If you could change ten things about SP, what would they be?

[Alexterri1]

Exactly what the title says.

Personally, I don't really think that ten things being changed is enough to make this movie is awesome as the original, even though it's pretty decent by Disney sequel standards, but I'll try my best!

1. Have the movie focus more on Simba's struggle to live up to his fathers image, though I'd still give Kiara and Kovu plenty of screen time
2. Better animation and have the characters designs be like the original
3. I wouldn't change Kovu's general character much, but Kiara definitely needs to be rewritten. I would either 1. Make her smarter and less eager to trust Kovu, especially at first, or 2. Keep her a naive airhead, but make it clear that Simba sheltering her is the reason why she is this way and have her mature as the movie goes on. I'd also at least mention her "I don't wanna be queen!" thing as a cub
4. Give Nala more screen time, and, y'know, a personality like the one she had in the original. Maybe a scene where she and Sarabi talk to Kiara?
5. Completely axe Upendi, and replace with a montage of Kiara and Kovu interacting, or something like that. That way we not only have more time for Kovu to convert, making him more realistic, but also no more Upendi! Killing two birds with one stone!
6. Also completely axe Nuka and have Vitani fill his role instead
7. Way, way, WAY less Timon and Pumbaa. I'm sorry, but I really hate them
8. Most of the deleted scenes (especially Zira's suicide and Nuka's final words) put back in
9. Umm, have Kovu actually help Simba save Kiara at the end. You are supposed to be a trained super lion, for roaring out loud
10. Give the outlanders an actual backstory.

[Elton John]

1: Give Nala an actual role in the movie.
2: A new opening scene that isn't a retread of tlk1.
3: Give Kovu, Vitani, Nuka, and Zira a much better written backstory. One that is more coherent, doesn't clash with the events of the original.., and less incestuous. I know that Kovu and Kiara are technically not cousins but it still feels like a lot of the original story where Kovu was Scars son is intact.
4: I know this isn't possible because the movie was created a long time before Kion was created, but Kion should be mentioned or have a cameo.
5: Rowen Atkinson reprising his role as Zazu, and should have more screentime.
6: It should have been a theatrical release with a theatrical budget with all the bells and whistles of an enhanced budget.
7: Sarabi and Sarafina get name dropped and show up in the background a few times.
8: Completely new soundtrack. Score by Hans Zimmer, and a big musical collaboration between Elton John, Freddie Mercury, Michael Jackson, Lebo M, Alannis Morisette, with lyrics by tim rice. There would also be a big musical number with freddie as simba, alannis as Nala, elton as zazu, lebo m as rafiki, and mj as kovu.
9: Like in the original version, Simba dies. He would die in a mufasa-like WHY DID HE DIE I CANT STOP CRYING kinda way.
10: Nala should have a personality closer to her as a cub in the original. Sassy, adventurous, etc.

[Alexterri1]

[quote="Elton John"]There would also be a big musical number with freddie as simba, alannis as Nala, elton as zazu, lebo m as rafiki, and mj as kovu[/quote]
^ LOL. Why wasn't that in the movie??

[Elton John]

Probably because it would cost too much, freddie was dead at the time, mj was going through his big infamous scandal, and alannis isn't exactly the most disney-friendly musical artist.

[Alexterri1]

[quote="Elton John"]Probably because it would cost too much, freddie was dead at the time, mj was going through his big infamous scandal, and alannis isn't exactly the most disney-friendly musical artist.[/quote]
For the record, I was mostly joking.

Now I'm picturing Kovu singing Thriller

[TheLionPrince]

You pretty much listed my list of recommended changes to the film.

1. Better animation that matches the visual look of the first film with the character designs left unaltered (no purple nose for Simba, no blue eyes for Nala).

2. To avoid confusion with the true identity of Fluffy, re-stage Kiara's presentation to have it resemble the presentation seen at the original film by having it occur in broad daylight rather than early morning.

3. Expand the story to focus on Simba's determination to live to his father's reputation while retaining the Kovu-Kiara forbidden love story. Aside from Kovu and to a lesser extent Vitani, Simba is the character that changes the most since the start of the film. It's good writing to give the character that evolves the most a fair measure of screentime.

3. Bring Hans Zimmer back to compose a new instrumental score with recycled themes from the first film.

4. Revise both Kiara and Kovu's character arcs. Kiara has been long criticized as a "Mary Sue" and I'll admit she is. She makes a lot of bad decisions and it is called out for what she did. And at the end, she is right. So, I would have written as a young adult, having absorbed Simba's mistrust of the Outsiders and be less trusting of Kovu at first but slowly begin to realize Kovu is making adjustments to change. For Kovu, I would have him a little less quickly in his character arc since in the final film, he seems to change almost instantly from a hate-driven discipline of Zira to a psychologically confused young lover.

5. Restore Nala's original personality but still keep the warm, motherly persona and have her more involved in the plot.

6. Remove the "Upendi" musical sequence and replace it with a less cornier musical sequence (or just re-write the song with stronger lyrics).

7. Have more explanation of the backstory of Zira and the Outsiders so it doesn't contradict what was presented during Scar's reign. Simba's Pride director Darrell Rooney stated Zira's relationship to Scar was meant to be "obscured" so while I want to retain that idea (since it makes Zira look more psychotic if she was lying about her affairs with Scar), a little more explanation wouldn't hurt.

8. Have Mufasa's spirit not communicate with Rafiki through the wind. This was an added piece of content that was not present in the original film.

9. Restore Nuka's extended dying words and partially Zira's suicide back into the film. Disney would still get it trouble with parents and guardians if they restore the full scene, but if this movie was re-conceived just for me, then, I would suggest putting it back.

10. Have Kovu involved with helping Simba to rescue Kiara and have it resemble Simba's nightmare earlier in the film in which Simba extends one paw toward Kiara's (as he did for Mufasa), and let's say, he almost slips on his other paw but Kovu catches it and later states "Trust me".

[Amur_Tiger]

1. Let lionesses be lionesses. The whole father-son thing with TLK made sense to a degree but the father-daughter thing in SP sorta fell flat. Nala needs to step up her game in a big way and Sarabi should probably play a role.
2. Mufasa's gone, if there's a real need to insert 'WWMD' ( what would Mufasa do ) into the movie then his wife-lioness should probably be around, no talking spices or any such things!
3. If Simba's maladjusted and having a hard time adapting to his new role and putting the past behind him then let him be maladjusted and have Nala/Sarabi/other friends try to help him through all this. Heck it wouldn't be all that insane if he wasn't the only one having a hard time adjusting. Interaction between Sarabi and Simba on this would be pretty damn touching and would make it much easier to show Simba's internal struggle.
4. Explore the origins of the outlanders a bit more, are they all a splinter-group from the Scar-led superpride? A mix of outcasts fleeing Scar's downfall and a smaller pride living on the fringes? This is where the bulk of the new characters are from in SP make em interesting.
5. Raze SP's music to the ground, build it anew with Zimmer. This isn't because I really hate SP's music&score but TLK's was better ( especially the score ) and there's some composition changes that would force a re-recording.
6. Kiara needs to be younger ( and more justifiably naive ) or older ( and more responsible ) when the main action of the movie takes place. I tend to lean towards younger as well and make their relationship the culmination of the movie's events instead of the unstoppable driving force.
7. Lions that hunt. This is particularly important for Nala given it keeps her established skills relevant now that her relationship with Simba has gone beyond pouncing. This also makes for a much much easier point of conflict with the outsiders, especially if Nala/Sarabi get hurt/killed in a fight over a kill on the pridelands. Zira's pure hatred is a fine motivation for her but why all the other lionesses would follow her is puzzling without some greater conflict of interests with the pridelanders, being more clear about food being the center of the conflict would help.
8. Rogues and other lion things. Given the portrayal that male lions in charge of a pride are either solo or brothers Sarabi can safely be assumed to have come from elsewhere. Antagonism between the Pridelanders and Outlanders could be drawn on as a reason why neither Kiara nor Kovu are betrothed to anyone, no new blood. Also a good basis to explain the general lack of cubs in the pridelands.
9. Tone down Rafiki, Timone and Pumba. They played ( mostly ) needed roles in TLK but in SP neither Nala nor Simba is dead so Kiara should have plenty of support. Simba and Nala should likewise be able to count on each other's support as well as advice from Rafiki/Sarabi. No meddling needed!
10. This isn't Romeo & Juliette unless you want some lover suicide to happen ( don't though that'd be bad ) the big change from the start of the movie to the end is that prides once at war are now at peace. Over-stressing the importance of Kiara&Kovu's romance devalues the experience of the other lions and makes the couple look particularly self-interested.

[moonsugar33]

Honestly, I can't think of anything I really want changed about TLKII (okay, maybe the Upendi scene was too damn cheesy). If anything, I just wish TLKIII had been a continuation.

[Sushi]

1/ clear up the family tree so we know for sure how the younger generation of the outlanders actually fits together.
(people have differing opinions on Nuka being Scars son or not and the same for Kovu. Not getting into my opinion here)

2/More personality for the characters.
In LK1 you really felt it with the loss of Mufasa and the demise of Scar was powerful too. I didn't feel anything towards Nuka or Zira in similar situations.

3/ New songs rather than "like for like" from the first film.
Although some are really good a lot feel like "we had circle of life we need something to start the film in the same way" or "we had Can you feel the love so we need a love song in the same way"

4/ Cut down Timon and Pumbaa.
I like them, I really do but half the time they are there in LK2 feels forced and they are put in rather than them being important to the story.

5/ I miss Hyenas in it. They made room for others in there why not them?

6/ Zazu. I think he is the one character I noticed a voice change in. His new voice just isn't the same. I think his character suffers as well, he is great in the first film he just gets a one liner here.

7/ The passage of time from cubs to adult is none existent. There should be some sort of transition rather than one scene they are cubs the next they are young adults.

8/ I think this will help with my point number 2. Kovu's training. There should be some of it in the film rather than just showing him sat looking like just after a brainwashing session.

9/ Vitani. I think they could have done a lot more with her. Keep her the same angry vicious (even afterwards) self but maybe shown some doubts in her judgement of Zira instead of going from 100% behind her to switching sides in the final battle.

10/ Kiara is the only cub her age? Surely at the beginning she should have some friends the pride, the only cub I can remember seeing her play with is Kovu and that doesn't last long.

10A/ Kion. Ok there is such a gap between this film and him being introduced for the Lion Guard but looking back now it seems wrong to have missed him out. (I know that doesn't work which is why its on as an extra to 10)

Wow. Reading that back sounds like i don't really like the film but I think its a close second to the original itself . In truth I think in some ways there is more storyline and substance to LK2. But the way its done and opportunities missed do spoil this film a little for me.

[zerodix]

love this thread! my ten things:
1: remove timon and pumbaa
2: give kiara a sibling to interact with
3. have a bad guy/spy on the inside (who passes zira info from pride rock)
4. some wandering hyenas, that are also a comic relief. those should be cowardish and clumsy
5. nalas parents visiting the scene
6. zazu actually getting a girlfriend and a cute little wedding
7. a song during the scene kovu and kiara play together as cubs, where they play tag
8. some elton john sounds! like a song when they grow older from cub to teenager
9. any other new lion character. just love lion characters! moar
10. a little flashback from how zira and the outlanders got banished and what happened to shenzi banzai ed and the other hyenas