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Hmm yes the tone does change

The tone changes because the animators of the first Lion King are not the same animators for Simba's Pride.

That's the reason.

Two different teams of animators for two films. Shame, really.

I couldn't agree with you more. If the people who worked on the first movie had done a sequel I truly believe things would have been a lot different.

In fact, it's rumored that the people who worked on The Lion King don't even recognize Simba's Pride as canon. Not that I blame them.

His fur also may have changed because of the stress and tension that had been relieved from his shoulders, after defeating Scar and the Prideland's returning to its natural beauty.

His fur may have also changed due to aging. This goes for Nala too, her fur appears very different and is scene different in screencaps. His build also changes, another age-enhancement.

It could be genetics as well. Mufasa and Simba had similar fur colors in the movie, as Simba grew it often paled out slightly and then darkened, warming up once again. In TLK2: SP, his fur is darker, yes, but that is because his mother, if you didn't noticed, is the darkest lioness out of the entire pride.

Sarabi is a dark beige color, yes? So Simba's fur changing could all just be genetics, and lighting of course.

I hope this made sense, it's what I figured out after testing a couple screencaps.

Different budget, different technology, different studio, different animators. (Note the direct to DVD sequels are done by a TV studio of Disney's. They did Aladdin and the such.)

That's true too, I forgot to add that. Oopsie. But I agree with that too.

I agree with the theories here it simply could have been lighting that they wanted to change the tones because of the setting of a scene

I see it to different artist maybe??

Guys, the best answer is that the reason for the changes in Simba's coat is because The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride was made by an entirely DIFFERENT (caps used for emphasis) team of animators.

There is just a light and dark change in the colors nothing more

I suppose the same can be said for the Balto sequels? Yeah, no.

Different animators, different teams. Not the same group of animators/teams who did the first movie. Nothing more.

Captain Obvious says that it's key part of animation technology to make tens of people work in one style. In SP this failed as everything else because it's just cheapquel without any respect to TLK and it's creators. Stop discussion. Color changing in corresponding of lighting is not valid argument since it was done correctly most of times (the biggest mistake Simba's red eyes in night scenes because it's how computers filters work with amber color) in TLK but in SP it was totally wrong everywhere. Even with with typical "sunny day" lighting the colors in TLK and SP are different. In DVD-edition of SP colors were corrected but it means nothing they should did it before the 1st release.