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Insert Jaws music here.
- The opening sequence is shockingly dark. What starts as a cute lion cub prancing around and having fun with his father turns grim when said lion cub chases a rope leading directly into hunting territory and ends up immediately facing down the barrel of a shotgun. Alakay is then thrown into a crate and driven off by the hunters, and while Zuba manages to catch up to the truck, he's then shot and sent tumbling onto the road while Alex's crate is flung into a stream, crying for his father he just saw get shot at point-blank range. Zuba, missing the latter part entirely, continues desperately chasing the truck even with part of his ear literally blown off, all while Alakay drifts off into the ocean, alone in a wooden crate. Talk about Mood Whiplash!
- Said scene might also contain some of the rawest fear in any Dreamworks movie. Zuba turns his back for what can't be longer than about half a minute and then turns back again to see Alakay's rattle lying on the ground, only for him to then hear said child's cries from a speeding truck in the distance, and he ends up being shot in front of his child while trying to save him. There's also the fact that Alakay is lured to the hunters with something specifically designed to prey on his childish curiosity - it's a rather terrifyingly real example of just how easy it can be for an infant to end up in danger.
- Teetsi has a rather unsettling design that's unlike any other lion in the movie, and he also punches Alex so hard that the rock he's sent flying against shatters on impact.
- Melman, convinced he's got a fatal disease and is going to die soon anyway, volunteers to jump into a volcano as a Heroic Sacrifice for King Julien's water gods because there's a chance it'll bring water for the others and Gloria. The actual concept is played for laughs and his motive as a Tear Jerker, but it doesn't change the fact that King Julien is willing to have someone burn in a volcano for his crazy scheme and that almost everyone besides Gloria is eager and happy about it, even if said happiness is because they genuinely believe it'll save them and out of celebration for him being a hero.
- Should it be worth mentioning Nana and the group had captured Alex and she plans to serve him as food?Nana: Now, how about a nice lion casserole?
Tour guide: You can't eat a lion.
Nana: Eh, don't worry, tastes like chicken.- As Zuba comes to save him, Nana demands one of the tourists to shoot him before the lions could run off. Thankfully, Alex intervenes in the nick of time.
- The shark trying to eat Mort, pictured above. Worst of all is that he’s shockingly persistent, chasing Mort onto land and throughout the movie. Fortunately, he is finally killed when he falls into the volcano.
