Vultures are creatures that appear in The Lion King franchise, first introduced in the 1994 original Lion King film. They are Old World vultures that occasionally appear throughout the franchise aside from other non-communicative animals.
Appearances[]
The Lion King[]
During the part where Simba finds himself lying on the desert, a flock of vultures began to circle over his unconscious body, squawking noisily and attempting to eat him. As they land on the spot where Simba is at, they attempt to eat him, only for Timon and Pumbaa to arrive at the spot where they rescue Simba and repel the vultures. Just as the meerkat and warthog duo arrive, they managed to scare off the vultures and rescue Simba, saving his life.
Timon & Pumbaa[]
Two notable vultures, the Vulture Police, appear as recurring characters throughout the series. While they serve as policemen in the jungle, they seem to follow Timon and Pumbaa when they travel the world. In addition to these aforementioned characters, generic unnamed vultures occasionally appeared within this series.
The episode "Monster Massachusetts" includes a generic vulture that perches on a sign of Caligostro Laboratories, Inc. castle. Just as the lightning flashes, it is shown that the vulture has two heads, implying that it is a mutated vulture.
The episode "Two for the Zoo" also features a generic vulture that was one of the animals accidentally captured by Timon and Pumbaa. After the vulture was captured, it becomes furious with the duo (along with the other animals) for helping Quint capture the animals for the zoo. It is later seen amongst one of the animals that Timon and Pumbaa rescued from the zoo and later attacking the duo.
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride[]
During the climax of the film, a different flock of vultures is seen flying in the sky during the battle between the Pridelanders and Outsiders, seemingly expecting any victims during battle.
The Lion King 1½[]
After Timon and Pumbaa found their home in the jungle, one of the activities they were doing was "Bowling for Porcupines", which resulted in Pumbaa to have numerous thorns on his back, only for Timon and Pumbaa to notice a flock of vultures eating a carcass. As Pumbaa decides to play "Bowling for Buzzards", Timon decides to take care of the vultures instead. However, rather than doing this alone, Timon gets the idea of Pumbaa doing this action, resulting the two attacking the vultures and later saving Simba's life.
The Lion Guard[]
Vultures also appear in the Disney Jr. animated series based on the Lion King franchise. Two notable vultures, Mzingo and Mwoga, were featured as recurring characters throughout the series. In addition to these aforementioned two vultures, the series also consists of a different group of vultures, Mzingo's Parliament, a group of vultures led by Mzingo himself, which contains various unnamed generic vultures in the group which also appear as recurring characters in the series.
The Lion King (2019)[]
The vultures appear in the 2019 reimagining of the classic film.
After Simba lies down unconsciously due to the intense heat, a flock of vultures began to circle over him, just as they attempt to eat him. As they land on the spot where Simba is at, they attempt to eat him, only for Timon and Pumbaa to arrive at the spot where they rescue Simba and repel the vultures. Just as the meerkat and warthog duo arrive, they managed to scare off the vultures and rescue Simba, saving his life.
Mufasa: The Lion King[]
The vultures appear in Mufasa: The Lion King, where they appear in the form of a cameo.
As the story of Mufasa began in a deserted landscape, two vultures were seen flying past the giraffes in the sky, followed by two hyenas chasing the herd of zebras on land before Afia and Masego showed young Mufasa to follow the path to Milele. Years passed after Mufasa saved Eshe from two lions known as the Outsiders; Azibo reported to Kiros since his son was killed and members of the Outsiders began to devour him while the vultures were waiting and circling high at the sky. After Obasi sent Mufasa and Taka away to safety in a plan to find their new home and then search for the place called "Milele", Kiros and the Outsiders began to slaughter them all during the musical number "Bye Bye"; the vultures began circling around the sky waiting to eat them.
Video game appearances[]
The Lion King[]
Vultures appear as enemies in many versions of The Lion King video game. In most versions, they appear in the Elephant Graveyard level as unique enemies found within the landscape. Vultures are usually seen walking, but will fly above Simba when approached. After flying for a while, they will swoop towards Simba to attack him, which the player must either jump on them or avoid them. Like any enemy, the player loses health if they come into contact with a vulture. Vultures can be defeated by jumping on them a certain number of times, causing them to lose their plumage.
Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games[]
In the PC version of Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games, a vulture appears as one of the enemies in the "Sling Shooter" mini-game as one of the targets required to clear a level within the game. The vulture randomly appears flying facing right or left. When the player shoots a berry onto the vulture, it makes a shocked reaction and falls onto the ground just before disappearing.
The Lion King 1½[]
Vultures appear in the Game Boy Advance-exclusive game appearing as beings the player can interact with. They are introduced in the level "Make a Run for It". The game includes two variants of vultures encountered in the game, one which is seen standing stationary and the other one which is seen flying. The standing variants serve as normal enemies that Pumbaa can defeat by charging towards them using his charge attack, although they are invulnerable to belch attacks. Touching a standing vulture when playing as either Timon or Pumbaa can cause the player to receive damage. The flying variants which are introduced in the level "Land of the Blinding Sun" serve as platforms that can help the player in certain parts of the game. Unlike the standing variants, the flying vultures do not harm the player when they come into contact. Thus, these vultures are treated as useful creatures rather than serving as enemies. They make an exaggerated reaction when either Timon or Pumbaa jump into them. Timon can stand perfectly on these vultures without getting noticed, while Pumbaa standing on them can cause them to sink down; the player as Pumbaa who is on a vulture must hop upwards to help him reach platforms normally.
In addition to this, vultures prominently appear in a level named after them, "Scaring the Buzzards", where the only enemies encountered within this level are vultures. Being a level where Timon and Pumbaa move automatically, the player can dispatch the vultures by charging into them while on their way to rescue Simba. The ending part of the level features Timon and Pumbaa approaching an unconscious Simba who passed out due to the heat while being surrounded by vultures, leading Timon and Pumbaa to rescue him.
Disney Universe[]
Vultures appear as red targets in the third and final level of the "Upper Pride Rock" area in the Lion King hub. The player can shoot vulture targets to earn points throughout the level when they board the Simba train. Unlike the crocodile and hyena targets that constantly pop up and down, vulture targets are constantly seen hanging on strings, which always stay onscreen. Additionally, an ostrich target may appear with the vulture targets, which the game advises the player to avoid shooting, due to ostriches being blue targets that represent friendly animals; otherwise, they will lose points if they shoot the ostrich target.
Musical[]
In the stage adaptation of the film, the vultures appear during the part where Simba finds himself lying down unconsciously in the desert. The vultures in the musical are portrayed by a puppeteer controlling vulture puppets to give the illusion of vultures circling around Simba, only for Timon and Pumbaa to defend Simba from the vultures, just before the puppeteer controlling the vultures leaves. They were seen in Act 2 when they resemble the famine. They were also seen circling around when Simba and his army fights the hyenas.
Gallery[]
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.png "Mufasa the Lion King teaser (6).png (771 KB)")
Trivia[]
- The vultures in the Lion King franchise were occasionally referred to as "buzzards", despite the vultures themselves closely resembling real-life Old World vultures. Generally, the term "buzzard" not only refers to turkey vultures in some parts of the US in real life, but also to several other species of birds of prey.
- In an early version of The Lion King when it was titled "King of the Kalahari" at the time of the film being developed, it featured an individual vulture named "Skobi" who was scrapped when the story received a major revamp and change.
- A 1990 draft of The Lion King also featured two vultures named "Kobi" and "Prita" respectively who were scrapped in the final version of the film.
Variants[]
- Vultures (The Lion King 2019)
External links[]
