Nala

Nala is first seen in The Lion King being bathed by her mother Sarafina. Simba appears, and asks if he and Nala can go to the ‘Water hole’ but really, he has been tricked by Scar (his evil uncle) to go to the Elephant Graveyard. Nala says, “The water hole, whats so great about the water hole?” to which Simba replies, “I’ll show you when we get there”. Sarabi and Sarafina agree to the young cubs going, but only is Zazu (Mufasa’s ‘sidekick’) goes with them, much to Nala and Simbas disgust.

Whilst walking, Zazu explains to them that they will be betrothed when they are older, which again Nala and Simba are disgusted about. When they finally ‘ditch the dodo’ during Simbas song ‘I just can’t wait to be King’, they go to the elephant graveyard where they are confronted by hyenas, Shenzi, Banzai and Ed. Zazu comes to the ‘rescue’ and the hyenas take him to the ‘birdie boiler’, Simba asks, “Hey! Why don’t you pick on somebody your own size?” to which the hyenas reply, “Like you?” which follows with Nala and Simba both running to try and escape the hyenas. Mufasa comes to his sons rescue, and sends Nala home with Zazu.

Nala is next seen being told by Scar that Simba and Mufasa are dead. Along with the rest of the pride, she  mourns.

The next time we see Nala in the film is as an adult. She is hunting Pumbaa, because the Pride Lands don’t have any food, however, she is met with Simba when he rescues Pumbaa from her attacking him. Nala is absolutely ecstatic to find Simba as she thought he was dead, as they go for a walk through the forest, they fall in love, but when Nala tells Simba about Scar taking over the Pride Lands and there is no food or water, Simba just says ‘Hakuna Matata’ and explains to Nala that it means ‘no worries’. “Sometimes bad things happen, and theres nothing you can do about it, so why try?”. Nala leaves Simba annoyed at his refusal to return as King.

The next morning she wakes Timon and Pumbaa, and they discover from Rafika that Simba has returned to the Pride Lands to challenge Scar, much to Timon and Pumbaa’s confusion. Nala, Timon and Pumbaa follow Simba to help him take on Scar, whilst Timon and Pumbaa distract the hyenas, Nala goes to find Sarabi and rally up the rest of the lionesses. As Simba is forced to admit he killed his own father (which he didn’t by the way), Nala is shocked, but then Scar reveals it was actually him, and Nala is the first to go into battle with the hyenas. Once the battle is over, Nala and Simba live happily ever after and in the second Lion King.. they have had a cub, Kiera.