Line #32 Headscratchers/TheLionKing2019


1	'''New entries go at the bottom.'''
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3	!!Which Hyena is which?
4	* Which hyena is which and how do you tell them apart, like Shenzi, Azizi and Kamari not just the voices but appearance?
5	** According to the character page, Kamari has a bald spot on his head and Azizi has a chunk of his ear missing.
6	** Azizi also has a broader snout than Kamari.
7	** Shenzi has some unique and easily distinguishable features.
8	!!Weird vantage point
9	* Why is Zazu watching the Memorial Service(?)/Scar's coronation from Rafiki's tree? If he watched closer up, he would have heard Scar's "I failed to get to the gorge in time" story and claimed he was lying. Since he knew Scar's the one who alerted Mufasa of the stampede in the first place. Maybe Zazu is too ashamed because of his failure to get the rest of the pride in time. But either way, Scar was lucky the "only" other key witness wasn't speaking against his story.
10	** You see later in the film that Zazu has pretty much been terminated from his position as he only had pull due to Mufasa. Anytime he tried to come back Scar and the hyenas attempted to kill him.
11	** Actually, Zazu can't honestly say that Scar was lying; he left Scar at the gorge, but for all he knows, when Scar talks about not getting to the gorge in time, Scar could just mean that he couldn't find a safe path ''into'' the gorge to help Mufasa and Simba escape.
12	*** That doesn't sound right. Sarabi started to get suspicious as soon as Scar (in his last-minute gloating) said he "looked Mufasa straight in the eyes over the edge of a cliff". Implying that Scar's "I didn't get to the gorge in time" lie was that he was ABSENT from the scene. Though to be fair, Scar wouldn't be too specific in his intended deception.
13	*** The fact that Scar "saw the look in Mufasa eyes" implies that Scar must have been close enough to Mufasa that he could have saved him. That's certainly a reason for Sarabi to be suspicious of his statement.
14	!!Know what a "village" is
15	* The filmmakers really should've stopped at the first verse of The Lion Sleeps Tonight - as it is, exactly how in the hell does Timon know what a "village" is?
16	** There are villages in Africa.
17	*** Yes... and why would animals in the jungle understand that?
18	*** The Pridelands are considered a "Kingdom". Timon is a Meerkat, and Meerkats usually live in "Colonies". The title of human settlements might apply to the animal world in this movie somehow.
19	*** And perhaps the popularity of the song just spread to uncharted regions of Africa where Timon first heard the song.
20	** An even better question is: how does Timon know what a toothbrush is? Let alone how does he know what chicken tastes like?
21	** How do the animals know what a "king" is? How do they know that they're called "Lions"? Why draw the line at "village", they use a whole lot of English language words they shouldn't know... being animals and all.
22	** ''The Lion King 1 1/2'' showed us that Timon did a lot of travelling trying to find a home for himself before he and Pumbaa met Simba. It's possible he went on a similar journey in this continuity that took him near a human village.
23	!!Extra friends
24	* Timon and Pumbaa in this version have friends in the wilderness. Of the small group that's most often seen, one of the animals is a fox (appears to be a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat-eared_fox bat-eared fox]], who commonly live in eastern and southern Africa; he's to the far right in the grub-eating scene). He's with the group during the Lion Sleeps Tonight number, but disappears after Nala attacks. I noticed that there's a brief 2~ second shot before the movie ends where the animal friends have joined everyone at Pride Rock at the presentation of Kiara, but after seeing the movie twice, I didn't see the fox in that scene. Was he possibly killed by Nala?
25	** The fox didn't die. He was shown running away right before Nala chose Pumbaa as her intended prey.
26	!!Sarabi's rejection
27	* Sarabi rejecting Scar was part of what made him bitter and hateful, right? There are plenty of lionesses in the kingdom. Why not flirt with them (or try to)? It's not like they have boyfriends. Him and Mufasa were the only males in the land.
28	** Some people (and animals, I guess) want the target of their affections and nothing else.
29	** Scar doesn't want any lioness. [[EvilIsPetty He wants the one that Mufasa has so he can claim himself to be better than his deceased brother]].
30	** It might also relate to the arranged married tradition Zazu told Simba and Nala about. Simba was Mufasa's only son, so he was the only one bound to marry Nala. Sarabi may have had a choice between marrying Mufasa or Scar, and choisng Mufasa got under Scars skin.
31	** Besides, do you think any lioness would have liked to be Scar's mate? I do not think so...
32	!!Sending Zazu back (2019)
33	* Why did Scar send Zazu back to get help during the stampede? In the original animated version, he did the exact opposite. He knocked Zazu out specifically to ''prevent'' him from getting help, which seems more in character for him to do because if Zazu had succeeded in getting help, it would potentially foil Scar’s plot to murder Mufasa and Simba. It could also more likely expose his crime to the rest of the pride which would then further endanger his chance of being king. I’ve read that apparently this was done because it seemed weird that Zazu wasn’t suspicious of Scar, but in the original film, Zazu didn’t even realize that it was Scar who knocked him out, since Scar hit him from behind. Also, as pointed out elsewhere, this just created another problem since Zazu should have at some point exposed Scar’s lie that he couldn’t get to the gorge in time to save them.
34	** This was already brought up and explained earlier — Zazu was effectively exiled from Pride Rock once Scar took over and couldn’t go back due to the threat of being killed. It’s definitely not any more illogical than him being knocked out in the animated film and then not suspecting the only person who was around at the time.
35	** Maybe Scar had the rest of the Hyenas act as decoys and distract the rest of the pride in more distant area during the stampede (You could argue that happened in the original too, since a massive stampede could draw attention from the others easily, making it harder to keep his murder of Mufasa under wraps. But Rule of Funny is why he knocks out Zazu instead) By the time Zazu fetched the rest of the pride in this version, Mufasa and Simba would be dead.
36	** The crew was also looking for a way around Scar hitting Zazu. Since that kind of slapstick joke wouldn't have been as plausible in this more "lifelike" adaptation of the Lion King.
37	!!Banning Zazu
38	* It's already been established that Zazu was banished from Pride Rock after Mufasa died. But what pretext did Scar use to get rid of him? In reality, Scar wanted Zazu out of the picture so that he wouldn't share too many details about what he knew from the stampede with the lionesses. Thus sparking suspicions that Scar had some additional involvement with the incident. But even if the lionesses have no authority to override Scar's status as the new king, wouldn't they still have questioned why Mufasa's right-paw-bird was fired for no apparent reason?
39	** Scar just has to say that he didn't like Zazu or his advice, for whatever reason. He could say that he was irritating, incompetent, too glued to the way Mufasa ran things... It doesn't really matter what the lionesses think because Scar's the king, and in the animated film it's established that firing Zazu is something the king has the authority to do. Real-life monarchs have had their advisors put to death for even less-substantiated reasons.
40	** Maybe Zazu flew the coop (no pun intended) on his own. After all, if someone I didn't like and/or was scared of suddenly got promoted to be my new boss, I'd probably jump ship on the spot myself.
41	!!Translation conventions
42	* When Simba and Nala can't understand Zazu she says "Simba, you speak Bird?" Does this mean Zazu is roaring at them and that's why they understand him?
43	** She didn't mean that they couldn't understand the language he was speaking; he was just using words that they didn't know the meaning of, to which Nala responded in a cheeky manner. The animals in ''The Lion King'''s universe all seem to speak the same language and can clearly communicate with each other.
44	!!News travels, doesn't it?

Context Headscratchers / TheLionKing2019