[quote="Alexterri1"]^ Honestly, if there's one thing that bugs me about the original movie, it's that, if the message of the movie is that you shouldn't shirk your responsibilities and that life isn't all happy daisy sunshine, why does Hakuna Matata get its own song? And why is it one of the most iconic parts of the film?
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I can't speak to TLG stuff as I haven't seen it but I'd like to respond to this and perhaps shed some light on why T&P end up the way they do.
To quote an 'Honest Trailers' rendition of the song:
"I went through trauma
At a very young age
They just killed my dad
Forget all thaaaaat"
This is really the crux of T&P's role, the audience just witnessed a traumatic scene with Mufasa's death it's now time to 'send in the clowns' to lighten the mood and lessen the impact of what you just saw. I don't think this makes for good movies but it does make for a more PG movie then would have come out if you treated the childhood trauma & depression seriously. Would have been awfully powerful if they had done the latter but that's not really in Disney's nature and I can't really blame them from shying away from that alternative. I suppose another option might have been just cutting out everything Simba between him running off and Nala finding him but I think that'd just further cheapen the whole thing.
Of course being clowns they don't have a lot of room to show character and depth and those initial characterizations stick with the characters.