The Lion King 1½ (2004)

Too much of everything

Strong and Moving!

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Just in case you forgot, this movie started a trend of forced memes. The horror, The horror! OVERALL MOVIE: 3/10 I prefer Mystery Science Theater or Rifftrax better.

As the only true direct-to-video Disney movie that I own, The Lion King 1 1/2 is a good step up from several others (at least from what I've heard others say about them) in that it doesn't entirely soil the original film. The animation is very good for a DTV, though it doesn't try to show off some effects and prefers to rehash stuff from the original Lion King with updates. The characters for the most part maintain their personalities quite well, though the character cameos at the end seemed pointless, and Timon and Pumbaa in silhouette made TLK1.5 feel like a rip-off of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The story is among the most imaginative in a Disney sequel, taking advantage of its "movie within a movie" thing enough to pass (though again, we've seen it in MST3K, so I took points off for that). As for the humor, I found about 45% of them to hit. I was already not a fan of Pumbaa discussing his flatulence issues in TLK, so having more scenes (3?) with wind-breaking isn't going to help, especially with further mentions of it that I couldn't count. As with any direct- to-video sequel that's actually not bad, you should still consider a good handful of questions for yourself before you see it. If you liked the original LK, then I think you will find something to take away from TLK1.5, if superficial and non-cherishable.

I am 18, and I absolutely adore the first Lion King film. It is gorgeously animated, has terrific music, likable characters and makes me laugh and cry, in short, like Beauty and the Beast and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs The Lion King is an animated masterpiece. Judging by the fact that I liked Simbas's Pride, not loved, just liked, I watched The Lion King 1.5. It is not a bad sequel at all, like Simbas's Pride it is not as good as the original, but I think like the second it is one of the better sequels. It does have its problems, it is too short(then again this is a problem most of the sequels have), some of the story, the Lion King but in Timon and Pumbaa's perspective is predictable but it is a great concept and there are a few parts such as the ending that felt a tad rushed. However, it is vibrantly animated, the music is very good, there are some surprisingly funny jokes(like Timon and Pumbaa's stalling during the climax), the dialogue is well written and hilarious and the voice acting is very well done. Overall, a fun, cute and entertaining, if inferior, sequel. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I learned about this film early in 2004 when I saw a trailer for it on the "Finding Nemo" DVD. That was before I rediscovered "The Lion King", so I didn't have much interest in seeing it at the time. Four years later, I have finally seen it. Even though I wasn't too impressed with "The Lion King II: Simba's Pride" overall, I still gave this one a chance. However, both of the LK sequels (though "The Lion King 1½" isn't exactly a sequel) weren't that much different for me. I think the main difference I found was that this one is slightly inferior.In this film, the main characters are Timon and Pumbaa, instead of Simba. Basically, the movie tells the original story at their point of view, starting before Simba. The story begins with Timon's unhappy life in a meerkat colony. The story then moves on to the young meerkat leaving his colony, learning about "Hakuna Matata", and meeting Pumbaa, a lonely warthog, for the first time. After this, it shows their lives together, and eventually, of course, their adventures with Simba. All of these things tell viewers parts of the story they've never known before.Timon and Pumbaa are responsible for a lot of the humour in the original "Lion King", but as I stated in my review of "The Lion King II: Simba's Pride", they're not they're not as consistent in that sequel. As the main characters in "The Lion King 1½", they're occasionally funny, like they are in the second film, but have not returned to full comic form. There's some surprising toilet humour (not a lot of it, but coming from a Disney animated film, it's still a bit surprising), usually involving Pumbaa and his farts, and I'm not sure whether this works or not. The part where the water hole stops bubbling as soon as Pumbaa gets out sort of left me with mixed feelings. If you ask me, the idea of this film, telling the original story at the point of view of other characters, was unnecessary, and I know I'm not alone. I'll admit, while watching it, stopping wouldn't have felt right, as I was curious to see what would happen. However, it's certainly not something I would want to watch again.I know not to expect sequels to be as good or better than their predecessors, as they sometimes are, but not usually. However, I have also learned that Disney's straight-to-video sequels (or ones that aren't really sequels, but still straight-to-video films that follow a theatrical film and use the same characters and setting, like this one), are usually if not always FAR inferior to their theatrical predecessors, and aren't usually too highly entertaining. My favourite of the ones I've seen is "Aladdin and the King of Thieves", but even that one didn't blow me away. Like I said, "The Lion King 1½" is better than "Belle's Magical World" (it definitely has less problems, I certainly can't complain too much about the animation here), but it does seem to lack quite a bit of what made the original "Lion King" so excellent.