Thanks for all the feedback. Ya, it does look a bit "doggish" now that you point it out. A shorter snout would probably make it look immediately more "lionish". I may try that actually but I had a cool, Scar-like look in mind (Scar from Lion King - his snout is quite elongated). I rigged it myself from scratch following Barry's rigging DVD. The look and feel of the video doesn't fit with the use of hair so it will be flat shaded to match this style guide:
I will likely play around with hair on this character once this video is out the door and I have some spare time... ha, ha, right.
Here is the original design:
Here are the rotoscopes: