The Origin of The Pumbaa Family

Part 1:  The Real Story

Today marks 5 years since Disney widely released the "live action" Lion King in theaters.  I did not see it in the theater and was not even really much of a fan at the time.  I had seen the original and had a couple of the Elton John songs on a Greatest Hits album.

Then came the pandemic and with the social distancing and stuff it was easy to feel alone.  I had a great idea to try to help me sleep better at night:  get a teddy bear!  I still had a lot of stuffed toys but those were mostly from the 80s and 90s so they'd be dusty or maybe not in the best shape.  I thought it was better to get new ones.  So I went to Build-A-Bear and of course I didn't want to spend a lot so I went to the Clearance section.

I found a couple of bears right away:  a black "Midnight Moon" bear and just a basic light brown bear.  There was a special if you spent so much you'd get a discount so I looked around and then I saw they had Pumbaa from the live action movie.  I thought maybe I could give Pumbaa to my mom for Christmas or something since I think she likes pigs.

A week or so later I got the bears and Pumbaa.  I put the bears back in my room to try out.  I found the problem was of course I'd end up letting the bear go and knocking it off the bed.  So that experiment didn't work great.  Meanwhile Pumbaa sat on a table in the living room.  And gradually I was drawn to his mane of hair and how cute it was.  I began messing with it and stuff.

Top Row:  Malkia (in crown), Pumbaa Sr., Lady Puffer
Bottom Row:  Binti (in ribbon), Pumbaa Jr. (in crown), Puffer Pig

We didn't have in-person Christmas in 2020 and I didn't think to bring Pumbaa up north to drop off for my mom, so I just kept him.  And just kept him on the couch to watch TV with me and stuff.  I even started to make him talk, though I can't do a Pumbaa voice real well so it's kind of a higher voice that's easier for me.  (Which he explains by saying they dubbed his voice with Seth Rogen for the movie.  You know, like how they dubbed Arnold Schwarzenegger early on.)  

Character Notes:  Since Pumbaa is by himself, I made him realize that Timon was always gaslighting him and so he's become more confident.  Maybe too confident.  He knows he's a big deal, especially among piggies.  But he's also very sensitive.  He does a really cute little dance called the "Pumbaa Shuffle."  It worked really well during The Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett end credits.  And during the final big musical number of Scrooged where they sing, "Put A Little Love In Your Heart."  Only Pumbaa sings, "Put Hakuna Matada In Your Heart."  A little aside we do sometimes is have him talk about how sometimes on the set of The Lion King he would be a total diva.  Jon Favreau would tell him to do another take and Pumbaa would scream, "I'm not doing another take!  I'll be in my trailer!"  He didn't really of course.  The Chip & Dale movie on Disney+ helped to explain the difference between 1994 and 2019 Pumbaa in that like one of the chipmunks he got the "CGI surgery" to be three-dimensional.  Of course Pumbaa has a brief cameo in that too.

I had HBO Max in 2021 so we watched a lot of the animated DC shows.  Pumbaa's favorite superhero is Kilowog (aka Piggy Guy) in Green Lantern Animated because he looks like a pig and he eats grubs and stuff like Pumbaa.  Since at the time they didn't really have a larger figure of Kilowog I got a small one from the 2011 movie for Pumbaa. He also does a good Batman impression, only he says, "I'm Pumbaa."  Which kinda gives away his "secret" identity.

Of course we watched a ton of Rifftrax movies too.  Pumbaa's favorite is Radical Jack because Billy Ray Cyrus's mullet is kind of like Pumbaa's hair.  And Pumbaa likes to imagine that Jack is beating up people who eat pork.

Anyway, I had Disney+ by then so we watched the movie a few times.  I don't know how many times it was until I noticed a little Easter egg near the end of the movie.  When Simba's new child is going to presented, all the animals gather around Pride Rock.  At one point it cuts to Pumbaa and then if you look closely you can see a baby warthog appear next to him.  You know it's a baby warthog because it looks like young Pumbaa from the flashback during "Hakuna Matada" earlier.  And I'm like, "Wait, Pumbaa has a son!?"  Sure, it could be a sow too but I just thought of it as a son.

Pumbaa Jr.

Baby Pumbaa

Since Pumbaa was on the couch he of course began whining that he wanted a son on the couch.  The problem is only one company in Japan made a stuffed baby warthog.  So I had to find a different little boar.  In July 2021 I came home from a trip to Waterford and found the package from Amazon.  It was Pumbaa Jr.!

I tried to look up a name in Swahili but didn't really find any I liked.  And then I thought what better way to help validate the Pumbaa name than to have a son with the same name?  So he's been Pumbaa Jr. since.

Character Notes:  I wasn't sure what to do with Pumbaa Jr. at first.  His yellow eyes were kinda freaky; I thought maybe he should be a villain.  After a few days, though, I decided Pumbaa Jr. came to his daddy so he could learn to be a boar--and a king.  Pumbaa Jr. is destined to be the king of all piggies someday.  But he's not conceited about that.  He's very sweet and smart for his age.  He has a very regal and mature bearing that makes other animals like and trust him.

For a while it was just Pumbaa and Pumbaa Jr. on the couch and it was mostly fine, though Pumbaa Jr. was a little bummed on Christmas when his mommy didn't appear.  Otherwise it was fun watching TV and stuff with them, plus a Grogu and Baby Scrat I got from Amazon Vine.  At some point I got a regular Scrat that was on sale for like $8 on Amazon to go with Baby Scrat.

Last March I also got a little ordinary stuffed pig from Vine as well.  I wasn't sure what to name him but then in an episode of The Mandalorian they called someone a "puffer pig" and the pig was vacuum packed so when you took him out of the bag he puffed up.  So I called him Puffer Pig and he became Pumbaa Sr's adopted son and Pumbaa Jr's little brother.  Now we had a trio!

Character Notes:  Puffer is a regular pig and doesn't really talk.  He just oinks.  He and Pumbaa Jr like to roughhouse but Pumbaa Jr has to be careful not to use his tusks because that would be an unfair advantage.

For Christmas I decided to kick things up a notch.  I decided to find Pumbaa Jr's mommy.  I got one that is a pretty accurate warthog but when I got it, I realized it was the same size as Pumbaa Jr so that would be a little awkward.  I had bookmarked another BAB Pumbaa on Mercari and someone made me a good offer so I ordered it.  From Vine I also got a slightly bigger regular pig.

So on Christmas I opened the presents with the pigs and the population doubled!  From Vine I got some hair bows and put a pink one on the BAB Pumbaa and a red one on the other stuffed warthog.  That way I'd know which is which.  Using Google Translate I found out "Malkia" is Swahili for "Queen" and so that became Pumbaa Jr's mommy and Pumbaa Sr's sow friend.  (Pigs don't get married like humans.)  And "Binti" means daughter, so that became the other warthog, who is Pumbaa Jr's sow friend.  And the regular pig is Lady Puffer or Puffer Pig's mommy.  So all the boars got a sow.

Character Notes:  I decided Malkia as the queen is very sassy and in charge.  She doesn't take any guff from either Pumbaa or anyone else--including me.  Her voice is basically the same as Pumbaa's because I suck.  I mean, I'm not Seth MacFarlane or anything.  Since I can't really do a lot of voices, Binti is a wild sow who doesn't really talk in English, but can speak in oinks or grunts or whatever.  Pumbaa Jr. is very protective of his new friend.

All of the pigs are not happy whenever I eat anything that uses pig meat:  pork, sausage, ham, spam, bacon, etc. etc.  Someday they vow that the pigs will rise up and destroy the pork eaters.  So, watch out for when that day comes...

Part 2:  The Legend

Now here's how the story would actually play out if it were in the movie continuity.

After the battle with Scar, Pumbaa sees Simba with Nala and decides to find some other warthogs so he can get a sow.  Timon wants to go but this is something Pumbaa has to do on his own.  Rafiki gives him some direction on which way to go.  Pumbaa sets out on a dangerous journey, escaping hyenas, crocodiles, or whatever other predators.

A few days later, Pumbaa sees a beautiful young sow and a couple of boars being attacked by hyenas.  Pumbaa leaps into the fray and drives the hyenas away.  The sow introduces herself as Malkia the queen of a group of warthogs.  She invites Pumbaa to come back with them and stay as long as he wants.  Finally Pumbaa has found his own kind!  And he's a hero!  At least to most of the warthogs, though there's one boar who doesn't like him because he was supposed to be with Malkia--and then he'd arrange for Malkia to have an "accident" to take over.  Sort of like Scar.

Pumbaa and Malkia get to know each other over a few days as they explore the area and dig up bugs and stuff.  Eventually some "furious jumping" would be implied.  But eventually Pumbaa decides to go back to Pride Rock to tell his friends about what he found.  He says goodbye to Malkia and promises to see her again someday.

Eventually Pumbaa makes his way back to Pride Rock and finds Timon has killed himself tells his friends of his adventures and finds that Nala is pregnant.  He's happy for Simba and there's probably a party and stuff.

Meanwhile, Malkia finds out she's pregnant and about 5 months after Pumbaa left, she gives birth to Pumbaa Jr--the Warthog King!  He is destined to someday take over the whole group.  But after the evil boar nearly kills Pumbaa Jr., Malkia decides to send him to his father to learn to be a boar and to learn to be a king from Simba.

One night, Pumbaa is asleep when Rafiki tells him that he has a son who is in great danger.  Pumbaa leaves at once to save his son before he can be killed by a crocodile in a watering hole.  Pumbaa Jr. says that he is Pumbaa Sr's son and his mommy sent him to Pride Rock.  So Pumbaa takes him there and they arrive as Simba and Nala's lion cub is presented.

Over the next months or year or so, Pumbaa Jr. gets older and grows tusks and stuff.  His daddy teaches him how to hunt bugs and all that stuff.  Then one day while they're looking for bugs and such they find a young regular pig called Puffer and take him back.  While it's extra responsibility for Pumbaa Sr, his son is very happy to have another boar to play with.

In time, Pumbaa decides his sons are old enough to return to Malkia's queendom.  He talks to Simba who wishes him well and thanks Rafiki for helping him save Pumbaa Jr.  Then they set out and get near Malkia's territory only to be chased off by some nasty boars working for the evil one.

They run into a young sow named Binti who tells them that after Pumbaa Jr. left the evil boar and his buddies captured Malkia and took over.  Binti helps the Pumbaas and Puffer get in and they free Malkia and Puffer's mommy.  Then Malkia and Pumbaa Jr. rally the other warthogs to defeat the nasty ones with Pumbaa Sr. and the Puffers helping.  

Once the nasty boars are driven off, Malkia is re-crowned the queen and Pumbaa Jr. is made the king.  Malkia offers Binti a place in the group and she agrees.  Pumbaa Jr. is smitten with her and while they go off to play, Malkia and Pumbaa Sr. get reacquainted.

The whole family is thus brought together and lives Happily Ever After.

And there you go, that's how a pandemic, loneliness, and madness shape a real story that inspires a fake story.

Part 3:  Pumbaa & Peppa

When Pumbaa Sr. was the only pig, sometimes I entertained him with clips of Peppa Pig on the Roku Channel.  When I finally got Paramount+ I could put on whole episodes.  Each episode is like 4 5-minute segments and they remix a lot of them in each season so I think I saw the "Pedro is Late" segment about 200 times for some reason.

Anyway, I thought of how to do a Pumbaa and Peppa crossover.  One day Peppa and her family are outside on a picnic or camping or something.  Then they're spooked by a noise in the bushes.  Out of the bush appears a wild animal!  It's brown with scary tusks, a snout, and a straight tail.  Daddy Pig is going to scare the wild animal away until it talks and says his name is Pumbaa.  He lives in Pride Rock but he got lost.

Pumbaa explains he's a warthog, which is a type of pig.  When they apologize for trying to scare him off, he says, "Hakuna Matada."  They don't know what that is, so he teaches them the song. And then Peppa invites him to jump in some muddy puddles with them.  With four hooves, Pumbaa can really make the mud fly!  Everyone has fun and then Pumbaa leaves, inviting Peppa to stop by Pride Rock with her family.  And they promise they will.

There you go, that can probably just be a 5-minute segment.  Or maybe it'd have to be 2 if you use the whole song, which is like 4 minutes by itself.

Fun Facts:  for Christmas I also got Pumbaa Sr a stuffed Mummy Pig.  Malkia does not approve of that or Peppa in general because they're too much like humans.  Pumbaa Jr. doesn't really like the show because it's for babies.  I got a few other Peppa toys from Vine like a train with Peppa and Miss Rabbit and little wooden figures of Peppa's whole family.  There also used to be videos on the Roku Channel where someone was playing with a lot of the different Peppa toys like a house and RV and all that stuff that was kinda expensive so I never got any of it; I mean even my madness has limits.