Lion Captain

"I'm in charge here, and I won't turn this ship around for anyone!"

- The Lion Captain denying Hazel the Grymp's request

"You're really starting to get on my last nerve."

- Lion Captain to Dave the Nestrian

"Looks like I got to get my paws dirty after all!"

- Lion as he chokes Hazel

The Lion Captain a.k.a. Lion is the (former) secondary antagonist of the 2015 animated film All Creatures Big and Small (Originally titled Oops! Noah is Gone... and titled Two by Two in the UK).

He is voiced by Alan Stanford, who also provided the voice for Black Wolf in The Flight Before Christmas.

Information
He is the captain of Noah's Ark and is determined to search for dry land during the great flood for the safety of all the passengers on the Ark.

Background
Lion is a strong and bulky lion with brown eyes and a black mane and the captain of the Ark. He has two gorilla henchmen, and two assistants, a flamingo and a rhino named Margaret.

History
Lion first appears at the beginning of the film gathering the animals to warn them about the flood, and informs them about Noah's Ark, a massive wooden boat able to hold a male and female for every species, as long as they were on Noah's checklist. He, Margaret, and Flamingo set up a check-in station inside a short cave, where almost every animal from the gathering is accepted. There are three known rejects to the Ark: the nestrians, Obesey the slug, and Tanglefoot (a squid-like creature). Dave the Nestrian pleads Lion to reconsider, but is still refused from boarding the Ark. The next morning, before the flood-water comes in, Lion alerts all the passengers to seek shelter in their assigned cabins so they don't fall off and drown.

When Dave is discovered to be a stowaway by Mrs. Gorilla, she throws him and Hazel the Grymp into the prison cell and calls her boss. Dave and Hazel try to explain to Lion about the disappearance of their children and beg him to turn the Ark around. Lion says he must follow Noah's orders and refuses. Before leaving, he tells Mrs. Gorilla to keep them imprisoned so he can deal with them later.

Dave and Hazel trick the Gorillas into letting them out of their cell, and make it up to the ship's bridge where Lion is. Dave enters first and pleads to Lion another time to turn around the Ark to find his son, since Finny is all Dave has. Lion, believing Dave is purposely bothering him, warns Dave that the next time he is bothered again, he might make an exception to the animal consumption ban. Before he is able to eat Dave, Hazel whacks a stick on the back of Lion's head, knocking him out. Mr. Gorilla shortly enters the room (not knowing that Dave and Hazel are controlling Lion's body like a puppet) and informs his (unconscious) boss about Dave and Hazel's escape. Lion (through Dave's voice) tells Mr. Gorilla to stop the prisoners before they can start a mutiny, and so Mr. Gorilla leaves.

Later in the movie, Lion wakes up from his semi-defeat and attacks Dave and Hazel. Hazel fights against Lion as Dave keeps control of the Ark's wheel. After a short brawl (and dance), Lion grabs one side of the wheel while Hazel and Dave grab the other side. A tug of war takes place only for the sides of the wheel to bang against Lion's head. Lion notices a hair of his mane falls out of place and angrily pins Hazel to a column, and extracts his claws, about to "get his paws dirty after all". Before Lion is able to harm her, Dave sprays his blue smokescreen at Lion, knocking him out yet a second time.

At the end of the movie, Lion (with a frozen piece of meat to his swollen right eye), Margaret, and Flamingo spot Dave and Finny playing in the water. Lion comments to they should've told the Nestrians about being sea creatures at the check-in. During the end credits, Lion, fully reformed, is shown to have healed from his injuries and reformed celebrating the disappearance of the floodwaters along with the other animals, and is shown to be on a date with Flamingo, revealing they had feelings toward each other.

Trivia

 * He has a similar appearance to Scar from The Lion King and Makunga from Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa. They are all lions with black manes and comical antagonists in their respected movie.
 * Unlike Scar and Makunga, he was the secondary antagonist, not the main anatgonist.
 * Unlike Scar (who was completely evil) and Makunga (who was a jerk towards Zuba and Alex), Lion Captain was doing his job for what he thought was the right decision. His fate led him to be reformed, which the other two didn't: Scar was killed and Makunga was exiled from the savanna and punished by Nana.
 * His personality is very similar to AUTO from WALL.E.
 * Their main goal was created because someone very noble told the villain to focus on the goal and not take advise from people opposing that goal. Noah told Lion to never turn around for survivors, while the President told AUTO to abandon the plan to return to Earth.
 * However, AUTO did not reform at the end and was instead left in a permanent deactivation in the AXIOM, since he was the spaceship's steering wheel.
 * Even though his goals are more complex compared with the Griffins', he learns his lesson and reforms at the end, which the Griffins do not.