If You Could Change One Thing About TLK

[Kal]

I agree with sooo many of these suggestions on this thread. Length is such a biggy for me.

I'd definitely want more cub story with Simba and Nala, but certaainly Simba and Mufasa. An even more fleshed out bond between the two would add yes - even morrrre EMOTION during his death. (IF we could take any more!)

Also more of Simba adjusting to life with Timon and Pumbaa, it's like he's a cub and then 5 minutes later he is an adult and ready to return. Makes it lose a bit of edge for me (The Grand Return) because it feels like he has been gone literally 10 minutes or something! This could include some popping over to see how things are getting worse and worse under Scar's leadership.

The only criticism of mine really... the pace of it all. You want it to last and last! Ahhh...

[KingCub]

MORE CUB TIME!!!

I feel like a mash up of TLK and TLK 1.5 would be sweet! Take a little from here and a little from there and BAM!

Best movie ever...even thought most people hate 1.5.

[Commodus]

I'd have Scar be a far more conflicted, tragic character. I'd play up that his evil actions were the result of mental instability rather than natural malice.
Have him act genuinely kindly towards Simba and be saddened by Mufasa's death - despite causing it.

Also, I can't help but wish that cub Simba didn't grow up. His whole persona was far, far more endearing than when he became a fully grown Lion. I'd go so far to say that young Simba is perhaps the most likeable character Disney ever created.

But hey, that's just me.

[pounce]

More Nala!!!

[SimbaTheShiningStar]

Yep, I agree. Length is the main one for me.

I'd like to see more of Simba's early life, between the presentation and his lessons with Mufasa, first interactions with his uncle Scar, more time between Sarabi and Simba, more of Simba's life in the jungle with Timon and Pumbaa; the list goes on.

I would love to see The Lion King extended to at least 2 hours.

[Kal]

I'll see your 2 hours, and raise you 3!

[simbafan83]

what i would see changed about lion king is:

1. add more scenes to lion king 1

all of the deleted scenes should be properly put back in
and expanded

2. add more to lion king 1 and 1/2

there should be some more elements in 1 and 1/2

3. add more to lion king 2

there should be a longer amount of scenes
including more scenes with simba and nala

[Arbystrider]

I'd like to preface this post with a disclaimer: Do not read unless you have a lot of time and have literally nothing else to do. I am terrible at articulating eloquently and chances are you won't understand some of the content in this post. I apologise if I have wasted your time with my bad articulation.

@Thread title: Just one?

There's quite a few things that I would want to change, and I can't decide which to change if I could only change one. I might as well list the two biggest ones here so as to invoke some thoughts. If I had to choose one thing to change, it would be one of these two.

--

Timon and Pumbaa.

Sure, these two were a major part of the storyline, saving Simba's life, raising him and all, but my personal problem with them is their comical characteristic. It really takes away from the tense/emotional climate of a scene if these two crack a joke beforehand.

I've said this before, but, a good example would be Can You Feel The Love Tonight, Timon's humourous remarks about Simba and Nala's love distracted me from the main point of the scene: to feel the love.

I'm aware that taking away T&P also takes away the comedic side of the movie, and by extension making it less appealing to kids, but I (personally) prefer to fully savour emotional scenes than to have occasional humour.

--

More of Scar's (bad) reign.

During Scar's reign, the Pridelanders face a huge prolonged famine, we all know that. Yet, we see Simba celebrate Hakuna Matata with a joyous song, and the movie just quickly changes to a "Meanwhile, in the Pridelands..." shot, where we learn that there's no food in the Pridelands, and that Scar is a selfish bugger. Then Nala finds Simba in the jungle, Simba, doesn't want to be King, and then Nala gets mad.

That's OK, I guess it shows how Simba became a lazy arse who doesn't want to fulfil responsibilities. But, no, wait...

When Nala stumbles upon Simba in the forest and tells him that Simba had to come back and take his place as King, and he rejected that, I honestly didn't feel sorry for Nala at all. Let me explain this from Nala's point of view. I'm not the most articulate person in the world, but I'll try.

[spoiler=This segment is in a spoiler for a reason]Finding food in the Pridelands has never been more difficult - Scar's been forcing us lionesses to over-hunt just to feed his hyenas. We are allowed to keep only a very small portion of our daily hunts, everything else would go to either Scar himself or the hyenas. This has been going for the past two years (assuming Simba was six months old when he disappeared and Scar took over, and that he was three years old when he came back). Most of the lionesses have already died of starvation - or loss of the will to live.

Everything around me is falling apart... The Pridelands turned from a lavish haven of prosperity with lush green fields teeming with life to a silent, somber wasteland. Mufasa would never let this happen if he were still here. Mufasa - or Simba. Simba was a real cubhood friend. He would always console me if I had any personal problems. He would always cheer me up by playfully pouncing with me. He would always be right by my side... I've missed him so much...

What would Simba do, I thought. He would challenge Scar to take his place as King. Someone had to. No, someone has to. Who? Nobody here would dare to go up against Scar. Nobody was strong enough - especially considering how little we've been eating. We'll all be dead soon if someone doesn't do something. None of us could save ourselves. I had only one choice.

I told my mother Sarafina that I had to leave to find help. She was reluctant to let me go - I was her only treasure left. It was difficult to make her see the reality - The reality that we were all going to die anyway if we didn't do anything. She soon realised that it was our only chance of survival.

And so, I left to find help. I had no clue where to look, I just kept walking. Day by day, just looking. It was better than being bossed around by Scar, at least, but by no means any happier. I was alone, now away from Simba and the pride.

(You can fill in what happens next - Skip to the end of Nala-Simba fight scene)

Simba is alive? That's the best thing that's ever happened to me - Simba was the best thing that's ever happened to me - and the pride. I told him what Scar had done to the Pridelands and the famine. I implored him to come back and challenge Scar. He didn't want to.

What? How could he possible do a thing like that? I have been suffering physically and emotionally for the past two years, went days without food or water while looking for help, and now he's just going to sit there and do nothing? Our only hope, shattered. That's it - it's over. Thanks a lot, Simba, for condemning your pride, and your cubhood friend, to an eternal suffering.[/spoiler]

Now, don't we all feel sorry for Nala? She's gone through so much and it turns out that Simba is just as selfish as Scar was. That adds so much more emotional depth to the movie.

[Sigurd]

As others said, longer and more developed storyline, 4 hours would fit.

[DGFone]

I do wonder if it would have been possible to somehow include the Rhythm of the Pride Land songs into one of the movies. And not like "He Lives in You" in SP, although that was a good idea, but what I mean is having one of the pure Zulu songs be in the movies.

Because when you really think about it, you have the occasional African word or phrase (spoken words tend to be Swahili, the songs are mostly Zulu), but you never really have an entire song playing only in an African language. Even at the end with the reprise of Circle of Life (found at the end of "King of Pride Rock") turns into English at the end.

Okay, now that I think about it, the very first human sound you hear in The Lion King is in African, while the last one is English, so that's kinda cool, but I would still have liked to see a fully-African song play during one of the movies.