Continuity mistake: The whites of Simba's eyes change frequently through the movie, from yellow to white. They're yellow up until the scene where Pumbaa, Timon, and Simba are stargazing; after that they change back and forth frequently. During the Mufasa-in-the-sky scene, when Simba asks, "How can I go back? I'm not who I used to be," they change from yellow to white and back within three frames.
Continuity mistake: Nala's eyes change from blue to green quite often during the movie.
Suggested correction: Her eyes were green the whole time. It's just lighting making it look like they changed color.
The correction assumes these lions are filmed, but they are drawn. So if the eyes are blue, they coloured it blue and if it's green they coloured it green, on purpose.
They are colored to emulate different lighting conditions. Note that the fur is also different colors in the different shots.
A darker shade of the same color isn't the same as a whole other color.
Continuity mistake: When Timon rides Pumbaa through the vultures that are crowding around Simba, they run right over where Simba should be, but he's not there. 2 seconds later, after all the vultures are gone, Simba is back. (00:42:05)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning when Rafiki puts the paint on the picture of Simba (on the tree trunk) the paint goes on a different color than it is. The film makers admit this mistake on the commentary. (00:07:00)
Continuity mistake: During the stampede in the gorge, when Simba jumps up on the dead branch, he leaves very distinct claw scratches. Then in the following scenes they're gone, although other marks and details on the branch remain. (00:34:10)
Continuity mistake: When Simba and Nala fall through the dead elephant, there are some small rocks near them. But after the hyenas say, "Here kitty kitty kitty," Simba makes a small roar and the rocks are gone.
Continuity mistake: When Rafiki is showing Simba where his father is, Simba is following Rafiki through the trees and they arrive at a river/lake. Rafiki says 'shh' and pulls the grass apart. In the shot facing him and Simba, Rafiki is only holding the grass on the left back, but the grass on the right is bent back the exact same way, without anyone holding it back.
Continuity mistake: When Simba walks away from the jungle and Timon says "He looks blue," Simba is at a fair distance from the shadow of the tree. But a few shots later, Pumbaa comes to Simba and asks, "Kid, what's eating ya?" but Simba is now closer to the shadow of the tree.
Continuity mistake: When Timon and Pumbaa are inspecting unconscious Simba, Simba's paw is lying over his eye. In the next shot, right before Timon lifts the paw up, it has moved to below his eye.
Continuity mistake: When Simba and Nala are in the elephant graveyard, Simba goes to see if "it's brains are still in there" and he's past the base of the trunk. But when Zazu pops up in front of him, he hasn't passed the base of the tusk yet.
Continuity mistake: When Timon is asleep on Pumbaa's belly, Nala approaches. From one shot to the next, Timon's arms are crossed differently. (01:08:35)
Continuity mistake: When Rafiki dips his fingers in the orange paint to put a mane on Simba's picture, the paint is not on his thumb. He raises his hand up close to the picture, then, a split second later in the next shot, the paint is on his thumb with which he starts to paint the mane. He did not have time to dip his hand in again.
Continuity mistake: After Pumbaa kisses Simba's feet, Timon says, "Don't he's not the king," he puts his hands on the middle of Pumbaa's snout. But in the very next shot, Timon's hands are now at the top of Pumbaa's snout.
Continuity mistake: Throughout the movie, every hyena is drawn with three toes on each paw. But in one shot when an off-screen hyena grabs Zazu in mid-flight to place him in the "birdie boiler", it has four toes instead. Also when the hyenas chase Simba out of the Pride Lands, Banzai has four toes when he tries to grab Simba with his claws. (00:20:20)
Continuity mistake: After we see a slow motion shot of Scar jumping through the wall of fire towards Simba, watch how Simba's teeth go from clenched to unclenched between shots as he hurls Scar over the cliff's edge. (01:19:40)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where young Simba and Nala are singing, "I Just Can't Wait To Be King," and right before making faces at Zazu, Nala steps into the water with both front feet, but in the next shot, all her feet are firmly on dry ground.
Continuity mistake: When Simba and the animals begin to tower up on each other towards the end of the song "I Just Can't Wait To Be King", a shot shows that the red elephants are close to the bottom of the tower. The camera begins to scan upwards and the antelope are towards the top where Simba and Nala show up. When the animals all fall and quick shots show how jumbled they get, a red elephant somehow ends up falling on top of an antelope's antlers which shouldn't be possible. (00:17:50)
Continuity mistake: When Scar is circling Ed the hyena during or just before singing "Be Prepared," from the front Ed's tongue is hanging out. But from the side/back view, where the tongue should still be visible, it's gone.
Continuity mistake: When Shenzi and Banzai have Timon and Zazu cornered, Banzai's left paw jumps from the cave floor to the top of the ribcage prison between frames. (01:17:15)
Continuity mistake: During the scene where little Simba and Scar are talking about how Simba is "gonna rule it all" and Scar explains about the elephant graveyard, the pads of Scar's paws change shape several times. Sometimes the pads are as they should be, other times its covered with color. (00:13:05)
