The Lion King

Continuity mistake: When Zazu bows down at the start, Mufasa is smiling. In the next shot, he is no longer smiling, and he didn't have time to wipe the smile off his face. (00:01:45)

The Lion King mistake picture

Continuity mistake: At the start Rafiki puts the "paint" on Simba's forehead just above his eyes. When he puts the dirt on Simba the "paint" is much higher. (00:03:20)

Ssiscool

Continuity mistake: When Mufasa confronts Scar after the ceremony, Scar walks away and Mufasa follows. Zazu has disappeared from his hiding spot behind Mufasa's leg and reappears later. (00:06:20)

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: When Mufasa is saying "let an old pro show you how it's done" during the morning report, Mufasa's eyes change from yellow to white and back. (00:10:45)

Continuity mistake: When Mufasa is showing Simba how to pounce, Zazu is facing backwards when Simba pounces on him, but when Simba has Zazu pinned to the ground, his paws are on Zazu's front. Simba would hardly have released Zazu to let him turn round. In the recent release of an Extended-Version DVD, Zazu sings a song called "Morning Report" which was written for the stage show and added to the extended version DVD. Zazu's change in position comes from the material that was cut. Still a mistake, but there's the explanation. (00:11:05)

rabid anarchist

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)

Continuity mistake: After Simba first hears about the elephant graveyard, he eagerly runs over to tell Nala about it. Sarabi, resting in the shade at the bottom of the hill, spontaneously appears out of nowhere on the rock. (00:13:05)

ryguy_1983

Continuity mistake: As Zazu is coasting above Simba and Nala on their way to the water hole, Zazu's head immediately changes direction between cuts. At first he's turned left, then down towards the cubs below him. (00:14:00)

ryguy_1983

Continuity mistake: When Zazu is flying overhead leading Simba and Nala to the water hole, he swoops down and begins talking about their future as a married pair. Initially Zazu's tail is resting near the ground. But from one frame to the next, it's suddenly perched straight up in the air. (00:14:15)

ryguy_1983

Continuity mistake: Towards the end of "I Just Can't Wait to Be King," eleven giraffes stand in a circular formation to launch Simba and Nala high into the air. But on their way back down in the next frame, an overhead view reveals ten giraffes instead. (00:17:00)

ryguy_1983

Continuity mistake: During the last notes of "I Just Can't Wait to Be King", a rhinoceros lands on top of Zazu. At first the rhino's front hooves are resting at its side. But in the following shot where the other animals retreat, they're suddenly planted firmly on the ground. (00:17:20)

ryguy_1983

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)

The Lion King mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Before Simba and Nala tumble downhill into the elephant graveyard, Simba pounces on Nala but ends up getting pinned to the ground. At first she has her paws on his chest, but when the shot changes she holds him down by the upper arms instead. (00:17:50)

ryguy_1983

Continuity mistake: As Zazu, Simba and Nala are being confronted by the hyenas, Banzai says, "A trio of trespassers." Zazu's tail is somewhere out of sight at the moment, but between shots it abruptly lifts itself into view. (00:19:20)

ryguy_1983

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)

ryguy_1983

Continuity mistake: When the three hyenas (Ed, Shenzi and Banzai) have Simba and Nala trapped in a dark corner of the elephant graveyard, Mufasa suddenly jumps in to save them. After he wrangles the hyenas to the ground, look at how Mufasa's left paw is placed right beside Ed's ear. But in the next shot where they're begging for mercy, Mufasa's paw is all of a sudden positioned further down by Ed's feet. (00:21:40)

ryguy_1983

Continuity mistake: After the elephant graveyard hyena incident, there's a very wide shot of Simba and Nala trailing behind Mufasa and Zazu in the open field. Nala looks over at Simba, but in the next frame she's staring at the ground instead. (00:22:40)

ryguy_1983

Continuity mistake: In the open field where Simba gets scolded by Mufasa, he happens upon a large paw print in the dirt. An overhead view reveals several blades of grass near the impression (on the lower left hand side in particular), but as Simba begins walking once again in the following shot, no blades of grass can be seen anywhere in the vicinity. (00:23:20)

ryguy_1983

Continuity mistake: When Simba is lying on a rock awaiting Scar's surprise at the base of the gorge, he tries to intimidate a nearby chameleon with his (weak) roar. The shot changes and Simba finally scares it away, but notice how the rock has disappeared. Now all we can see is a blurry background of the gorge's edge. (00:32:10)

ryguy_1983

Audio problem: (May only apply to the original VHS release.) When Scar has Zazu locked up in a cage, Zazu mentions Mufasa's name and Scar yells at him, "What did you say?" Right before Scar's actual line, whilst Zazu is talking, you hear Scar's "What did you say?" line very faintly in the background, even though Zazu has not even mentioned Mufasa yet.

More mistakes in The Lion King

Timon: What do you want me to do, dress in drag and do the hula?

More quotes from The Lion King
More trivia for The Lion King

Chosen answer: Rafiki is a bit of a msytic or a shaman; a quasi-magical character. He was able to smell Simba on the wind that we followed from one to the other.

Phixius

Answer: Rafiki just knows because he's wise.

More questions & answers from The Lion King

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