what do we love about TLK 2 Simbas Pride

[Elton John]

I think for it to be theater worthy it needed MUCH better animation, there are a lot of cut corners likely due a smaller budget for the movie. This is noticable as most of the musical numbers are less extravagant than the original. Also something about the movement of the characters at times felt....off.

That being said the story is fine for the most part, i like most of the musical numbers, and kovu is very charismatic.

[Adofo]

That i agree on. If it was done with traditional Disney hand drawn animation then it would have been much better

[Squeely]

I love pretty much everything about SP. The only thing I dislike about it is how poorly-written and misplaced Timon and Pumbaa are, and the fact that Nala and Zazu don't have nearly as much of a role as they should have. Some of my favorite things about it are:

Kiara isn't a carbon-copy of Simba. Back before this came out, I think a lot of us expected Simba's cub to be basically the same as him (Kopa being barely different from cub Simba didn't help). While she does share Simba's adventurousness and recklessness, even when she's an adult (whereas Simba seemed to have mostly abandoned those traits upon adulthood), she's also far less quick to judge others, and far more skeptical about inheriting the throne. It makes for a really nice contrast, while still keeping those few Simba traits so that she doesn't feel completely detached from him.

Simba, likewise, is not a carbon-copy of Mufasa. I think a lot of people expected Simba to suddenly be this near-perfect king, just like Mufasa was. I remember, shortly after SP came out, people complained about how much of a jerk Simba was. But I think it was a really smart move on the part of the writers to portray Simba in the way they did. Simba doesn't know that much about being king, and didn't get to know his father for very long (and what makes things worse, is it's hard to remember a lot of things from when you were little, and only gets more difficult as time goes on). It's very likely that Mufasa's passing meant Simba missed a lot of very crucial lessons. Simba trying his best to emulate Mufasa, and failing big-time in a few respects (but still being a good king overall) was both more realistic, and a downright genius subversion of expectations. "We Are One" plays with this particularly well, as Kiara voices her doubts about becoming queen, and Simba spouts a bunch of philosophical stuff instead of addressing her questions. It worked when Mufasa did it, because he was far wiser with his words. When Simba tries it, it leaves Kiara confused. It serves as a great piece of foreshadowing on just how unsuccessful Simba is at trying to be Mufasa.

The Outsiders are by far my favorite thing about the film. Their characters are just so great in so many ways. Zira is absolutely ruthless, Vitani is so enjoyably sassy and I love how she's the first to turn against Zira at the end of the film, and Kovu's deep inner conflicts are justifiable, and make for one heck of a character. But my favorite is probably Nuka. He's hilarious and tragic all at once, and his death is one of the most touching things in the film. Especially with the couple of deleted lines. I honestly don't know why those lines weren't kept.

Lastly, I'll add that the songs are phenomenal. Except for Upendi, which felt a little weird and out of place. It's still a good song, but I can't shake the feeling that something different should have been done with it.