“The Lion King 1½,” released in 2005, isn’t a sequel as much as it is a parallel look at the original, with our favorite characters Timon and Pumbaa taking us on a guided tour of how the first film happened from their point of view. The film smartly does not try to beat “The Lion King” when it comes down to scale or drama. David Nusair stated in his review, “Rather, this jokey and self-referential tale seems content to exist as an enjoyably light-hearted romp.”
Besides from explaining what Timon (Nathan Lane) and Pumbaa (Ernie Sabella) actually did during the occurrences of the original, “The Lion King 1½” gives up a good amount of backstory on these two characters (mostly Timon). Before teaming up with Pumbaa, Timon lived with an entire society of fellow meerkats – including his mother (Julie Kavner, the voice of Marge Simpson, Patty, Selma and Jacqueline Bouvier in "The Simpsons") and Uncle Max (Jerry Stiller, who played Frank Costanza on “Seinfeld” and Arthur Spooner on “The King of Queens”). However, Timon’s wild ways eventually makes him feel like he doesn’t belong, so he decides to head out into the wild. It’s not long before he meets Pumbaa, the stinking warthog that is to become his best friend.
If you look at the stand-alone plotlines, that’s about the point of it. The bulk of “The Lion King 1½” follows our favorite characters as they interfere with the numerous occurrences in the original (like the famous shot of all the animals kneeling before the newly born Simba occurred only because of Timon and Pumbaa’s presence), and for the most part it’s a lot of fun. Those with a low patience for these admittedly over-the-top characters would be strongly told to avoid this one. However, the filmmakers have intelligently made Timon and Pumbaa into more than just hilarious sidekicks. We learn the reasons why this differenced duo’s friendship, and in typical Disney fashion, it’s heartwarming (of course, the characters becoming more convincing because of it).
Outstandingly, the animation in “The Lion King 1½” is just as good as the first’s – if not better, thanks to the flawless mixing of computer effects. The new songs, on the other hand, don’t even come close to being on the same level to matching the almost perfect selection of songs that Elton John and Tim Rice composed for “The Lion King” (it’s got to be doubtful any of these songs will be singing around in your head after watching the movie, especially considering that most of the original’s songs make an appearance here).
A lot of credit for the film’s success has to go to Lane and Sabella, who bring an outstanding amount of energy to their performances. Other actors from the original also come back into their roles – including Matthew Broderick, Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Guillaume, Cheech Marin, Moira Kelly, Jim Cummings and Edward Hibbert – even though their spotlight is limited. Matt Weinberg voices cub Simba in this one. Nusair stated that, “The film runs a brisk 77 minutes, ensuring that even the most twitchy kids will have no problem sitting through it (and for adults, the short running time ensures that The Lion King 1½ never wears out its welcome).”
When you look at the straight-to-video Disney sequels, it doesn’t get much better than “The Lion King 1½.” Nusair is right when he said, “It's not a rehash of the original, a problem that seems to plague the majority of their follow-ups (even the first sequel to The Lion King was guilty of this to a certain extent).” The film stays consistent to the fans that haven’t seen the original, despite there’s obviously a lot of in-jokes that only fans of the first one will be able to appreciate.
Just a special note for everyone: this film is very much like the hilarious “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.” I first saw this movie over at my cousin's house, since he had bought it and showed it to me. We both were laughing a lot when we were watching the movie. I think out of all the Disney films that had sequels, “The Lion King” franchise has stayed likable with each entry. I can’t think of any that have been bad. Well, I know people didn’t really like the second one, since it holds a 33% on Rotten Tomatoes. I honestly thought that was as good as the first one, much like how this one is. I think that this will make you laugh throughout the entire runtime of this movie. I know that I was entertained, so this is another direct-to-video sequel that I highly recommend everyone check out, it's another one of my favorites.
There’s one more “The Lion King” entry, but that will be at the end of this month. Tomorrow we will look at another bad sequel to one of my favorite Disney movies.
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