The first female hero

Clipped by: @ModernNerrd
Date: April 24, 2022

[JacF]

“This is our first minority character!”
“Disney, this is the seventh time you’ve presented your first minority character to the class.”

[Thebdippy]

Literally never, ever, EVER, have we seen a female character before, in any movie

[PhenomenalJec]

I have to hand it to Disney for creating the first ever strong female character 50 times in a row, what a progressive company

[devious]

I hated how much they insisted that Nala didn't have a big role in the original when she did. Nala was a hero in the original and she was one of the main reasons Simba came back to face Scar.

[leah-marie]

Is he forgetting the part in the original where Sarabi walked through those aggressive hyenas with her head held high before standing up to Scar?

[LooseCo]

It's funny because the original movie makes a point about how the female lions are the ones that do the hunting, there's multiple shots of the female lions together as a group and shown to be a strong unit even without showing much fighting at all, fuckin' Simba's mom is called forth by Scar and she comes out with her head up like the toughest character in the room. And as someone else points out, Nala is the one that convinces Simba to return and the only time you ever see a lion hunt in the movie it's specifically Nala when she's going after Pumbaa. And she looks terrifying doing it!

[KINGofGUNS]

What's disappointing is that the Broadway musical has a whole song that shows that the lionesses do most of the hunting for the pride. It's a nice setpiece and gets the message across that the lionesses are capable fighters without having this over the top marvel shit.

[kittyythecat]

She was already a hero in the original. As matter of fact, Simba didn't become a "hero" until nearly the end of the film. A hero shows courage and he admit he ran away like a coward while Nala RAN in the middle of nowhere just to find food. His mom didn't show fear in front of those hyenas.

I wish the movie industry realized that female characters or roles don't need to kickass to be a "hero" or show they are a "strong." There are many types of intelligence and strength. Some are mental or physical.

[michaelstrong]

Shouldn't Sarabi be the one who commands the other lionesses? Why is Nala doing so when she isn't Queen yet?

[jorge]

Can’t believe Disney created the first female in history

[simple-commentator-not-rea]

I think Jon is a few decades late to the party

[anonymousalien]

I actually appreciate that every single female character has a strong role, it's very realistic. Imagine how unrealistic (and most importantly, sexist) it would be if they were portrayed as actual characters with their own individual emotions and personalities, that's just unrealistic, everyone knows that us women are all exactly the same aside from our appearance

[superfanmusicmaker]

In the original film, Nala didn’t _need_ to rally the lionesses, because as soon as Scar confessed they all immediately ran to Simba’s aid, no questions asked.

So instead of empowering the female characters, the remake actually diminished the other lionesses just to prop up Beyoncé.

[KoyMcCloud]

Honestly it be far more refreshing if Jon Favreau just admitted he could care less about the Lion King remake, and made it purely for the money he needed to make The Mandalorian.

[thebatman]

This film was really a game changer for all the little girls out there who wanted to grow up to be lionesses.

[iamnothumandartdontlie]

People who say that women weren’t “empowered” enough in the original (which seems to be noone in this comment section) are forgetting so much.
1. It’s basically just Hamlet but with lions.
2. The lionesses in the movie *were* strong/empowered. They made it very clear that the lionesses do the hunting. When Scar calls Sarabi up to Pride Rock towards the end, she walks up there with her head held high, not scared of him at all. Nala pins Simba multiple times throughout the movie, as a cub and an adult. Also in the beginning it’s shown that Nala isn’t some sort of puppet that follows Simba around, as she doesn’t go with him until she knows there’ll be something interesting. The only “damsel in distress” moment was when they were running from the hyenas in the elephant graveyard and Nala was falling down the elephant’s spine towards the hyenas. Nala and Sarabi were the heroes throughout the whole movie cause they stayed and stood strong under Scar’s rule, while Simba wasn’t a hero till the end.

Also if you’re gonna milk an empowered women theme, maybe use a better line than “are you with me lions?” Like seriously, that line was so forced and so cheesy.

[natestern]

Damn can't believe Lion King 2019 invented women.

[momamario]

I love how they're trying to frame this as righting the wrongs of a different era, as if the 90s wasn't ALL about grrl power marketing

[muskatDR]

"The origial was definite weighted towards the male roles"
Odd how following a story thats weighted more towards the male roles gives you a story thats weighted more towards the male roles

[TisPopRock]

Why do all movie industries think they’re changing the game for making a girl boss character?