Okay...I'll finally post a comment to this thread.
If anyone wants to see a 3-hour version of
The Lion King, then, by all means, watch
The Lion King stage musical on Broadway or the closest musical theater near your area. It's about 3 hours, isn't it? Anyway, it expands and adds more depth to the film's storyline and characters, and some of the changes (Rafiki being a female) don't change the story that drastically.
I can pretty much agree with DGFone's earlier statements on Points 1 and 2.
[quote="TheBlackCatCrossing"]3. More YOUNG Nala. If you notice, young Nala has ONE extended scene. From the time she is having her bath to IJCWTBK to the elephant graveyard which ends in their rescue. I actually prefer young Nala on account that she was more likely to disagree with Simba. Adult Nala seemed to be so far up his butt about being King which annoyed me as a kid. I remember thinking 'Geez, doesn't she have any other motivation? Does she want to be the Queen, is that it?" LOL! I find the younger counterpart more fascinating as she had a mind of her own. Would have loved to have seen how she coped after that terrible tragedy.[/quote]
Honestly, I can what you what mean by there not being enough young Nala. The childhood scenes between Nala and Simba were actually throw in later during the story development process. You see, when the writers wanted Simba and Nala to reunite and fall in love as adults, they had written nothing of their past relationship to fall back on. Hopefully, this excerpt explains it better than me:
[quote="
The Lion King Archives"]...they later found themselves struggling with the "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" scene;
they couldn't figure out how to make it work. First they took Elton's song (what we know today as the radio version) and had Timon and Pumbaa singing it, sarcastically. Elton saw it and went into a fuming rage, which Minkoff and Allers related in quite graphic detail. So they recast it, changing the lyrics around, making it into more the abstract love song that we now have; but Elton was still furious: he called
Katzenberg on his cell phone as the latter was driving north on the Golden Gate Bridge on his way to see George Lucas; Elton on the phone was described as unloading on him with a string of expletives
unsuitable even for the Internet.
But in the stream of invective was a really important insight: the love scene, at that time in development, was an *unearned* plot point.
See, at that time the writers hadn't fleshed out Simba's and Nala's relationship as cubs; there was nothing to refer back to when they were reunited, nothing for the audience to connect with or to feel any sense of realism about their reactions to each other. So the story guys went back and added all the little bits-- the wrestling/pinning scenes, the bath, the waterhole, and so on. With those in place, the love scene made a lot more sense, and Elton was appeased.[/quote]
So, it makes sense that Simba and Nala's childhood scene feels like one extended scene because it was added on until later unlike Mufasa's death, which was always a crucial scene when they were developing the story.
For my tastes, I think there was enough of young Nala. She served her purpose, which was to introduce the "pinned ya" plot device and make Simba's past relationship with her more realistic. Anything outside of that wouldn't have helped the story.
[quote="TheBlackCatCrossing"]4. Hyena and lioness interaction. Although we did not see it, I wouldn't put it past the lionesses in disliking Scar. Maybe one of them overheard a 'rumor' from the hyenas about what REALLY happened that awful day but due to fear, they could not speak up.[/quote]
Maybe. There is a thread titled "A review of TLK mentioning a big problem" debating the Nostalgia Critic's questioning of the movie's theme of responsibility when in fact, Simba was not responsible for his father's death. Copying Noah there, but: "According to the movie's logic, if Simba did do it, he should die, because the lionesses didn't try to intervene."
If a/the lioness(es) had any details based on the rumor, it would have improved that scene a bit because they wouldn't be left in dark wondering what's going on. So, one or they could call out Scar based on the rumor because it doesn't match up with Scar stating Simba is responsible for Mufasa's murder. The lionesses and Simba would question which story is true, and eventually they decide Scar is a liar and the real murderer, and the battle ensues.
However, for my tastes, i prefer it the way it is. It adds more drama to the scene when Sarabi asks her son, "It's not true...tell me it's not true," and it all comes to a head when Scar pushes Simba off of Pride Rock's edge. Even though, that scene had problems with Simba jumping foward to pin Scar with nothing below to support his jump.
[quote="TheBlackCatCrossing"]5. The lionesses under Scar's rule. I once wrote a fic based on this. I also saw this wonderful piece of fanart a few months back. Basically it has Sarabi and Nala and the artist made a deliberate parallel to "Prince of Egypt" when Miriam and Sephorah/Tzipporah sang 'When you believe' after the Hebrews were freed from Pharaoh Ramses rule. I would have LOVED to have seen a moment with the lionesses coping by enjoying one another's company. Then the moment gets shot down when the hyenas catch them. [/quote]
I do not think this would add nothing to the story. TLK is Simba's story, and we follow him from his birth to his adulthood. We only know so much about Scar's reign as much as Simba does. That way, to first-time viewers, it should be feeling the same reaction as Simba feels when he tries his homeland barren for the first time. If we see more of Scar's reign than we're supposed, we lose that reaction, and that emotional part of the scene.
