Lion 2: The Movie

"Why don't you tell me you can do these things you do?!"

"Lion 2: The Movie" is the 17th episode of the first season of Steven Universe and the 17th episode overall.

Official Synopsis
Steven and Connie try to ride Lion to the movie theater, but Lion has other ideas!

Plot
The episode begins with Connie showing Steven the trailer for a new movie called Dogcopter 3 starring Dogcopter, a dog-cop robot that saves a city by shooting missiles from its butt. Connie tells Steven why it is her favorite film franchise, and she hopes it stays loyal to the book. The Gems warp into the house, Pearl with her new outfit, and Steven asks Connie to show them the trailer. Amethyst sees Dogcopter and decides to shape-shift into it, astounding Connie. Steven assures her that the movie will be more impressive than any magic. Connie, unsure of this, asks how they will get to the movies as the theater is far away. Outside the house Steven introduces Connie to their mode of transportation, Lion; Connie is shocked. She expresses disappointment with her life compared to Steven's fantastic Gem adventures, and says the most exciting thing in her life are her tennis lessons. She jokingly demonstrates three tennis shots, including "Overhead Death-Strike" which she admits is a made-up move (Steven is impressed anyway.) They then jump onto Lion's back to go to the theater, but Lion refuses to move for a few moments.

When Steven says he isn't trained very well, Lion begins running towards the beach. He leaps above the ocean, terrifying Connie and Steven. Fortunately, he lands on the water gracefully and they discover that Lion can walk on water. He runs across the ocean, taking Steven and Connie on a magical ride. Lion creates a portal by roaring and runs through it, and the three arrive inside an empty training temple. They walk onto a section of the floor, and it starts to glow. A podium emerges from the floor. Steven places his hand on it and gets stuck. Connie says that they will have to chop his hand off, Steven screams, and a collection of swords comes out of the ground. Connie finds out that poking, tickling, and squeezing parts of Steven's body reveals additional varieties of weapons and armor, Laser Light Cannons (the Quartizine Trio), spiky chain-balls (the Heretic's Anguish), and a giant penny. Steven then unwittingly activates a floating robot that shoots various projectiles at Steven, Connie and Lion. Lion helps them escape the temple and takes them to the Beach City theater, but the robot follows them through the portal. After being slightly burned by the robot, Steven offers Connie a can of soda to ease her pain. She says to just forget about the movie, as Steven probably has more important things to do than watch a movie. Steven says that Dogcopter 3 is very important to him, and asks why Connie would hang out with him because he messes everything up. Connie asks why he would ever hang out with her, because she is so much less interesting.

Suddenly, the robot comes back, even more aggressive than before. Lion summons a sword from his head to help them defend against the robot, and Connie helps Steven to destroy the robot by using her tennis serves to reflect its shots. The robot gets destroyed. After dealing with the largely unfazed ticket clerk, they finally get to see Dogcopter 3. Connie is fine with the creative liberties the movie takes from the book. The episode ends in a parody of the lion from MGM logo (Metro Goldwyn Mayer), with Lion in the star.

Characters

 * Steven
 * Connie
 * Lion
 * Pearl
 * Garnet
 * Amethyst
 * Robot Shooty Thing (debut, antagonist)
 * Dogcopter (debut)
 * Jane (debut)

Objects

 * Cheeseburger Backpack
 * Steven's Phone
 * Rose's Pedestal
 * Laser Light Cannon
 * The Quartizine Trio
 * The Heretic's Anguish
 * The Armor of the Fallen
 * The Axes of Ages
 * Giant Penny
 * Yummy Apple Juice (debut)

Locations

 * Beach City
 * Crystal Temple
 * Beach House
 * Movie Theater
 * Rose's Secret Armory (debut)

Music

 * "Lion's Ocean"
 * "The Cave"

Trivia

 * The title "Lion 2: The Movie" is a play on the phrase "Lion, to the movie", which was also Steven's primary goal in the episode.
 * Lion has many previously unknown abilities that are revealed in this episode, such as walking on water, summoning a sword from his forehead, and creating portals to teleport to places.
 * It is revealed that Steven is ticklish.
 * The giant "shield cent " penny would have been impossible for Rose, herself, to place in her Secret Armory, as the particular design depicted was first circulated in 2010, years after Rose would have "given up her physical form," to create Steven.

Cultural References

 * The scene where Lion runs over the ocean in "Lion 2: The Movie" is a reference to a scene in Digimon.
 * Dogcopter 3 is a fusion of the fake TV show from the film Bolt and The War of the Worlds.
 * The "Giant Penny" Steven and Connie discover in the cave is similar to one typically seen in Batman's Batcave.
 * The iris-out with Lion is a direct reference to the logo for film studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which began all its movies with a roaring lion.
 * The green screen at the start of the episode is shown in the beginning of most trailers, although often with variations depending on the movie or feature.
 * The soda that Connie and Steven drink towards the end of the episode looks exactly like Apple Sidra, which is a Taiwanese apple soda beverage.
 * Steven drawing the sword from Lion's head was another reference to Revolutionary Girl Utena.
 * Promotional art of this episode is a reference to The Lion King, a popular Disney movie.
 * Gre.png is seen eating a creature with a back half resembling a lizard, but he burps out feathers, implying that it had a front half with birdlike features. This may be a reference to the mythological basilisk or cockatrice, both of which are sometimes depicted with the front half of a rooster and the back half of a lizard.
 * The vehicle which the Robot Shooty Thing shot was a 2012 Hyundai i10 hatchback.

Continuity

 * Rose's Secret Armory appears again in "Rose's Scabbard".
 * The poses the Gems do when appearing on the Warp Pad resemble the ones they did in the pilot.
 * Pearl is still wearing her post-regeneration outfit from the previous episode, "Steven the Sword Fighter", implying it was permanent.
 * The podium that controls the Armory has the same design on it as Steven's Shield.
 * Similar to when Connie asked about Steven's bubble in "Bubble Buddies", Connie asks if Lion has run out over the ocean before, to which Steven responds "No, this is new".

Errors

 * Some candy sticks can be seen in some scenes, with the other snacks.
 * When the Robot Shooty Thing appeared in the Beach City Theater, one of the displays of "Dogcopter 3D" was blank.

Videos
El Léon 2, La Pelicula pt-br:Leão 2: O Filme ru:Lion 2: The Movie