When Disneyland Paris’ new Lion King details were announced at D23 this year, I had two thoughts. First, that’s awesome. And secondly, how has a Disney park never featured a full land themed around the seminal 1994 movie before? It’s clearly a movie that lives fondly in peoples’ hearts, and also Disney World has a whole theme park dedicated to animals, and we just have one Lion King show.
I don’t have the full answer to that question, but thanks to the Internet’s ability to dig up viral clips, I do know Disneyland Paris has gone viral thanks to The Lion King and a live baby cub before. Yes, you must see it to believe it.
Let’s Jump Back To Disneyland Paris In 2004
Ten years after the release of The Lion King, the movie was still popular thanks to the Disney vault (those of you with a Disney+ subscription don’t know how good you’ve had it) and the recent release of The Lion King 1 1/2. This was apparently true of fans in France, as well, as the famous Disneyland Paris put on a Lion King Carnival. That in and of itself was special given the lack of lands surrounding Simba and co. at the time, but it also came with a live event that featured a character actor dressed up as Rafiki holding up a real live lion cub on Pride Rock, much like happens in the original animated movie.
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This honestly sounded like the stuff of legend when I first heard about it, but one frequent theme parkgoer shared their footage of the event this week. If reports are true, multiple sources seem to be confirming this is a thing that actually happened and/or they were privy to at the time.
A poster over on X shared a slew of footage from the event at the time, and eagle-eyed fans spotted what seemed to be a real-life lion cub amidst the other characters working the event. The poster then shared a second video from the event that seemed to confirm a real lion cub was brought in for a Pride Rock scene, and that was no stuffie.
Because of the comments about the real Lion Cub, here is part of the video where he puts the cub into the air, let me know if you are interested for me to put the whole video up of the show ? pic.twitter.com/iXM2N34AE2August 24, 2026
Several posters also went to the Carnival the year it occurred at Disneyland Paris and confirmed the baby lion was real and really in attendance, and you can find additional evidence peppered over Flickr and more places. While it’s not unusual to see animals in theme parks, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida has a range of animals of prey on the Savannah, these aren’t really animals that are being taken out of their enclosures and used for show content.
The expectations in Paris in 2004 were clearly different. The celebration as a whole sounds big and bold though. Just to add a little icing to the cake, at the end of the night, after the whole Lion King-themed live Simba moment, the park reportedly put on some amusingly named FiROARWorks.
What We Know About The Disneyland Paris Attraction
So, why is this resurfacing right now? The Lion King has been a big topic of conversation over the last several days. We’ve known since 2024 something was coming to Disneyland Paris, but this year new details were announced, and Disney shared the concept art for the area, above.
Disneyland Paris is set to take riders all the way back to the Pridelands for a new water ride, and it’s all part of a major Lion King-themed area that’s been under construction at the park for a while. The big new attraction there will be a log flume ride that feels similar to Splash Mountain/Tiana’s Bayou Adventure that will show Simba growing from a young cub at the start of the journey to the King of Pride Rock. It’ll have a 52-foot drop which is also similar to Tiana’s, which sports around a 50-foot drop.
It’s a little different than what several of the Senior Management team at Disney World told CinemaBlend they had envisioned (think: more Pandora-style). Regardless, a construction model and more were shown, and you can check out more via our D23 Event Blog. Meanwhile, Disney is looking to expand a lot of its parks and not just Disneyland Paris. Stay tuned as more news comes down the pipeline. We’re having a roaring good time with it.