My Lion King Forum

HERE IT IS EVERYONE THIS IS IT, time to take some notes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL07xwN ... e=youtu.be

Scar was a bad lion? Couldn't they use the term evil instead?

I guess SimbasGuard was right and there is a lion hell for all the bad kitty kings of the past.

Thoughts/questions on the trailer footage:

• As I mentioned before, Makini does look like she's wearing face paint as opposed to actually having blue cheeks, so that's a little disappointing from a character design perspective. Doesn't seem too bad otherwise.
• Makini sees/hears Kion's conversation with Mufasa. From what I can tell, it seems that it's just the sangoma figures and whoever the dead are trying to speak to directly who are able to actually witness when Mufasa shows up, though that does complicate things due to how Scar seems to operate.
• Nne and/or Tano are back to cause trouble; presumably they're working with Janja again. Well that just ruins the whole continuity thing the show had going on, unless there's good reason for it that we're shown in the program.
• I'm very curious as to whether we've gotten the bait-and-switch on how Scar is summoned - unless he makes multiple introductory entrances throughout this episode to different characters - and I'm not exactly feeling the implied storyline I'm getting from this trailer with regards to that. If it's truly the case that it's just some minor villains stumbling into summoning Scar - and why would Ushari of all characters be the one to want to talk to Scar in the first place? - then that might throw away a decent character motivation for Kion. I'm sure he'll be shown to grow somewhat as a result of this anyway, but still, the implied fact that he's not responsible for Scar's resurgence kinda lessens the very impact of Scar's presence.
• Regarding this:
  

  Elton John wrote:Scar was a bad lion? Couldn't they use the term evil instead?
  
  I guess SimbasGuard was right and there is a lion hell for all the bad kitty kings of the past.

  The idea of a "lion hell" is too Western of a concept for me to really enjoy in this context, but it is what it is. Many pre-colonial African cultures don't really have a concept of hell, or at least not one that aligns very much with Judeo-Christian belief systems. It's nicely summed up in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urLwdFsAXks) and how that applies to Mufasa's spirit in The Lion King specifically, but basically many Bantu cultures hold that the afterlife isn't necessarily a place of reward or punishment if you were "good" or "bad", but rather that everyone more or less moved onto the same place, with certain people deemed as responsible and worthy of respect getting to become direct intermediaries between their families/people to the central deity. (Hence, not all "good" people become such omnipotently powerful spirits as Mufasa is shown to be; they just sort of exist in concert with the powerful intermediaries without necessarily having abilities like being able to affect natural phenomena and such, though they can still appear in dreams or lesser "visions" on their own will.) If you weren't necessarily looked upon (by whom is in question and varies) favorably - or you didn't undergo the proper burial ceremony - you just became a wandering entity that is usually cut off from being able to communicate with anyone living or dead, unless summoned/directed via witchcraft with the intent of being used against somebody in the living realm for malicious reasons, which would usually manifest itself as a dream or indirectly harmful/minor omens against individuals. So unless Ushari is secretly an "evil" sangoma-type figure himself, or Makini's staff has some bad history behind it, there wouldn't necessarily be a reason for Scar to be summoned, nor should he really be able to do anything. But like usual, I'm probably overthinking it, especially since we're just looking at a commercial for a preschool-age show.

As much as this show respects African culture, at the end of the day it's a Disney show made mostly for an American audience in mind. They aren't going to be perfect 24/7 when it comes to cultural accuracy.

That being said, my 'lion hell' bit was mostly a joke.

I hope there's enough Scar in this television movie that's worthwhile to watch. Other than that, this looks interesting.

Elton John wrote:As much as this show respects African culture, at the end of the day it's a Disney show made mostly for an American audience in mind. They aren't going to be perfect 24/7 when it comes to cultural accuracy.

That being said, my 'lion hell' bit was mostly a joke.

I know, I just wanted to expound upon that idea for the sake of getting out my thoughts.

Yeeaaahhh... I'm a bit disappointed, judging by this trailer. Having Scar be an internal struggle for Kion instead of an actual villain would've definitely been the right way to go. Janja being the one to summon Scar is pretty dumb and meaningless, honestly, and it throws away the whole "He lives in you" concept, which is the entire basis for the "magical aspect" of The Lion King -universe. Also, Scar is summoned as easily as throwing some random new Rafiki's apprentices' (whose design still looks off to me, btw) stick in a volcano? Kinda weak. Also, if that was Scar's laugh at the end we heard, I'm not terribly impressed with his voicing, either.

So far it looks like they're blowing this. Question is how badly. I'm not usually super petty with these things, but this might be a make-it-or-break-it deal as far as me continuing to watch the series goes. If they completely butcher Scar, who might be my favourite villain of all time, I'm not sure I can enjoy the show beyond that.

All the previews have stated that Kion summons Scar via his anger getting out of control. If they change that to a magic stick i'm going to be pissed as it's stupid and lazy writing.

yes we have makini in! the animation looks improved! and i believe makini is re accurring too.. this might be the most interesting episode so far!

Maybe Kion roars in anger on failing to get the stick back for Makini?