The atmosphere of this beginning is as great as in the original but the animation is so flatter and scrappy. Kinda takes away from it a little. But I love how happy the atmosphere is. It was more majestic in the first one but they made the happy aspect more essential in thias I think because the kingdom had suffered for so long and now the good rulers' line continued with a new cubbie. (:

I can't help but think that Timon fussing about "the little guy" and Rafiki's "Hehehee. It is a girl." and T&P's "Girl! ... GIRL!??!" moment is there of course for a laugh but also as a friendly poke at everyone who thought the cub in the end of TLK was a boy. :D I mean, unlike many think, this film doesn't have essential plot holes as this cub/ceremony has been settled officially by the first film's makers' genderless Fluffy. Any other "plot holes" are in some viewers' heads, not in this film.

Some of the storybooks of the original TLK film claimed that Simba and Nala's cub was a boy. (my brother and I both owned one of these... different books, both calling the cub "the new prince; son of King Simba and Queen Nala".)

I think, for those who didn't read the books about Kopa, a lot of people still assumed it was a boy because it looked a LOT like Simba when he was a cub. And in the first movie, all of the lionesses had roughly the same fur colour (that peach/salmon type colour) and like Mufasa and Simba, the new cub had yellow fur (until redesigned when Kiara was decided on of course).

Timon and Pumbaa's reaction was priceless. I expect it was partly inspired by all those people who automatically called the cub a boy.

I've always thought of the first movie as "epic" and the second as "fun". The atmosphere was still great, but it is definitely not as dark as the first movie. It does have some dark moments, but overall it is noticeably more light hearted.

The animation in the first movie is, in my opinion, Disney's greatest work. Sometimes I get worn out just thinking about the amount of time and effort that's had to go into every scene! The second movie definitely doesn't look as good as the first, but it is still pleasant to watch. You can see why the movie never made it to theatres though, it wouldn't look very impressive on the big screen.

I love the character designs in the second movie too, and how versatile they are. The lionesses in the first film all looked very similar. They did have different appearances (different face shapes, and some had slightly different markings) but from a distance they seemed almost identical. Even their fur colours were all quite similar (though the shades were different). In Simba's Pride, the lionesses come in all sorts of colours. The "nose designs" seemed a bit themed, as all the pridelanders had one nose shape and all the outlanders had another nose shape, but at least they were different! The outlanders were skinnier too (probably as the outlands are shown to be deserted and lacking in life, making hunting more difficult for them). Vitani's design was especially original; being that same yellowish colour as Simba and being the only lioness to have a tuft of fur on her head, which in the Lion King universe usually represents a cub's mane. I wouldn't be surprised if some people, upon first inspection, mistook her for a male lion! I think that they probably decided it was important to make the lion characters more distinctive in this film as so many more of the main characters were lions (for example, Nuka and Vitani replace the role of the hyenas as the villain's sidekicks).

I don't recall any plot holes in the movie. But I remember that, when I first saw the movie, I thought they'd made a mistake when Zira kept claiming that Simba killed Scar, when really it was the hyenas who did the dirty work (though Simba obviously weakened him). However, I think that really the point in Zira's anger is that Simba is now the king, instead of Kovu (who Scar had chosen to be the next king). She may not even know that the hyenas finished him off. And even if she did, she probably wouldn't bother telling Kovu the details, when she is really raising him to go against Simba and eventually kill him. I did wonder if it was a plot hole at first though!

Something I love about this movie - possibly even as much as the first - is the soundtrack. The songs are really nicely composed, especially "One Of Us" with all those different parts going on at once and the range of harmonies. "Love Will Find a Way" had a lovely harmony too, and "My Lullaby" had some of the most interesting chord patterns I've ever heard in a Disney film song. I really do love the songs!