The Lion's Tale is an American family live-action film release for 2024 (or 2025). It is rated PG, and produced and distributed by Disney. It's from the director of The Jungle Book (2016), Jon Favreau, and from the producers of The LEGO Movie, Steven Spielberg.
Synopsis[]
The story is narrated by two red kangaroo brothers.
The story begins when three witches, Evanora, Narissa, and Gargamel want to take over the world. For their "initiation task" given by the king, they are asked to share dinner with a boy. They adopt a boy named Simba from an orphanage. Evanora and Narissa plot to poison the boy, but the potions get mixed up, and when it's dinner time, Simba gets turned into a lion cub. Gargamel knocks him out, ties him in a sack and throws him in the canal. The sack containing Simba falls over a waterfall into a waterhole where Ned, an African elephant, lives. Ned rescues the sack, and Simba pokes out his head, dazed. When Ned sprays the cub with water, Simba wakes up and is surprised to see a talking elephant! Ned asks Simba to look at his "hands", and when Simba does, he realizes that they're paws! He runs to the waterhole and looks at his reflection, horrified to find out he had turned into a lion cub! Simba decides to find a wizard's house and starts his journey alone, slightly ignoring Ned's warnings that the savannah is too dangerous for a lion cub. After finding three paths, he takes the one in the middle and falls into a pit with a gray wolf! The wolf chases Simba until the cub runs out of breath. Just as it is about to pounce on him, a lioness jumps out of nowhere and fights the wolf until it runs off, wounded. After Simba thanks the lioness for saving his life, she introduces herself as Nala and when Simba tells her he's looking for a wizard's house, she knows there's one nearby her lion pride and asks him to go with her. Simba and Nala come across a river where a fallen tree makes a bridge, but when they get halfway across, Simba slips and gets tangled in a vine! Nala tries to rescue him, but she accidentally bites the vine and Simba falls in the river, drowning. Nala follows, but stops when the waterlogged Simba nears a huge waterfall. He goes over it, but he is rescued by a Nile crocodile with a clock in his belly. Nala joins the croc and, after Simba comes back to life, the two decide to name the croc Tick Tock, because of the clock in his belly. All three go to the lion pride, along with Ned, who joins the group. They are also joined by a llama named Kuzco. After one night, they wake up at a termite mound where a red-billed hornbill named Zazu is giving a meerkat named Billy the "morning report". Nala asks the two to join the group. After a few more days of traveling, they hear a call for help, follow it, and find a black leopard tangled in hundreds of vines. After they rescue him, the leopard introduces himself as Bagheera and joins the group. After two more days, the herd of eight animals reaches Nala's pride, but only Ned, Tick Tock, Kuzco, Zazu, Billy, and Bagheera hide behind a rock, because they were not welcome in the lion pride at first. But after several days, the lion pride welcomes the strangest herd of animals. But one night, when the pride and herd are sleeping, Simba sneaks away to the wizard’s house nearby. Back at the pride and herd, Narissa, Evanora, and Gargamel, who have somehow discovered that Simba is still alive, pass and talk about killing Simba, awakening Bagheera, Nala, Tick Tock, Ned, Kuzco, Zazu, and Billy, who decide in devastation to find and warn Simba. Meanwhile, the cub is halfway to the wizard’s house when he overhears the three witches talking about killing him, much to his horror. He reaches the wizard's house and finds a hole in the wall big enough to crawl through. Simba drinks a human potion and turns back into a human and drinks another potion that gains him the ability to talk to animals and returns to his friends, although they are a little confused at first. They are only convinced when Simba tells them that Narissa, Gargamel, and Evanora are looking for him. So they decide to return to the wizard's house, only to find Evanora, Narissa, and Gargamel there, holding a lion vial. In the fight that follows, Ned grabs the bottle and holds it higher than the witches can reach. Then Kuzco pushes all three witches with his head and they bump into the animal potion cupboard, and Evanora gets turned into a white domestic bunny, Gargamel gets turned into a golden retriever puppy, and Narissa gets turned into a Himalayan kitten! Ned gives Simba the potion and he turns into a lion cub again, deciding to remain with his seven friends and Nala's lion pride forever to be safe from Gargamel the puppy, Narissa the kitten, and Evanora the bunny. At the end of the movie, they are seen looking after Nala's sister's five cubs. The Kangaroo Narrators discuss to each other what they could turn into if they drank different animal potions.
Cast[]
| Character | Portrayed By | Voiced By |
|---|---|---|
| Red Kangaroo Narrator 1 | Rob Paulsen | |
| Red Kangaroo Narrator 2 | Jeff Bennett | |
| Simba | Maxton Turner | Maxton Turner (as a lion cub) |
| Narissa | Susan Sarandon | Susan Sarandon (in a high-pitched helium squeaky voice as a Himalayan kitten) |
| Evanora | Rachel Weisz | Rachel Weisz (in a high-pitched helium squeaky voice as a white domestic rabbit kitten) |
| Gargamel | Hank Azaria | Hank Azaria (in a high-pitched helium squeaky voice as a golden retriever puppy) |
| Ned the African Bush Elephant | Frank Welker | |
| Gray Wolf | None | |
| Nala the Lioness | Julianna Margulies | |
| Tick Tock the Nile Crocodile | None | |
| Kuzco the Llama | David Spade | |
| Zazu the Tanzanian Red-Billed Hornbill | Edward Hibbert | |
| Billy the Meerkat | Kevin Schon | |
| Bagheera the Black Leopard | Bob Joles | |
| Leo the Lion, Nala's Father | Idris Elba | |
| Leona the Lioness, Nala's Mother | Gabrielle Union | |
| Leona's Sisters | Anika Noni Rose, Selena Gomez | |
| Nala's Sisters | Emma Stone, Jenny Slate | |
| Nala's Nephews and Nieces | None |
Trivia[]
This film should have animals talking without their mouths moving, like Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, Homeward Bound 2: Lost in San Francisco, The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story, and Elephant Tales.
Gallery[]
Simba walks away from Ned
Simba finds a fork in the road
A rude awakening
Wolf chase
Cornered
Nala fights the wolf
Simba meets Nala
First Poster
Second Poster
The Lion's Tale Trailer
The Lion's Tale Sneak Peek
The Lion's Tale- The End