Awesome / The Lion King II: Simba's Pride

♬ With every ending comes a new beginning/ Two worlds, one family♬

• Kovu standing up to his mother and declaring he wants nothing more to do with the Cult of Scar.
  • It only takes a short time with Kiara and experiencing genuine affection to realize he's in the wrong and refuse to kill his target. It really indicates what a good person he was all along.
• As cubs, Kovu and Kiara saving each other in the crocodile swamp and gaining respect for each other's abilities.
  • Kiara actually tries to fight off one of the crocodiles by swiping at it with her paw, despite the reptile being much bigger than her.
• Vitani, having effectively raised Kovu from a cub, is the first to listen to him when he turns on the Outsiders. Between them, they have enough influence to turn everyone against Zira in a matter of moments, but the other lionesses only really seem to make that decision after Vitani defects. We don't see her on screen much, but Zira's daughter must be a damn good leader to hold that much sway.
  Zira: Vitani! NOW!
  Vitani: No, Mother! Kiara’s right. (walks over and stands beside Kovu) Enough.
• Kiara standing up to her father, Simba, saying five words: "You will never be Mufasa!" And it actually gets to him.
  • Speaking of Simba getting called out for his actions, the making-of featurette shows that there was a deleted line of Mufasa himself calling out Simba, as well.
    Mufasa: You have let your family break apart, and in doing so, you have broken the Circle of Life!
• Kiara saving Simba from Zira's last attack, indirectly causing her Disney Villain Death. And you can see in a Freeze-Frame Bonus that Kiara is glaring at Zira as they tumble over the cliff. She may be a pacifist, but try to hurt her dad and Kiara will fight tooth and claw to put you down.
• During the ambush, Simba is forced to flee, and Zira excitedly instructs her pride to "remember [their] training — as a unit!" It's very clear that Zira has been training her pride for nothing but this moment for years.
  • Vitani deserves a mention for her performance in the ambush. First, she leaps onto Simba's back to hurt him, which also throws him off while trying to fight other lionesses. When she notices Kovu trying to help, she completely disables him (a fully grown lion) with an offhanded kick into a rock. After Simba falls into the gorge, Vitani is in front of the other members of her pride, and attempts to lunge at Simba. Clearly Vitani has been trained very well.
  • The fact that Simba fights off the first wave, easily slapping Nuka away, and especially the moment when he shakes three lionesses off himself at once, before being overwhelmed by their numbers.
• "One of Us" is just... so primal in its expression of hatred and ostracism.
  • Although it is sad, the fact that Kovu not only accepts the verdict, he doesn't try to argue it. While it is a Tear Jerker, the fact he took the punishment without even trying to argue it is also an Awesome moment. It is also a large part of Fridge Brilliance in that Kovu proabably realized that Simba saw the circumstances as making sense and proabably accepted the sentence because he was part of a plot against Simba and saw it as something that he deserved.
  • "Someone once lied to us, now we're not so blind" adds in the impact when you realize the animals are recalling Scar's deception.
  • Simba passing judgment on Kovu is an entire Moment of Awesome. All it takes is for him to pass a sentence of "EXILE!", and all the animals of the Pride Lands execute said judgment. The visuals of this scene, especially whenever it cuts to his cold glare at Kovu, really serves to show that above all else, Simba is the KING and has earned the respect of the rest of the animals in the Pride Lands.
• The battle between the Rock Pride and the Outsiders. It's a Battle in the Rain, for starters. When the other animals of the Pride Lands get whiff of what's coming, they all clear out of the area around where the prides are meeting. A flock of vultures begins circling the battlefield as the prides assemble. Zira is perched on a rock, while Simba simply stands on the ground below with his lionesses. Even Timon and Pumbaa stand alongside the pride, despite the fact they're no match for a pride of angry lionesses.
  • Simba then gives Zira one last chance to turn around and go home. Zira snarls, "I am home", and is then illuminated by lightning as she gives the order to attack.
  • The prides let out roars, and begin to advance. They start out striding towards each other. Then they begin trotting. Finally, with another volley of roars, the prides begin outright charging each other, and collide in a huge mess of claws and teeth. During the fight, Zira personally directs each of her lionesses in their individual fights and advises them on their next blow. As they follow her orders, more and more Pridelanders fall, if only temporarily. It's then that you realize that Zira's pride has a legitimate chance of taking over the Pridelands.
  • Zira's earlier advice to her pride to attack Simba as a unit is followed here, as we see the Outsiders swarming him in a Zerg Rush that is clearly overwhelming him. Then when Zira personally challenges Simba, he's able to throw them all off of him like they were nothing. All present combatants then freeze and look on, and circle around their leaders as they prepare to engage.
• The fact that, when they're having fun and scaring birds, Pumbaa is able to outrun two teenage lions. This is a warthog, ladies and gentlemen. Seems all that time raising Simba did prove useful; Pumbaa is a warthog, but he's fast.
• After Kiara and Kovu reunite, Kovu tries to encourage the two of them to run away and start their own pride, all by themselves. While Kiara refutes it kindly, it took major courage to sneak such a blatant encouragement of elopement into the script of a kids film.
  • The animators do a pretty good job of this as well, as Kovu wiggles his hind end when he makes this suggestion, making it very obvious to anyone who has knowledge of how mammals reproduce just what Kovu is suggesting.
    • Not to mention Kovu's voice when he makes this suggestion. Jason Marsden clearly realized what the writers were insinuating when he recorded this line and he manages to make Kovu genuinely think this is a smart idea.
• The beginning of the movie. Just like her dad before her, Kiara gets presented before the animals as the new princess, while the song He Lives In You plays in the background.
• In the original script, Zira actually willingly dropped off the cliff ledge than let herself be saved by Kiara. A villain she is, but she proved to have something over Scar simply by being consistent about it to the very end.
• Kovu and Kiara together putting an end to their prides' feud, with Kiara reminding her father: "We are one."
  Kiara: A wise king once told me: "We are one". I didn't understand him then. Now I do.
  Simba: But... they...
  Kiara: Them? Us? Look at them, they are us! What differences do you see?
  • As the rain stops and the sun comes out of the clouds, Simba smiles at his daughter as he fully reconciles with Kiara as they nuzzled and embraced.
• Awesome Music: Zira's Villain Song, "My Lullaby", which is a blood-thirsty song devoted to a vendetta.
  • Pretty much the entire soundtrack, while not nearly as memorable as the original movie's soundtrack, can count.
• A small one, but when we have the first confrontation of Zira and Simba, Zira is clearly excited to try and tear him apart...but then she hears more roars and looks around to see Nala, having arrived with the lionesses and Timon and Pumbaa all staring Zira down and looking ready to fight to protect their king. Zira's not intimidated in the slightest, of course, but still a cool moment.