Simba Henn animated the character's first appearance as an adult that occurs near the end of the "Hakuna Matata" musical number. Released in theaters in 1994, "The Lion King" marks Simba's first appearance. All the animals in the Pride Lands gather at the foot of Pride Rock to commemorate the birth of Simba, who will eventually succeed to the throne and take his father Mufasa's place as king. Furious by the fact that he is no longer next in line, Simba's jealous uncle Scar refuses to attend the ceremony. While Simba grows into a rambunctious lion cub who frequently boasts about
Simba Magic Kingdom, which retold the story of the film using fully articulated puppets. Other Disney attractions that have featured Simba include the Mickey's PhilharMagic 3D show and the Hong Kong Disneyland version of "It's a Small World". He appeared as one of the main characters at Epcot's Land Pavilion 12-minute edutainment film "", until its closure in 2018. He currently appears in animatronic form in Festival of the Lion King at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Although "The Lion King" itself has garnered universal acclaim from film critics, reception towards Simba has been generally mixed. "The Christian Science Monitor"s David Sterritt hailed