The Lion King (franchise) of five games. It features the characters Rafiki, Timon and Pumbaa. A game called "The Lion King 1½" was published in 2003 for the Game Boy Advance, based on the direct-to-video film and featuring Timon and Pumbaa as the playable characters. Some of the film's characters are playable in "Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure", a spin-off of the Tony Hawk games. In the Disney Interactive Studios and Square Enix video game "Kingdom Hearts", Simba appears as an ally that Sora can summon during battles. He also appears again as a summon character in "". In "Kingdom Hearts II", the Pride Lands
Simba film. Directed by Julie Taymor, with a book by Irene Mecchi and Roger Allers, "The Lion King "premiered at the New Amsterdam Theatre on November 13, 1997, where it ran for nine years until being moved to the Minskoff Theatre on June 13, 2006. The role of Simba was originated by Scott Irby-Ranniar and Jason Raize, with Irby-Ranniar portraying Young Simba and Raize portraying Adult Simba. Raize auditioned for the role of Adult Simba after hearing that Taymor was looking to cast an actor who was of "unidentifiable ethnicity." Raize revealed in an interview that there was a lot of