Meet The Lion Disney Filmed To Create Simba In The Lion King

As far as lions go - in the real world at least - they don't come much more famous than Bahati, a young cub at Dallas Zoo.

The other day, the zoo that Bahati calls home revealed that the motion capture team from Disney recently took footage of Bahati to use as a guideline for Simba in the new live-action remake of The Lion King.

It's super cute, by the way.

Whilst Bahati is now a two-year-old lioness, the footage was taken when she was only a baby and showed Bahati behaving exactly as all baby lions do.

Dallas Zoo shared the news on their Facebook page. They said: "BAHATI OR SIMBA?: The world's most famous lion cub may have gotten some of his moves from our very own Bahati!

"When Bahati was just a month old, we provided Disney with video of her movements for their animation team to use for motion and behavior reference when designing Simba in The Lion King.

"From walking on wobbly new legs, to licking milk droplets off of her face, we captured every moment, no matter how small. So now you MUST go see Disney's The Lion King, and let us know if you see any bit of baby Bahati in Simba."

The footage taken was sent to Disney, who presumably took cues from it when they were animating how the young lion should act. At the same time, they immortalised young Bahati forever.

The zookeepers filmed all of her movements for about a week, observing her doing all sorts of stuff. It is the first time that they've helped with a major motion picture.

To be fair, it's not every day a huge company like Disney comes to you asking if they can film one of your baby lions. It could be a while before they come calling again, unless they're remaking a live-action Lion King 2.

Either way, now Bahati is famous worldwide.

Dallas Zoo's carnivore specialist Lora Baumhardt told local TV station Fox 4: "Bahati is one of the most famous lions in the country,

"We had our phones on us at all times. We were able to capture moments of her nursing, the first time she ate meat, to walking and running and climbing, even drinking out of water bowls and stumbling over logs and going through doorways."

If you want to see her in action, The Lion King, starring Beyoncé, Donald Glover, Seth Rogen and Chiwetel Ejiofor, is in cinemas worldwide now.

Featured Image Credit: Dallas Zoo

Topics: TV and Film, US News, US Entertainment, Animals

Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a LADbible journalist and Twin Peaks enthusiast. Despite having a career in football cut short by a chronic lack of talent, he managed to obtain degrees from both the University of London and Salford. According to his French teacher, at the weekend he mostly likes to play football and go to the park with his brother. Contact Tom on [email protected]

@TPWagwim