The Dallas Zoo has revealed on its social media channels that little Simba was modeled after Bahati, a girl lion. Bahati was only a month old when the zoo shared footage of her movements with Disney for its reference, the Dallas Zoo wrote.
The lioness turned two in March 2019 and by then was just as majestic and beautiful as Beyoncé's Nala.
Take a look at some photographs of her that will melt your heart:
Reference footage is not a live performance
The zoo's account describes footage supplied to help animators study a cub's movements. That is different from an animal performing the finished character on screen. Compare the idea of observing a real animal with the creative choices needed to build a fictional one. The ages and photographs here date from 2019, rather than describing Bahati today.
Observation supplies material for invention
Reference footage can reveal how a paw lands or a young animal shifts its weight. Animators still choose which details to preserve, simplify or exaggerate for a character. That relationship gives the zoo’s account its interest without suggesting Bahati acted a role or that a digital character is a direct copy of one animal.
Explore the related article: Liz Climo's Animal Comics and Their Everyday Humor.
How the zoo filmed Bahati
Bahati was the first lion cub born at the Dallas Zoo in 43 years. During the early design stages of Disney’s remake of The Lion King, about two years before it reached cinemas, the zoo’s keepers recorded her and the other lions for about a week and sent the video of her movements and behaviour to Disney’s animation team as reference for the young Simba. “We had our phones on us at all times,” said the carnivore supervisor Lora Baumhardt. The zoo said it was the first time it had helped to develop a major film, and wrote that “the world’s most famous lion cub may have gotten some of his moves from our very own Bahati.” The remake opened in US cinemas in July 2019.
Sources: FOX 35 Orlando, 22 July 2019: Dallas Zoo lion helped in the making of The Lion King CTV News, July 2019: Lion King in real life: zoo says its cub was Simba
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