Timon & Pumbaa (TV series)

The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa
Genre	Comedy Adventure
Created by	Walt Disney Television
Directed by	Roberts Gannaway Tony Craig Rob LaDuca Jeff DeGrandis Eddy Houchins Mauro Casalese Brad Neave
Voices of	Quinton Flynn Ernie Sabella Charlie Adler Corey Burton Nancy Cartwright Cam Clarke S. Scott Bullock Townsend Coleman Brian Cummings Jim Cummings Michael Gough Robert Guillaume Jess Harnell Frank Welker Jeff Bennett Phil LaMarr Tress MacNeille Brad Garrett Rob Paulsen Greg Ellis Kevin Schon April Winchell Nathan Lane
Theme music composer	Elton John (music) Tim Rice (lyrics)
Opening theme	"Hakuna Matata"
Composer(s)	Stephen James Taylor
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	85 (171 segment episodes) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Tedd Anasti Patsy Cameron
Producer(s)	Chris Bartleman Blair Peters Bobs Gannaway Tony Craig
Editor(s)	John Royer
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	Walt Disney Television Animation
Distributor	Disney–ABC Domestic Television
Release
Original network	Syndication CBS Toon Disney
Picture format	Color
Audio format	Stereo (Early Season 1) Dolby Surround (Mid-Late Season 1–3)
Original release	September 8, 1995 (1995-09-08) – September 24, 1999 (1999-09-24)
Chronology
Preceded by	The Lion King
Followed by	The Lion King II: Simba's Pride The Lion King 1½
Related shows	The Lion Guard

The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa, often simply referred to as Timon & Pumbaa, is an American animated television series created by Walt Disney Television Animation. Based on the 1994 Disney animated film The Lion King, it centers on Timon the meerkat and Pumbaa the warthog, as they live their problem-free philosophy Hakuna Matata. The show ran for three seasons on CBS, Disney Channel, Toon Disney, and in syndication as a part of The Disney Afternoon. It aired from September 8, 1995 to September 24, 1999. It is also the first Lion King related media to show humans, as humans were not present in the movie. It is the first of two television series to be based on the film, the second being The Lion Guard.

In 2004, Timon and Pumbaa starred in their own released feature film The Lion King 1½, a direct-to-video adaptation of the television series to the first of two films. Robert Guillaume, Matthew Broderick, Cam Clarke, Julie Kavner and Estelle Harris, Nathan Lane, Quinton Flynn, Kevin Schon, Ernie Sabella, Scott Bullock and Jerry Stiller, provided the voices of Rafiki, Simba, Timon's Mother, Timon, Pumbaa, Fred and Uncle Max respectively in The Lion King 1½, and two seasons of television series episodes Mombasa-In-Law/The Laughing Hyenas: TV Dinner, Once Upon a Timon.

Premise

The show stars Timon, a meerkat, and Pumbaa, a warthog, both characters from the Disney animated film The Lion King and its sequels. Set after the events of the original film, the series involves the characters having misadventures in the jungle of Africa, as well as across the globe in various settings such as Canada, Britain, the United States and Spain. While the show focuses primarily on Timon and Pumbaa, it has four respective episodes centering on Rafiki and the hyena trio Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed, which are under the names Rafiki Fables and The Laughing Hyenas, and two episodes centering on Zazu.

Production

The series premiered on September 8, 1995, airing on Fridays on the syndicated block The Disney Afternoon. Eight days later, on September 16, the series also began airing on Saturday mornings on CBS. The show was one of the last Disney productions to air on CBS, which had a cross-promotion agreement with Disney, as Disney bought ABC in 1996, the same year that this show (and all other Disney properties still airing on CBS at the time) left the network. Also, in 1995, Westinghouse acquired CBS outright for $5.4 billion. As one of the major broadcasting group owners of commercial radio and television stations (as Group W) since 1920, Westinghouse sought to transition from a station operator into a major media company with its purchase of CBS.^[1] Music underscore by Stephen James Taylor featuring frequent use of a microtonal xylophone and pan pipes based on an African tribal tuning .

Animation production was done by a consortium of overseas animation studios, including Walt Disney Television Animation (Australia) Pty. Limited, Toon City, Wang Film Productions, Thai Wang Film Productions, Rough Draft Korea Co., Ltd., Sunmin Image Pictures Co., Sunwoo Animation, Koko Enterprises, Gnome Productions, Jaime Diaz Productions, Shanghai Morning Sun Animation, Sichuan Top Animation and Studio B Productions.

After the second season, Roberts Gannaway and Tony Craig, the series' producers and directors, left the show to work on 101 Dalmatians. The series then returned in 1998 for a 39-episode third season, with a change in writers and new directors. Since February 8, 2009 (after its final airing on the now-defunct Toon Disney), this show went off the air for three years. However, it returned to broadcast reruns on March 23, 2012 on Disney Junior.

Characters

Main

• Timon (voiced in early episodes by Nathan Lane, then by Kevin Schon or Quinton Flynn): One of the show's two main protagonists.
• Pumbaa (voiced by Ernie Sabella): One of the show's two main protagonists.

The Lion King alumni

The following characters from The Lion King movies appear in this series:

• Simba (voiced by Cam Clarke): Best friend of Timon and Pumbaa, who is now King of the Pride Lands and is occasionally the voice of reason around Timon and Pumbaa's mess-ups.
• Rafiki (voiced by Robert Guillaume): A wise baboon who gives good advice and is occasionally the butt of jokes.
• Zazu (voiced by Edward Hibbert): A pompous hornbill who works for Simba.
• Shenzi, Banzai and Ed (voiced by Tress MacNeille, Rob Paulsen and Jim Cummings): Three crazy hyenas who are usually spending their time looking for food, though their attempts to get it tend to backfire.
• Gopher (voiced by Jim Cummings): A mole, and chief lieutenant of Zazu.

Other characters

• Quint (voiced by Corey Burton): Timon and Pumbaa's human archenemy and the main antagonist of the series. He is a man of many disguises and his role varies from episode to episode, from mildly bothersome antagonist to full villain.
• Speedy the Snail (voiced by Corey Burton, in a manner similar to Bing Crosby): An easygoing blue snail who can talk and sing. Timon and Pumbaa originally planned to eat him, but ended up becoming friends with him instead. They often find themselves rushing to have to save Speedy from dangerous situations.
• Fred (voiced by S. Scott Bullock): A maniacal meerkat who is an old friend of Timon. He loves to laugh and play around, as well as pulling practical jokes. He often uses Timon and Pumbaa as his victims, although they don't find his jokes very funny.
• Boss Beaver (voiced by Brad Garrett): A stereotypical beaver whose life philosophy is the exact opposite of Hakuna Matata. He values hard work and is sometimes too harsh on his employees. He also emphasizes the importance of safe work conditions.
• Irwin (voiced by Charlie Adler): A dimwitted, accident-prone penguin whose bad luck seems to be terribly contagious. Timon and Pumbaa became his friends after they were stranded in Antarctica and Irwin had two extra tickets to a cruise ship. They will try to avoid him at all costs.
• Toucan Dan (voiced by Jeff Bennett): A criminal toucan, wanted by the police. He is known for being a sly con-artist and always manages to trick Timon and Pumbaa (or just Timon) into helping him in his schemes and cons.
• Smolder the Bear (voiced by Jim Cummings): A large brown bear with a very short temperament who Timon and Pumbaa often run into. He can be quite menacing and dangerous, but at least one episode shows that deep inside he is a nice guy.
• The Three Natives (voiced by Jeff Bennett): Three natives who are really university students. Their "chief" is also a university student, and usually precedes what he says with "Bungala bungala!"

Episodes

Home video releases

VHS releases

US releases

Six VHS cassettes containing 18 episodes of the series were released in the United States under the name Timon & Pumbaa's Wild Adventures.

European & Australian releases

Three VHS cassettes containing 21 episodes of the series were released in Europe and Australia, each containing six episodes and a music video. The first VHS, Around The World With Timon And Pumbaa, doubles as an OVA as it features an original story in which, after Pumbaa develops amnesia from a lightning strike, Timon tries to restore his friend's memory through the episodes featured on that video.

DVD releases

Three DVDs containing 21 episodes of the series were released in Europe and Japan.

To date, none of the series has yet been released on DVD in the United States.

Music

Other media

Video games

Awards and nominations

Daytime Emmy Awards

• 1996 – Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program – Nathan Lane For playing "Timon". (Won)
• 1997 – Outstanding Sound Mixing – Special Class – Deb Adair, Jim Hodson, Melissa Ellis, Michael Beiriger, Dan Hiland, Joseph D. Citarella, Allen L. Stone, and Michael Jiron (Won)
• 1997 – Outstanding Individual in Animation – Kexx Singleton for ("Beethoven's Whiff") (Won)

References

External links

• Timon & Pumbaa on IMDb
• The Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Timon & Pumbaa at TV.com