Originally posted by mkepcotmgmak
daksimba... you mean that Pumbaa and Simba are not animatronic figures? i really thought they were! learn something new everyday! is the simba float the same one they used in a mk parade? was he animatronic then? thanks! if you have any pics of the new theater i would love to see them!
So many questions, I'll answer as many as I can.
Pumbaa, Simba, Giraffe, and Elephant are all puppets.
The Simba Puppet is the same one that was in the Magic Kingdom Remember the Magic Parade. Both puppets were made at approx the same time by Curry. We recieved those paticular puupets about 3 years ago. The Folk Simba puppet before that was the old one from the Disneyland parade.
Same with the float. That Pride Rock float is the float from the Disneyland Parade. If you look carefully, you can still see the poles and hook-ups for the harnesses that the dancers wore that danced on the float in the parade.
The Giraffe and Elephant puppets are also from the Disneyland Lion King Parade. The Elephant float is one of the old Tug units from the parade. The Giraffe float is the old Green Army Man float from the Studios Toy Story Parade.
The Pumbaa float is another tug unit from the Disneyland Parade. The orginal puppet was also from that parade. Not long after opening, we recieved a new (really crappy) Pumbaa puppet. He didn't last long, and was shortly replaced with the current Pumbaa puppet. This Pumbaa was made at the same time as the Simba puppet. Both were put into show about 3 years ago. The current Pumbaa puppet was reskinned during the down time, so he looks newer. Let's call him Pumbaa version 3.5.
The only "orginal" parts of the show was the Central Performance Platform. Everything else was "borrowed" from other parades and shows.
Even the theater has been rehabed twice now. The orginal rehab expanded the Giraffe and Lion sections to their current size.
I will get some pictures of the new enclosure as soon as possible.
) and that plastic Simba was added.