First Saturday

So I do not go into the city like I planned.  I hung around in my room all day, and watched youtube videos.  I ate cold (gross) mac and cheese for lunch because I didn't feel like reheating it, but I did make pancakes for dinner.   I used a new to me mix, I think it is Hungry Man (or something like that) and I didn't have high hopes for it because it was a just add water mix (as opposed to Bisquik which you need eggs and milk for).  The pancakes weren't as thick as Bisquik, nor did I find them as tasty as Bisquik pancakes, but they were good.  I think I'll use the weekend to either post about Raleigh or ramble about things I find interesting.  Since I didn't go into the city today, I'll ramble.

My apartmentmate and I were talking about Disney movies the other day, and their flaws/issues, and we talked about The Lion King.  Let me first say, TLK is my favorite Disney movie.  Despite it having a special place in my heart, the animal inaccuracies drive me insane.  There are many directions I could take this, but I will be focusing on the main species of the movie, lions.  Before I get into the meat of things, let me first say I will pulling some information I don't know/not sure of from Wikipedia.  I know Wikipedia isn't the greatest source for facts,  people can go in and edit the articles, not every article is complete, blablabla.  But here's the thing, this is not a scholarly article or a paper I'll be turning in for a grade.  I don't feel like looking up scholarly articles and reading them for something as casual as a blog post that I'm writing this late at night.  So with that let me begin.  I'll be using a list format.

• Let me tackle the whole Simba is next in line to be king first.  Bull dinkies.  Young male lions are driven out of the pride by their fathers around 2 or 3.  Typical male lions do not want their sons to compete with them as pride leaders.  It would also be pointless for Simba to become "king" too.  Since prides are usually made up of related females, Simba would have to have sex with his relatives, which brings me up to my next point...
• The implied incest.  As mentioned before, prides are typically  made of related females.  That means all the cubs are some kind of cousins to begin with, and if they have the same father then they're half sibling cousins.  Since Mufasa is the dominant male, he has breeding rights.  So if Mufasa is the father of Simba and Nala, then they're half sibling cousins (drop the cousin part if Sarabi and Nala's mom [who has a name] aren't related).  But then there is Scar, who has a small chance of fathering cubs (when two brothers share a pride, one is usually more dominant than the other, and the more dominant one has breeding rights, but the less dominant one could probably get it in too).  If Scar is the father of Nala, then her and Simba are some kind of cousins (I think).  There is also a small chance that Nala's mom did it with a nomadic male, and had Nala.  If her and Sarabi are related, then Simba and Nala are cousins, but if they aren't then no incest.  The chance of this last option is low, so in the end Simba would be screwing his cousin sister. 
• It is also weird that Simba and Nala seem to be the only cubs.  Usually there are many cubs in a pride of varying ages.  Lions cubs do have a high mortality rate, but still, lack of other cubs is fishy.  I was going to comment on the litter size of Sarabi and Nala's mom, but I'm not so sure.  Female lions can have up to six cubs, but one to four is the average.  I would think that with conditions as good as they appear in the Pridelands, they would have a large litter than one because there is enough food to support many cubs.  There could be some fertility issues with Mufasa or his ladies.  Or maybe some cannibalism?  Some animals eat their young if there is something wrong with them so maybe Sarabi and Nala's mom ate Simba and Nala's siblings because there was something wrong with them and the lionesses wanted to recoup some energy they spent for carrying them and giving birth.  
• I don't like how any of the lions are colored.  They're too blonde/yellow/gold/orange in some cases.  The eyes aren't always right either.  Lions only have the light colored eyes as cubs, as adults they're amber colored. Also let me go onto mane colors.  Lions don't have red manes.  They may have a reddish tint, but they're varying shades of blonde and dark brown.  Also technically, the lionesses should prefer Scar over Mufasa.  It has been proven that females lions prefer male with a dark mane because it is a sign of higher testosterone levels.  Also Nala and Simba as cubs are missing the distinctive spotting that lions show as cubs.  
• Scar should not have a relationship with the hyenas.  Lions and hyenas are enemies, and will kill each other and their offspring.  It just doesn't make sense.
• Simba's exile!  I don't understand how Simba survived in the desert.  Simba is not old enough to hunt yet, and is very vulnerable to predation.  He should have died of starvation and/or dehydration well before he was found.  I also don't understand how Simba survived on bugs when he was raised by Timon and Pumba.  I don't know how much a cub eats, but full grown male lions needs at least 15 pounds of meat per day.  Bugs can have a lot of protein, some even have 28 grams.  But that means Simba would have to eat about 243 bugs that have at least 28 grams a protein a day in order to meet the minimum requirements.  That seems highly unlikely, especially since lions are not adapted to hunt insects.  
• Side note, how big is the desert that Simba and Nala ended up crossing?  
• I wish I knew how old Simba and Nala are.  Lions only live 10-14 years, and probably less for males since they fight other males and patrol their territory frequently, so they have more wear and tear.  I'm kind of surprised the Simba isn't dead by the end of the second movie.  I did some math (or at least tried to) and I figured Simba should be about 11 at the end of the second movie, if he was five when Nala found him.  I have a feeling he is actually older but whatever.  
• I should have done this point earlier, but the whole Simba and Nala are "betrothed" is bull dinkies.  Males breed all females in a pride, not just one.  This maximizes his chances of having his genes spread on for generations to come and increases his fitness. Simba should be screwing every female in the pride, but oh wait, he's probably related and that would be incest and could result in some genetically defective cubs.  
• I don't know of this is a flaw, but it is something that is confusing me.  I don't understand how old Kovu and Kiara are.  The only way I can figure it is if Nala was in estrous the night she and Simba had that romantic montage, and Zira was in estrous back at Priderock.  Here's the thing, (I haven't seen the TLK2 in a long time) but I'm pretty sure that Kovu isn't Scar's son or is adopted.  I don't know how Kovu could have been conceived.  Kovu and Kiara look around the same age when they first meet.  I think there would be an obvious between Kovu and Kiara if they were different ages. It is just too weird to figure out in my head.
• I don't know where Zira and her girls came from.  That is never made clear.  I don't think prides are accepting of new females, so I don't know how they joined. 
• I don't understand the variety of habitats seen in TLK/TLK2.  I get the savannah.  I get the lush paradise in the middle of the desert (there's one desert in Africa that has a river in it, and around that river is a tropical forest).  I don't get Zira's territory.  Termites are found in areas that has have plants and what not for them to eat, not in the boondocks.  I don't think they make mound that big, and if they do they would not be cavernous underneath.  How the habits all are close to each other is beyond me.  
• I'm not going to go into the whole Simba is the king of everything, the herbivores care what he thinks, etc.  It is utter bull dinkies and  we all know it.  
• I also didn't really talk about TLK2 too much.  It was some similar flaws, and a few new ones, but I honestly don't care for TLK2 too much, so I'm not going to add its problems to here, other than the ones I listed.  
• I keep on thinking of things to add to the list.  So this has to do with cubs, and I probably should put it with the other cub stuff.  So when lionesses give birth to cubs, they do it away from the pride, in a secluded area, and wait to introduce the cubs to the pride.  This does not appear to happen in the TLK.  Also, the male lion interactions with cubs isn't right.  A male lion cares about his cubs, and will play around with them, but not to the extent portrayed in the movie.  He wants them alive because they continue his lineage, not because he loves them.  

These are all the things I can think of off the top of my head.  I wish there was another TLK movie to show what it was like under Scar, where Zira came from, when all the new lions seen in TLK2 are born, etc.  But, that probably won't happen so we'll be left wondering.