Yeah EJ, the kissing Simba + Nala was always a little weird to me as well, though I still loved them. The originals with the hard plastic eyes are a lot cuter, so if anything, it's definitely a fail that they removed the original eyes. There's a Kiara and Kovu, too. Here's Kiara and Kovu with the same style of eyes that Simba and Nala originally had:
It does at least make a little more sense for these two to kiss, as Kiara was a bit flirty with Kovu as a cub, and they do actually kiss as adults.
But still, while cute and maybe not a fail, it is still a little out-of-line with what TLK and SP show us to have the couples kissing as cubs.