My Lion King Forum

I wanted to know what you guys think about Simba's voice actor in TLG, particularly because I didn't grow up watching the USA dub of the movies, so when I finally listened to him I thought Simba's delivery wasn't good. It's not that Rob Lowe's voice doesn't fit Simba, but the acting doesn't seem that good to me. From my point of view Matthew did a better job, but Rob is not terrible either. I'm surprised Simba's voice actor from Kingdom Hearts wasn't cast for the role since he actually does kind of resemble Matthew, I think he would have been a better choice. What are your thoughts?

I think Rob Lowe fits Simba at this part in his life better than Broderick would.

Simba, right now is a father of two, still getting used to being king, and has let go of most of the guilt from his dads death. Rob Lowes interpretation fits this well.

Broderick fit a Simba who was still feeling a lot of emotional guilt and anger.

I think that Rob Lowe pauses too much in between words. They should have tried to get close to how Simba sounds in the second movie to account for the timelines. It seemed like they were just trying to get someone with star power to me, not the person who'd best fit the role.

I've gotten used to Rob Lowe as Simba at this point, but he honestly doesn't sound very into the role. Either that or he doesn't have a lot of voice acting chops to begin with, because his delivery is generally very stiff and oftentimes unemotional, especially during points where Simba is supposed to sound more invested in what's going on. I especially hates when he tries to sound regal; his phrases and inflections just sound like he doesn't know what he's supposed to be saying.

As for me, I'm conservative so I prefer the original voice.

His voice is meh (I much prefer Matthew Broderick), but it's something I could get used to or at least live with. His delivery/acting is absolutely terrible though, and I wanna say it pretty much ruins the whole character. Simba's probably my least favourite character in the show. I feel like they did a really poor job with him. Yeah, his writing hasn't been the best either, but the voice acting plays a surprisingly big role in why he's so unenjoyable. I really hope Rob's voice acting and Simba's writing both improve in Season 2.

The Finnish dub has Simba's original voice actor (pretty sure he's dubbed Simba here in every incarnation of the character), and it's insane how much better the character feels simply because of his voiceover work. Not only is his voice more fitting as well as his acting better, but it really helps to have a VA who knows and clearly enjoys portraying the character, and also who fans know as the character. It was great hearing him sing Hakuna Matata again after all these years. Almost kinda emotional, in a way.

i like this choice for Simba's voice acting. it fits and looks/feels natural, i think all voicing is pretty good and fitting with the species and personalities of the characters.

[quote="zerodix"]i like this choice for Simba's voice acting. it fits and looks/feels natural, i think all voicing is pretty good and fitting with the species and personalities of the characters.[/quote]

I mean, it's not the worst voice acting I've ever heard. Not by a long shot. But I'd definitely have to heavily disagree with your opinion that it sounds or feels at all natural. It's about as unnatural as "not-completely-awful" voice acting can be.

It's especially annoying because Simba is such a big, important character, yet he's the only one suffering from this problem. All the other VAs in the English dub are great, or at least good. If Rob doesn't improve at the role, I frankly wish they'd change him to another VA.

I was very enthousiastic when I heard Rob Lowe was going to be voicing Simba.
I really like him as an actor, and I do like his voice.

However, when I heard him as Simba, I was very dissapointed. I prefer Matthew.
I agree, he doesn't sound natural to me either.

I'm not crazy about it, only because I thought Matthew did such a great job, and I don't think Rob Lowe replicates it very well. I mean, actors shouldn't copy other actors' performances, but with a Disney character I think it's a little different.

He did grow on me a little though, I will admit. Especially the episode with Bunga in the tunnels I thought made me respect his "authoritative" voice a little more. I'm always gonna miss Matt, but his voice how it is now its fine.

[quote="AnonLion"]I'm surprised Simba's voice actor from Kingdom Hearts wasn't cast for the role since he actually does kind of resemble Matthew, I think he would have been a better choice.[/quote]

This is a really interesting point! That actor did a great job I would have loved seeing him back. But I guess Rob Lowe is a popular name, so I can't blame them for wanting to experiment.