runs off into the grasslands to end their fight, leaving Nala upset and angry.
While Simba is by himself, Rafiki appears and tells Simba to follow him, as he knows where the apparently alive Mufasa is. Simba follows Rafiki across the grasslands and through a patch of thorny vines. Once they reach a pool of water, Rafiki tells Simba to look at his reflection in a pool, but instead of Simba seeing his own face, he sees his father's. Mufasa's ghost then appears in some swirling storm clouds and tells his son that he must go home and take his rightful place as king. Simba realises what he must do and runs home.
Once back in the Pride Lands, Simba confronts his uncle Scar. Scar tells the rest of the pride that Simba was responsible for Mufasa's death, and tries to kill Simba. However, as Simba clings to the edge of Pride Rock's promontory, Scar tells him the truth. An enraged Simba leaps up and pins Scar to the ground, forcing Scar to reveal the truth to the nearby lionesses. A fight ensues as a fiery inferno, caused by lightning striking a dead tree, rages in the background. Nala rallies the other lionesses, including her mother Sarafina and the erstwhile Queen Sarabi, and the lionesses attack the hyenas. Simba wins as Scar, after being thrown over a cliff by Simba, is killed by the hyenas he betrayed. Simba then takes his rightful place atop Pride Rock and roars out across his kingdom.
Some time later, when the Pride Lands are restored to their former glory, the animals gather at Pride Rock once more as Rafiki lifts Simba and Nala's cub high into the air, thus continuing the circle of life.
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride
Simba has matured since the last film and is now really imposing as Mufasa. He now has a daughter, Kiara, who is stubborn and doesn't always obey her father. Simba lets his daughter out to play in the Pride Lands, but asks Timon and Pumbaa to watch her. Timon and Pumbaa begin to argue about bugs and Kiara slips away unnoticed.
Kiara ends up crossing over into the Outlands where she meets Kovu, an Outlander lion whose pride was exiled by Simba as they still saw Scar as the rightful king. The two play tag until Simba leaps in to confront Zira, a lioness still fiercely loyal to Scar, who was watching the two cubs play. Kovu is the lion chosen by Scar to ascend the throne.
After the confrontation, Simba talks with Kiara. Kiara doesn't want to be queen as it's "no fun". Simba tells Kiara that she has no choice and that she must do her duty, and that they are "a part of each other." Simba walks with Kiara and explains that they "are one" (the "We Are One" song scene). Kiara seemingly softens her stance, but as Simba ascends Pride Rock, she looks thoughtfully out towards the Outlands.
In the Outlands, Zira forms a plan to assassinate Simba so that Kovu can become the next king. She begins to train Kovu for the task.
When Kiara is grown she heads out into the Pride Lands alone for her first hunt. Simba is naturally worried, and sends Timon and Pumbaa out to watch her again, against Nala's advice. This time Kiara is outraged by what she sees as her father's interference, and runs off to do her own hunting by herself away from the Pride Lands. Zira sends her daughter Vitani and her son Nuka to start a fire in the dry grasslands where Kiara is hunting. Kiara tries to run from the rapidly spreading flames, but ends up collapsing. Kovu rescues Kiara and asks for entry to the pride. Simba allows Kovu to join the pride, but is suspicious.
Simba later has a nightmare of him trying to save his father Mufasa from death, but is prevented from doing so by Kovu. Unknown to Simba, Zira has secretly trained Kovu to infiltrate Simba's pride and kill Simba.
Kovu has multiple of opportunities to kill Simba, but his hate, free of his mother's unrelenting conditioning, is drowned out by his love for Kiara, enough to confess Zira's plot and his role in it. However, before he can explain, Zira ambushes Kovu and Simba while they are out walking. Simba is injured but leaps up a log dam to safety. Simba's climb dislodges some logs from the dam, which fall and crush Nuka. Zira blames Nuka's death on Kovu for not killing Simba when he had the chance. In anger, she slashes Kovu's face, giving him the same scar that Scar had. Kovu flees back to the Pride Lands.
Simba realizes that Kovu had darker motives in mind when he asked to join the pride and exiles him. Simba's concern for Kiara's wellbeing causes to him to restrict Kiara to Pride Rock only. Kiara is distraught, but Simba explains that he must follow in his father's footsteps and take responsibility for the Pride Lands, whereas Kovu has the responsibility of committing regicide and taking the throne. After an outburst ("You will never be Mufasa!") Kiara runs into a cave to cry. Her determination to see Kovu again leads her to dislodging a few loose rocks and escaping from Pride Rock.
Meanwhile, Zira plans another attack and wages war on the Pridelanders. Kovu and Kiara find each other again and run back to try to diffuse the anger between their prides.
Simba enters the cave where Kiara was previously, only to find that she has escaped. Zazu then appears and announces the Outlanders' attack. Simba diverts his attention to the oncoming battle. He heads out to confront the Outlanders onto a muddy plain with his lionesses and Timon and Pumbaa.
As Kiara and Kovu return, they see a fierce battle in progress between the Outlanders and the Pridelanders. After a lengthly battle, Simba and Zira confront each other directly. Before the two lions can land a strike, Kiara and Kovu leap into the middle of the battle and convince the two sides to stop fighting. Simba agrees with them but Zira, still loyal to Scar, doesn't. Enraged, she leaps at Simba but is knocked away by Kiara. The two tumble into a gorge where the log dam from the previous fight has weakened and burst. Zira falls to her death into the swollen river.
The two prides, now united, return to Pride Rock, and Simba and Nala look on proudly as Kiara and Kovu are married. Mufasa's voice booms down proudly to his son. "Well done, my son, we are one."
The Lion King 1½
In the 2004 "midquel" The Lion King 1½, more is revealed about Simba's life in the jungle with Timon and Pumbaa after his exile. Simba (Jonathan Taylor Thomas does not reprise his role as cub Simba for this film, due to being too old to do cub Simba's voice successfully, he is replaced by Matt Weinberg) 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 a teenager, he has beaten Timon in every kind of bug eating contest, along with a snail slurping contest that is shown.
Beyond the films
Simba's story has been widely expanded beyond the films to numerous children's books, most notably a set of books titled The Lion King: Six New Adventures, where he has a son called Kopa.
Simba also makes occasional brief appearances in the Timon and Pumbaa TV animated series. This includes one episode in which Timon drags him out to try and revive Pumbaa's lost memory. Simba also appears in a music video of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" starring Timon and Pumbaa, which was shown theatrically in front of the film Tom and Huck in 1995.
He also appeared in the Disney/Square Enix video game series Kingdom Hearts. In Kingdom Hearts he appears as a powerful summon spirit whose world had been destroyed, and in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, he appears as quite a powerful summon card , he appears along with Genie, Dumbo, Tinker Bell, Bambi, and Mushu.[1] In Kingdom Hearts II, when the main protagonists (Sora, Donald and Goofy) explore the Pride Lands, Simba almost attacked them, not recognizing them as they were turned into animals due to Sora's clothes, but after Sora convinced him, they later returned to Pride Rock to battle Scar, Shenzi, Banzai, Ed and numerous Heartless. 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. He has a Limit move with Sora that causes huge rocks to appear and inflict a lot of damage to the enemy. Cam Clarke 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.
See also
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