The Lion King (2019) was released about a month after the 25th anniversary of the original film's release, and it acts as a sort of Milestone Celebration, providing callbacks and nods from near and far across the quarter-of-a-century-old franchise.
- A meta-example with the film's marketing. The original film's first teaser trailer
was simply the "Circle of Life" sequence. This film's first teaser trailer (screened only for the D23 2017 Expo) was the new "Circle of Life" sequence, and the first public teaser trailer (released in November 2018) also largely consisted of scenes from “Circle of Life”. On the film’s home release special features, Favreau confirmed that this was indeed the intention to pay tribute to the 1993 teaser, and he took it a step further by showing an abridged “Circle of Life” at the D23 2017 expo. - Rather than an elephant graveyard (despite still being called that by the characters), the hyenas' main den site bears a much closer resemblance to the Outlands as portrayed in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, chiefly by way of the combination of rock formations/large termite mounds and the numerous tunnels and caverns within. The scene where Simba's voice echoes in the graveyard is likely a reference to The Lion King 1 ½, when Timon and Pumbaa visited the Elephant Graveyard and Timon's voice echoed as he spoke.
- The shot of cub Simba looking at a rhinoceros beetle sitting on a rock is a reference to a similar moment◊ in the original with Pumbaa.
- When Simba takes his place at Mufasa’s side for his scolding, the pair are in the same position they were in the original film, but more notably they are in the same position they were during Mufasa’s speech about “everything the light touches”. This is even more significant since the scene is meant to be a massive Foreshadowing to Mufasa’s impending death, IE the sun setting on his time as king.
- Scar's design resembles that of Zira, the main villain of Simba’s Pride, featuring a lean build, dull brown coloration, torn right ear, and prominent dark stripe running down the center of his foreheadnote .
- While just a face instead of the whole body, the painting of Simba on Rafiki's tree is the same design as in the original movie.
- There are a few background creatures in Timon and Pumbaa's jungle home that are references to various minor characters from prior Lion King projects, such as the galagonote is a reference to Laini, a recurring minor character from The Lion Guard who appears in a number of episodes.
- Also among Timon and Pumbaa's neighbors in the forest are a bat-eared fox and an aardvark, who may be nods to Bhati and Daabi, respectively, who would have been Simba and Nala's childhood pals in the original King of the Jungle treatments.
- The film contains various references to Julie Taymor's stage production:
- The film proper begins with a short scene of a mouse scurrying about, minding its own business before it runs afoul of Scar, much like the Broadway play.
- A group of gazelles are seen as Mufasa explains the “delicate balance” a king must maintain, until Simba questions how they can respect the animals they prey on. In the play, an actor playing a herd of gazelles also crosses in front of Simba and Mufasa during the same lines of dialogue. The footage of the 2019 gazelles is even slowed down for a Scenery Porn moment, unintentionally strengthening a parallel to the actor in the musical who pushes the gazelle wheel.
- Zazu’s line about Mufasa’s rambunctious childhood is lifted directly from the show.
Zazu: I remember a certain headstrong cub who was always getting into scrapes, and he achieved some prominence, did he not, sire?- During the stampede, Mufasa gets to the tree Simba is holding onto and asks him to jump to him, just as his Broadway counterpart did. He doesn’t get the chance to catch Simba, however, because this time, a wildebeest plows into him, knocking them all over.
- Scar’s subplot about trying to make Sarabi his queen is a reworking of a subplot from the Broadway adaptationnote in which Scar infamously tries to make Nala his queen.
- The Shout-Out to Beauty and the Beast was conceived after Favreau saw a production of the musical in which Zazu sang "Let It Go", and felt it would be funny if the film also paid tribute to a fellow Disney musical in such a way. And by coincidence, when said show first debuted on Broadway, "Be Our Guest" was the song Zazu sang in that scene.
- At the end of the film before Simba ascends Pride Rock, Zazu greets him as “your majesty”. This line was cut late in the original film’s development, but remains in the Broadway production to this day.
- When Pumbaa suggests keeping Simba, he explains that “one day when he’s big and strong” he'll be able to protect them, quoting "My Lullaby" from Simba’s Pride.note
- When Scar arrives at the Elephant Graveyard and Kamari threatens to eat him, Scar asks why they'd settle for one meal now when they could be feasting for the rest of their lives. The DVD Commentary from the original film stated that when Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella were auditioning for roles as hyenas, they shared a nearly identical exchange ("One meal now or years of feasting in the future?" "One meal now, definitely one meal now!").
- The film also has references to The Lion King 1 ½:
- Like 1½, this movie reveals that, after distracting the hyenas, Timon and Pumbaa were chased into a cave until Pumbaa chased the hyenas off.
- As with 1½, we find out that Timon and Pumbaa were watching Simba and Nala during their verse at the end of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight".
- The movie has a shot of baby Pumbaa making bubbles in the water. In the midquel, Pumbaa made a jacuzzi out of a water hole by continuously passing gas in it.
- Timon, Pumbaa, and Simba sleep together in a stump.
- This isn't the first time Nala gets into a Designated Girl Fight with The Dragon.
- Timon and Pumbaa have friends who imply Simba's not a "real lion" for having a laidback personality and are also afraid of him eating them because of his species. Episodes of the Timon & Pumbaa TV series, "Congo On Like This" and "Shake Your Djibouti", had Timon & Pumbaa (mainly Timon) being afraid of Simba for the possibility of him eating them due to a tarsier's (Actually a carnivorous wild dog in disguise) warning or questioning how good of a lion he is because he isn't as violent as a "lion should be".
