Neither. "Hate" is an extremely powerful word that steeps beyond the boundaries of simply disliking something. I do not hate them, but rather, my feelings for them are the exact opposite.
Most people, from what I've gathered, dislike the pair because of their teenage insecurity. But, do any of you ever wonder why they are so insecure? It's not hormones or any other internally-distributed upsets that are the cause, but instead the constant lack of understanding and appreciation they are given. To put it simply, they have abusive and disrespectful fathers.
Let's take a look at Aleu. She, like all her siblings, was born with the blood of a wolf, though she was exceptionally unique, and looked as wolf as she was on the outside as she was inside. Never once did her mother attempt to convey to her even the slightest hint of her heritage, and her useless father babied her as though she was still a pup, even after the year all of her brothers and sisters were adopted. So, as we stand through this imaginary recollection, Aleu is young and naïve, and has no idea who she is, and just wants an owner to love and care for her.
Then came that one fateful day, where Aleu was out in the forest with Boris, Muk and Luk and, of course, her overprotective father, to whom came
just to take her home. As usual? He didn't tell his daughter why, but to follow with the movie's shallow plot, he was simply
there to obstruct some piece of her happiness, and instigate her into a small fit of rage. At this moment, a hunter was loading his gun with bullets and was out to participate in some bloodsport, and happened to have his eyes fixated on them--Aleu in particular. (Which is really stupid and exudes less of a friendly environment for the viewers, considering a lot of wolves are endangered because of this illogical pastime.) Aleu saw him, and ran in excitement toward him, thinking he could be her new owner. The man tries to shoot her, kill her, she escapes, blah blah blah.
Then Balto finally corners her in their house, and argues with her vehemently. Aleu was angry with him, too--angry enough to run away from home because Balto induced the thought of her life being messed up, though he supposedly didn't "intend" to do it. If I were her, would I be angry? Hell yeah. If my father told me I'm not allowed to interact with strangers and have to be babysat for the rest of my life, I'd be more than irritated. There's also something to be taken into account, and that's that Balto more or less told Aleu that she's
never going to have an owner because she's too much of a wolf. (By all means, there would be no direct problems of Aleu having an owner. She howls, yeah, but what else? Despite what the movie tries to shove down your throat, she wasn't any bit aggressive to strangers, and didn't even want to accept being a wolf. She wanted to believe she was a purebred husky, like her mother, and if she maintained that same mind set throughout the duration of her life, I think she'd make an awesome pet.)
Great job, Balto! You just ruined your daughter's self-esteem and saddened her to the verge of tears.
Niiiiice job, bro. I love how you lost your personality, too. That really warmed my heart and reminded me just the memorable character you are.
Moving on, the rest of the movie plays out with a dense, hard-to-wrap-your-fingers-around plot of her taking on some corny spiritual journey to find her one, true home, and to find out who she really "is". (Or so her spirit guide tells her, at any rate.) When Balto finds his daughter once more, he nitpicks and harasses her at every little thing she does. "No, you're coming home with me right now!", or "Aleu, not too close! The water's dangerous!" If you want to experience the true sensation of the word
annoying, just listen to what he has to say. That'll clear things up considerably.
And here we have Kiara, right? Cute little lioness cub who's inquisitive about everything around her. So she gets curious and visits the outlands. So she meets Kovu, the love of her life. And so the story progresses... slowly. Eventually, it's time for that cub to grow up, and like all the lionesses in a pride, has to learn how to hunt. Her father makes an irrevocable promise to her, that he'll let her do it on her own, and guess what he does next? He breaks that promise in like... two or three minutes, tops? A pathetic way to raise a child, especially given that she would need to know how to thrive on her own if she was expected to survive.
Kovu and Kiara bond together, like they were meant to, and things went fine up 'til that point. More and more did Kovu want to kill Simba, but the more he talked to Kiara, the more he wanted to rethink everything, and thus looked at his life with regret. Simba gets ambushed, barely survives and ultimately exiles Kovu. Then after that he blows up at Kiara, and lo and behold! Another Disney-starred father that abuses their child to the verge of tears, and causing them to run from home. Simba had no reason to be angry with Kiara, but he did just for the sake of it. That's the sign of a weak, unstable plot.
But really, with this movie? It's a rip of Romeo and Juliet to a T. All the events leading up to the main storyline were all precariously planned just so it could have a depressing-drama feel to it. Most of the sequences reminded me of something from a soap opera, anything from Kovu getting exiled for no real reason, to Simba refusing to let Kiara leave Pride Rock. How amateur.
I love Aleu and Kiara both with a flaming-hot passion. They're cute, they're rebellious, but most importantly... they just want love and understanding. If I had the chance, I'd gladly give them as much as I could offer, considering that's one thing I do best.
Haters gonna hate. *Thumbs down*