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Hi there!
When I was a little kid, I watched The Lion King on DVD with no subtitles, no voice-over, no dubbing. And English isn’t my first language, so I barely understood what was going on. Honestly, I didn’t even know Simba was supposed to be a lion!
All I remember is that cute yellow cub having fun with his friends. They were singing happily and then... well, that cub disappeared. I was so confused that I stopped watching the movie because I couldn’t find him anymore! I thought that when he grew up, he would just be a bigger version of himself with the same color palette 😂
Time flies, and now I think I finally understand what happened. So I’d love to share a few thoughts I have about this question: Why does Simba change so much when he grows up? Here are some reasons.
1 . Reflecting Simba’s growth and inner change
Young Simba has a round face, big eyes, playful expressions and yellow fur - typical features meant to suggest innocence, friendliness and cuteness. He feels like a ray of sunshine to me.
In contrast, adult Simba has a leaner, more muscular build and a more serious look, his fur gets darker with shades of orange and brown, reflecting his growth and mental burden.
The design change shows clearly Simba’s grown up - from a cheerful cub to a responsible king.
2. Showing that the film is entering in a new chapter
You can see the story is clearly divided into two acts: childhood and adulthood. Simba's new look really shows us that everything is getting more serious - time has passed and things have changed.
That’s the turning point in the whole story.
3. Different animation teams with distinct styles
Young and adult Simba were supervised by two different animators, Mark Henn and Ruben Aquino. Henn specializes in youthful, expressive characters (like Ariel and Belle), while Aquino is known for more grounded and mature figures (like Ursula). These supervising animators helped emphasize the contrast in how each version of Simba looks and moves.
From my personal perspective and little experience in filmmaking, these are the reasons I've come up with. I hope they help shed some light on the question. What do you think?
Feel free to leave comment below so we can discuss more about this, or anything else related if you want.
Simbas are drawn by me using some reference images from the film. You can check it here: https://www.deviantart.com/stash/022s1s3fc481
Simba © Disney
Backgrounds © Disney, Through-the-movies
When I was a little kid, I watched The Lion King on DVD with no subtitles, no voice-over, no dubbing. And English isn’t my first language, so I barely understood what was going on. Honestly, I didn’t even know Simba was supposed to be a lion!
All I remember is that cute yellow cub having fun with his friends. They were singing happily and then... well, that cub disappeared. I was so confused that I stopped watching the movie because I couldn’t find him anymore! I thought that when he grew up, he would just be a bigger version of himself with the same color palette 😂
Time flies, and now I think I finally understand what happened. So I’d love to share a few thoughts I have about this question: Why does Simba change so much when he grows up? Here are some reasons.
1 . Reflecting Simba’s growth and inner change
Young Simba has a round face, big eyes, playful expressions and yellow fur - typical features meant to suggest innocence, friendliness and cuteness. He feels like a ray of sunshine to me.
In contrast, adult Simba has a leaner, more muscular build and a more serious look, his fur gets darker with shades of orange and brown, reflecting his growth and mental burden.
The design change shows clearly Simba’s grown up - from a cheerful cub to a responsible king.
2. Showing that the film is entering in a new chapter
You can see the story is clearly divided into two acts: childhood and adulthood. Simba's new look really shows us that everything is getting more serious - time has passed and things have changed.
That’s the turning point in the whole story.
3. Different animation teams with distinct styles
Young and adult Simba were supervised by two different animators, Mark Henn and Ruben Aquino. Henn specializes in youthful, expressive characters (like Ariel and Belle), while Aquino is known for more grounded and mature figures (like Ursula). These supervising animators helped emphasize the contrast in how each version of Simba looks and moves.
From my personal perspective and little experience in filmmaking, these are the reasons I've come up with. I hope they help shed some light on the question. What do you think?
Feel free to leave comment below so we can discuss more about this, or anything else related if you want.
Simbas are drawn by me using some reference images from the film. You can check it here: https://www.deviantart.com/stash/022s1s3fc481
Simba © Disney
Backgrounds © Disney, Through-the-movies
Category Artwork (Digital) / Fanart
Species Lion
Size 1767 x 2085px
File Size 410.4 kB
I went through pretty much the same thing. Even though I knew that young Simba and adult Simba were the same character, they were always two separate characters in my head and young Simba was always the more fun one and quite frankly, more interesting. It also doesn't help that his hair style completely changed and his ears always looked like they were in the wrong place :p
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