Timon and Pumbaa

Timon and Pumbaa are an animated meerkat and warthog duo introduced in Disney's 1994 animated feature film The Lion King and its franchise. Timon was played through his many appearances by Nathan Lane (in all three films and early episodes of the show), Max Casella (the original actor in Broadway musical), Kevin Schon (in certain episodes of the show), Quinton Flynn (in certain episodes of the show), Bruce Lanoil in the Wild About Safety shorts and Kingdom Hearts II, while Pumbaa is voiced by Ernie Sabella (in all of his traditionally animated speaking appearances), and was portrayed by Tom Alan Robbins in the original cast of the Broadway musical. In the CGI remake, the characters are portrayed by Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen, respectively. Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella first came to audition for the roles of the hyenas, but when the producers saw how well they worked together, they decided to cast them as Timon and Pumbaa.

As with many characters in The Lion King, Pumbaa's name derives from the East African language Swahili. In Swahili, pumbaa (v.) means "to be foolish, silly, weakminded, careless, negligent." Timon is one of the few characters whose name has no meaning in Swahili; Timon is a historical Greek name, taken to mean "he who respects." Timon's name may derive from Shakespeare's tragedy Timon of Athens, another Shakespeare reference in a film which derives its plot from Hamlet. The tragedy is based in the history of the real Timon of Athens, a famous misanthrope during the era of the Peloponnesian War, who refused life in Athens to live isolated. Another explanation is that he is named after the Greek philosopher Timon, a disciple of Pyrrho, the founder of the school of skepticism.

Timon is an insouciant and fast-talking meerkat who is known for claiming Pumbaa's ideas as his own. Pumbaa is a friendly warthog with flatulence problems but is also a brave warrior, charging into battle like a battering ram, and taking great offense if anyone who's not his friend calls him a pig, at which point he exclaims "They call me Mister pig!"—a reference to Sidney Poitier's line "They call me Mister Tibbs!" from the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night and then screams as he charges. Unlike real meerkats, Timon can walk on his hind legs, while in real life, meerkats walk on all four legs and can only stand on their hind ones.

During production of The Lion King, Timon and Pumbaa were portrayed as children who grew up with Simba in the Pride Lands and fled with him to the jungle. Timon and Pumbaa's roles were later changed to make them "strangers and fellow outcasts" so that Simba would have someone to take him under their wing.

Timon and Pumbaa originally sang a song titled "Warthog Rhapsody", but it was ultimately replaced by "Hakuna Matata" as the filmmakers wanted to move the plot along and have Simba being shown turning his back on responsibilities. The "Hakuna Matata" musical sequence originally had a verse explaining Timon's backstory. In this version, Timon was an oddball amongst other meerkats from his former colony as he refused to work, which ultimately led to his exile. That scene was deleted as the filmmakers felt that it was not working, thus changing the scene to focus on Pumbaa's background instead.

According to George Scribner, Pumbaa was originally conceived as an elephant by Lion King screenwriter Linda Woolverton, but Scribner recommended that he be a warthog instead.

Originally, Nathan Lane auditioned for the role of Zazu, and he and his friend and fellow voice actor Ernie Sabella were originally cast for the hyenas. Upon meeting at the recording studio, Lane and Sabella – who were starring together in the 1992 Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls at the time – were asked to record together as hyenas. The directors laughed at their performance and because of their strong and authentic chemistry, they were instead cast as Timon and Pumbaa.

Tony Bancroft and Michael Surrey were given the assignment to animate Timon and Pumbaa, having previously animated Aladdin and Iago from Aladdin (1992) and Cogsworth and Lumière from Beauty and the Beast (1991). Surrey commented that since a warthog would eat a meerkat in real life, they have taken quite a few liberties in making them friends. As he watched Nathan Lane at the recording session, he was able to embody his distinct eyebrows and facial expressions into the character of Timon. Bancroft added that he would typically start the animation in most scenes because Pumbaa is "almost like a moving stage for Timon", noting that Timon is usually on Pumbaa's head or his nose or climbing all over him. Before he did any actual drawing, he talked the scene over to Surrey to make sure that what he was doing would work with what Surrey had in mind for Timon.