The Lion King as a recurring summon, as well as a playable in the "Lion King" world, known as Pride Lands, in "Kingdom Hearts II". There the plotline is loosely related to the later part of the original film, with all of the main characters except Zazu and Sarabi. "The Lion King" also provides one of the worlds featured in the 2011 action-adventure game "Disney Universe", and Simba was featured in the Nintendo DS title "Disney Friends" (2008). Walt Disney Theatrical produced a musical stage adaptation of the same name, which premiered in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 1997, and later opened on Broadway
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