I liked Shenzi's character in this movie.
I'm not a big fan of the movie, but I like what they did with Shenzi's character here. Talk about a complete character change from the 1994 movie.
Here she commands great respect and was actually kind of menacing to boot. She has a burning hatred for the lions and was always dead serious. Needless to say, it was an interesting change and she was a decent villain.
I think they made the change because in real life, hyenas packs are generally led by an aggressive female who always gets first dibs on the meal. They probably wanted it to be more accurate since the movie looks way more "realistic" or whatever.