Mitchell Stein- Looks like Boy Meets World isn't the only Disney franchise to be resurrected back to television again this year. In a very surpirsing announcement made today revealed by the Wall Street Journal, Disney Junior is producing a series based off The Lion King set to air sometime in 2015.“It’s kind of like ‘The Lion King’ meets ‘The Avengers,’” says Disney Junior general manager Nancy Kanter in the article. The plot story follows a cub named Kion, who is the son of Simba from the Lion King films, who assembles a group of animals to help him protect the pride lands. You might be familiar with Simba's daughter Kiara, who appeared in the direct-to-video sequel The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. Unless they plan to incorporate Kiara into this brand-new series this probably makes the canon in Simba's Pride completely irrelevant and may even pretend that the film didn't exist, which is likely as the movie was received a bit more critical reception than the original film, although it leveled up as a direct-to-video film. No recognition is found much in the world of Disney movies, theme parks or merchandise, so it's possible Disney chose to forget about that one altogether.
The new series, is set to premiere on Disney Channel sometime in 2015. It is unknown if it will have any specific connection to Disney Afternoon's Timon and Pumbaa television series.
You can read the full article on the Wall Street Journal's website.
UPDATE: The announcement was made offical on the Disney Insider website. Kion, is the second-born cub to Simba and Naala, and the show will feature Kiara, who is preparing to become the future Queen of the Pride Lands. So, good news folks. Simba's Pride is still part of the Lion King canon! It will also feature appearances by characters Simba, Nala, Zazu, and Timon and Pumbaa although no voice actors for these characters have been announced just yet. Read the official Disney announcement on their website.
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that's very cool, but I feel so bad for Kiara because everyone is pretending she never existed.
ReplyDeleteWell, John (who I don't think is involve with this) was never happy about thes direct-to-video stuff, so it makes sense that the studio wants to mostly forget about it. Though, I do have the feeling they just accidently stirred new controversy for Tenzuka fans.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I rather have this blog talk about Donald's birthday than something Disney fans would probably be little intrested in.
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DeleteWho's John?
DeleteJohn Lasseter, the head and founder of Pixar and the head of Walt Disney Animation Studios.
DeleteOh, yeah. That makes sense. And I agree with him.
DeleteAlso, technically, just to clear things up, Simba's Pride is not really canon. In fact, none of the direct-to-video cheapquels are canon and Disney does not consider them canonical overall.
Aside from the Pixar sequels/prequels, the only Disney animated feature sequels that are truly considered canon by Disney are The Three Caballeros, The Rescuers Down Under, Fantasia 2000 and Winnie the Pooh 2011, all of which were made at Walt Disney Feature Animation/Walt Disney Animation Studios, whereas the majority of the cheapquels (Simba's Pride, Pocahontas II, Little Mermaid II, Cinderella II, etc.) were made at Walt Disney Television Animation.
And there are other reasons why they're not canon as well. For example: Disney almost never makes merchandise of the characters that originated in the cheapquels (ie: John Rolfe, Melody, etc.). And those same cheapquel characters never make appearances in the Disney theme parks (the walk-around characters almost never talk about them, the established characters that changed in the cheapquels remain in their original film forms in the parks, etc.).
Plus, Disney usually sticks to character dynamics and things that were made canon in the original movies (ie: Iago is still a bad guy, John Smith remains Pocahontas' official "prince", Ariel & Eric never gave birth to Melody, etc.) when they do new projects with them (for instance: things like House of Mouse and Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom still depicting Iago as a bad guy still in cahoots with Jafar; things like House of Mouse and the Disney Princess franchise still reaffirming the "official couple" status of Pocahontas & John Smith; etc.)
So, overall, it appears that if a sequel wasn't made by Feature Animation, it's not really canon.