#Who was Simba and Nala’s son in an early draft of Lion King 2 but was cut

[kaythefloppa]

Oh yay, we have new lions who we’re all definitely going to make prominent characters of in our fanfics. (Starts typing aggressively)

Here’s the link to the video these guys showed up in for anyone wondering.

[jasonsutekh]

The Lion King 1 (1994), 2: Simba’s Pride (1998), and 3: Hakuna Matata (2004)

A young lion struggles to come to terms with his responsibilities as rightful king and then protect his family and friends from outsiders.

 The soundtrack for all three of these films are pretty high quality and there are a number of good songs that stand well on their own and set the tone of their scenes very well, admittedly the highest concentration of the better songs are in the original. The characters are all amusing and are all introduced quickly and effectively which isn’t entirely common.

 The voices are all good and performed well, the only notable inconsistency is the voice of Zazu who changes for the sequels which is a shame. Nala is my least favourite character because she has the least comedy and spends most of her screen time arguing. Women in general are largely absent from the franchise unless they’re love interests, with the notable exception of the villain from the second film.

 There is some interesting subtext for each of these films because they all seem loosely based on Shakespeare plays. The first is similar in many ways to Hamlet, Scar even picks up a skull to talk to at one point to reflect one of the most famous scenes. The second film is Romeo and Juliet, albeit with a much less depressing ending. And the third film could arguably be a modern take on A Midsummer Night’s Dream due to Timon and Pumba’s narratorial control over events.

 There are a lot of repeated motifs in the sequels in an attempt to recapture the success of the original. Several scenes even seem to recreate to some degree the childhood scenes from the first film. The direction and mise-en-scene also appear to be a palimpsest of the original, most obviously when Zira falls into the flood, recreating Mufasa’s fall into the stampede.

 The Lion King: 8/10 -It’s certainly worthy of very high praise!-

 The Lion King 2: 6/10 -Just a cut above average-

 The Lion King 3: 7/10 -Well above average, but no masterpiece-

 -A gorilla antagonist was included in early drafts of the film but was removed, it was however included in the video game released a few months after the film.

-Due to Kovu being the son of Scar, it makes him Kiara’s first cousin once-removed.

-In the third film Timon and Pumba must get turned around on their journey because they head past and behind Pride Rock to get to the elephant graveyard, but in the first film it can be seen facing out from the edge of Pride Rock.