the savannah summit (episode 2 season 2)

[zerodix]

any opinions? i liked it, but i missed Nala and Kiara in this one.. song was catchy and the message was a good one. mufasa in the clouds, i wouldn't have put that scene there since kion could have thought of this solution by himself. over all a nice episode, but not a number one

[Panpardus]

After the more "slice of life" story that was "Babysitter Bunga", this offered a nice tonal counterbalance. It's a good world-building, plot-driving episode with a good moral that feels like it's setting the stage for the overarching arc of the coming season. I like these kinds of episodes.

Spoiler: show

So, first things first, I enjoyed the overall world building aspect of this episode in terms of the Savannah Summit. (I'd have gone with a Swahili phrase for that one actually - Mkutano wa Savannah, courtesy of Google Translate - but English alliteration won the day.) We've been told that most of Season 2 will take place during the dry season, so it's fitting that we're easing into that period by seeing how the Pride Lands residents brace for it. I like the idea of the various animal leaders brokering agreements for how their respective groups will interact with each other during the harshest parts of the year; this is actually exactly the sort of interspecies interactions I was hoping to see more of throughout the series. It gives the non-lion species, particularly the herbivores, more autonomy and actually provides Simba with a real diplomatic purpose within his own kingdom. This is probably the first 'real' thing we've ever seen him do as king (unrelated to war); everything before that was just him appearing at various ceremonial events and other random stuff mentioned in "Duties of the King". Speaking of songs, "Everyone is Welcome" is a decent song that I actually liked enough to leave on repeat for a bit. It has a nice guitar riff and the harmonies between Zazu and Simba are nice, though I'm still not a fan of Simba's Lion Guard singing voice. (He sounds too much like a American country singer.) There's enough thematic material here to have stretched it into a full-length musical number (and some dialogue inbetween the different verses would've been nice touches) and it lacks the gravitas to really work as a processional piece to me; probably would've been more effective if it was directed more towards Kion than just the group as a whole.

I do think it was a severely missed opportunity to not include Kiara and Nala in this, or at least allude to their involvement in the negotiations. Obviously it would be to Kiara's benefit to appear at this function since Simba is so adamant about grooming her to take his place and this is again the most important thing we've seen him do as monarch, but I also think that Nala would've played a role as well; as leader of the pride's hunting party (presumably what the queen does, based on Sarabi filling that role when she was queen) I've always assumed that her job is to take stock of the local prey population and negotiate the hunting regulations with the leaders of various prey species. (Of course, I'm sure those conversations wouldn't play very well on Disney Jr. ) On that note, a lot of actual lion prey species in question are absent from this meeting as well, even though they've gotten plenty of screen time in prior episodes. (Heck, we just saw Muhimu in the previous episode.) Maybe they regularly migrate out of the Pride Lands during the dry season and so don't have to engage in such talks?

Makuu, Makuu, Makuu... I like that they've respected the fact that he's still a leader of an important species demographic, and he and Kion's history of butting heads adds a nice personal twist to the idea that Kion has to actually respect this fact. I'm still very curious about what Simba's thoughts are on the events of "Never Roar Again". We know he's not Makuu's biggest fan either, but I think it would've strengthened the underlying moral of working with your enemies and adversaries in order to achieve some greater good had he directly referenced those events in his talk with Kion. The father-son interactions were still good; to their credit, the animators (who somehow made a serious animation glitch during the musical number) really nailed Kion's facial expressions throughout this episode, notably his dejected looks every time Simba reprimanded him. I figured Makuu was going to eventually become a "good" guy, and while I'm glad to see that he and Kion seem like they'll be closing their adversarial relationship on a good note (at least for now, assuming this is the last time we'll see him for a while), it is a little disappointing to see the guard's best antagonist go away and perhaps become less of a thorn in their side when he returns. I hope they either upgrade one of the current baddies (like what they seem to be doing with the jackals) or introduce a good new nemesis to be the Season 2 foil (though this could just be making room for Scar and whatever machinations he'll bring).

I thought the plot against Makuu was pretty weak, or at least had the wrong motivation. Trying to simply embarrass him by having him fall into a pit of rotting fruit (how did a buffalo and a giraffe manage to physically dig a ditch anyway, and when did they have time to do this in the first place?) was very juvenile and wouldn't have really accomplished anything in the long run; more sinister motives should've been afoot. They didn't have to try and kill him (Kion's ruse to guilt trip them into confessing was actually surprisingly 'dark'), just come up with way to invalidate his leadership potential in the eyes of Simba. Plus, they both got let off the hook pretty easily with no repercussions.

Other random thoughts; Mufasa had another fairly superfluous appearance that I wasn't a huge fan of, and the backgrounds and score were both very nice. They used a nice variation of the theme from "Ono's Idol" and I really, really wish they'd eventually release the full score.

Very long review, but this provided a lot to comment on and it's a summer weekend morning, so I have little else to do. Overall, this and "Babysitter Bunga" provided a good start to what I hope will be a good second season.

[gothprincesskiara]

It found so hilarious when they show Zazu under a rhino again talk about classic, I loved that very good on classic TLK humor

[zerodix]

i heard more watchers about that glitch in the animation during the song...but i didnt see the glitch.. what went wrong?

[Panpardus]

There's a shot during the second verse of the song where Simba and Makuu are walking next to each other and Simba's right front leg is missing.

https://youtu.be/E8-G6B7QIwA?t=1m5s

[AnonLion]

I really liked this episode. It seems as if Makuu is actually starting to take his crocodile leader duties seriously, and though it doesn't necessarily mean that he won't be a bad guy anymore at least Kion can learn to trust him as a leader. Mufasa's appearance felt really unecessary, and I almost think Kion could have learnt that lesson from Nala instead. You'd think an event as important as the summit would include the queen too, heck even Kiara could have been present with the whole getting ready to be queen thing, but oh well. It was nice to see Zazu again, it had been a while since his last appearance, and Rafiki's too though we'll be seeing him again soon with his new pupil. I'm really surprised though that the giraffe and the buffalo were left off the hook just like that, for a moment I was sure Simba was going to reprimand them on it but at least no hard feelings? All in all this episode along Babysitter Bunga were a good start to the second season and I really enjoyed it.

[zerodix]

omg XD simba limpimg

[Elton John]

I liked this episode because it showed how the prideland animals live in harmony, by working together on agreements, and Simba doing things as the main leader of the pridelands.

It also showed a less cynical side of this animal kingdom. Some think that the lions only rule for food. But, instead it shows that the various leader animals work together to survive.

I also like how zazu was in it for more than just 5 seconds!

Also the giraffe and buffalo got off the hook probably because they never intended on killing makuu. They only wanted to humiliate him.

Granted, if their plan succeeded (and only humiliated makuu) they likely would have gotten an earful from Simba.

I also need to add that I thought that Kion's plan at the end of the episode was morbid, funny, and clever. I wonder if this is what Kevin Schon meant by season 2 being darker? With them taking more risks for a disney jr show. Them toying around with the concept of death was briefly shown in season 1. I wonder if season 2 will do more with it.

Already with the first two episodes of the season they're pushing the boundries of what is normally seen on a show on disney jr.

[KionScar]

[quote="Panpardus"]There's a shot during the second verse of the song where Simba and Makuu are walking next to each other and Simba's right front leg is missing.

https://youtu.be/E8-G6B7QIwA?t=1m5s[/quote]

I'm thinking, for the glitch maybe Makuu was originally back more and thus Simba was meant to have that missing paw/leg on/around said crocodile?

[Solar]

This episode was really cool for me. I like seeing a different side to Makuu, it definitely made me like him a lot more. And Simba and Zazu's song! ♥