The Lion King 1½ -- It's here! What do you think? SPOILERS!

[Jake Lipson]

Well, the circle of life continued today with the release of The Lion King 1½ on DVD in the U.S., and it will be rolling out internationally in the coming days. Now that it's finally here, what do you think? There's a whole new 77 minute movie to overanalyze and discuss, so...let's discuss. Thoughts? Reactions?

I've got a full in depth review coming later, but briefly: It's a great movie and certianly the best direct-to-video sequel to date from any studio (save *maybe* Joseph: King of Dreams, but I think of that as more a loose companion piece then a follow-up tied to the original Prince of Egypt.) If you're open to a lighthearted take on the epic scale of The Lion King canon, then you'll really enjoy this movie. More later.

[Tangela]

I haven't seen it yet, so I guess I'll wait until several people post their thoughts, then I'll decide if I want to buy it or not... Those are all the comments for now.

[MickeyMousePal]

The Lion King 1 1/2 was the best sequel I ever seen.
It's about Timon and Pumbaa story how they got together and how Simba rule the Prideland again. I thought it was funny and entertaining. Better then Lion King 2: Simba's Pride. It's a must get for a Lion King fan.
You'll like it beginning to end.

Also the previews were awesome! LOL.

[kcnmttcnn]

The movie was better than I expected. Better than the second one.
The DVD was kinda empty....

[ZOOMBOOM0688]

I loved Lion king 1 1/2 it was funny . I agree the disc 2 was sort of empty, but The virtual safari was funny and it was better than the first two.

[rnrlesnar]

I really enjoyed Lion King 1 1/2. It isn't the typical cheap sequel. I found the quality to be very good. Even the music is pretty good, especially the "Tunnel" song in the beginning. Its definitely worth picking up.

[Grunches]

I'm really excited to get this movie! I'm getting it tomorrow!

[MickeyMouseboy]

See I told you it was good! im looking forward to your review guys!

[2099net]

Well, we watched it last night. I enjoyed the first 15 minutes or so enormously (including the "digga tunnel" song, which did sound sort of familiar...) but I think interest and quality dropped when the "real" Lion King story was introduced. The humour seemed much more free-flowing and natural when they weren't attempting to "slot it in" anywhere.

It was a cute idea, but not sucessfully pulled off IMOHO. A stand alone Timon and Pumbaa movie would have worked better perhaps.

As for the disc, I can't really see why this is a 2 disc release. Even the virtual safari seems shorter than the Lion King one (that said, this was a supplement worth seeing. I take everything back I said about it. At least this has a reason for being "virtual" and was much funnier than the Lion King effort).

I wish we could have had a commentary (or perhaps 2) I think the writers and Nathan and Ernie's comments would be most interesting, and something more on the second disc about the making of the film - even if we only ended up with small production galleries and an extended "how a cartoon is made" type of content.

[swray1024]

I thought it was very good. It was funny, and much better than i ever expected it to be. The extras also were good I thought. The safari ride and game were fun too. I was very happy with it.

[Mushu2083]

I liked The Lion King 1 1/2. It was one of the better Disney sequels. I bought it because I LOVE Nathan Lane and Whoopi Goldburg. I didn't really like that Who Wants to be King of the Jungle game though. Not my cup of tea. There were alot more extras than I thought there would be.

[goofystitch]

This is definateley the best DTV Disney sequel ever. It is very creative and the animation is excelent. It looks like a theatrical release would. The CG effects blend so well that it's hard to tell when there is some. The new songs are O.K. I wouldn't go buy the soundtrack, but I don't cringe during them. The only thing that made me feel like I was watching a DTV sequel was the score. This movie is very clever. Much better than Lion King 2.

[DVDisney]

I got it yesterday and thought it was great.
Better than I expected.

Very light-hearted with tounge-in-cheek.



The music wasnt all that great, but I enjoyed it overall.
I dont think it would work in theaters.... its much better suited for DVD.
Timon's family members were great.


My favorite scene would have to be when Timon and his Mom look over the Pride Lands and she says "look at that, everything you see" (while the music from the original movie plays).... "that all belongs -- to someone else"
I literally laughed out loud.


Very funny.
And definately the best direct-to-DVD movie ever.
(Aladdin and the King of Thieves is better though, IMO)

[Natedogg9129]

Yeah, i agree with some of the other people in saying that the second disk is very short. But i think a lot of it had to do with "Who Wants to be King of the Jungle.

[Disney Guru]

It sounds great. I havn't gotten it yet but since it is this good I will deffinately be purchasing this great movie. i think that it sounds really good. I am so anxious for the Lion King 2 Special Edition Releases.

[Luke]

I liked it well enough. It bothered me that all of the songs from the original film had to be re-recorded. You think if anyone would be able to reuse Disney footage and music, it'd be Disney.

Nonetheless, it was more inspired than most DTV sequels. It did get a little more sappy than it should have been, but it was entertaining. Better than I expected, I admit.

[spiritednala]

I must share my thoughts and opinions about The Lion King 1.5 I watched it tonight and found it rather enjoyable, the animation is extremly stunning but your can notice the digital surroundings in some scenes. I'm not big on Timon and Pumbaa and mainly bought the movie because It thought that Simba was going to be in it quite a bit.....but mostly It's about Timon and Pumbaa's life. ~Mostly Timons. Anyways, I loved the scenes with Simba and of course Nala and theres some breif short scenes of Mufasa and of course Scar....nothing huge though, they only show Mufasa I belive 2 times and scar about 3 times or so. I don't want to spoil it for anybody though LOL.
It is definatly worth seeing I can tell you that much...like I said, the animation is wonderful! What about The Lion King 3? Has anybody heard of this sequel so far? I'm rather curious to find out if Disney is working on a third ~last sequel to the movie~
Anyways I will stop commenting on the movie before I ruin it for people LOL
Roars & Purrs,
Spirited Nala

[Billy Moon]

It bothered me that all of the songs from the original film had to be re-recorded. You think if anyone would be able to reuse Disney footage and music, it'd be Disney.

How can it have songs from the original film?
I admit that I don't really know what the whole film is about, and I find it quite surprising that everybody seems to like it. I am not really a fan of Timon and Pumba, and if TLK 1 1/2 has the same type of humor as their TV show, it's definately not for me...
(Does it...?)

[Luke]

It bothered me that all of the songs from the original film had to be re-recorded. You think if anyone would be able to reuse Disney footage and music, it'd be Disney.

How can it have songs from the original film?
I admit that I don't really know what the whole film is about, and I find it quite surprising that everybody seems to like it. I am not really a fan of Timon and Pumba, and if TLK 1 1/2 has the same type of humor as their TV show, it's definately not for me...
(Does it...?)

Well, you see much of 1½ is looking at the events of the original film through Timon & Pumbaa's perspective, when they weren't really in the original film. And so we get bits and pieces of "Can't Wait to Be King", "Be Prepared", "Can You Feel the Love Tonight", and a good deal of "Hakuna Matata", and they're all noticeably different from the real film versions. Even the Hawaiian War Chant luau Timon does, which is briefly included again, is re-recorded. While using the original film's tracks not only would have saved work, it would have made it more convincing and less distracting to notice re-recorded audio.

[Jake Lipson]

Guys, you don't need to worry about not spoiling -- this thread is OBVIOUSLY spoiler space and I don't think anyone would be dumb enough to read it w/o seeing the movie first unless they wanted the spoiler. I'll even add SPOILER WARNING! to the title if you want.

Yeah. On a TLK list I've heard some speculation that it was all redone to avoid paying royalties, but that doesn't make sense because it'd just be Disney reusing theiir own material. And they've already got to pay a bunch of royalties on this, having used the Good/Bad/Ugly theme, Peter Gunn theme, and Sunrise Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof.

Not to mention they went through so much to properly recreate the idea that it's actulally the original. The movie even opens up with the white-on-blue Disney castle logo from TLK's original theatrical prints, and not even TLK's DVD did that, replacing it instead with the orange on black logo they've used since Dinosaur. When I saw it open with the blue logo I was thinking, Oh, my god, wow...and then they jarringly cut to a re-recorded version of Circle of Life and it ruined the effect. Really, this movie is for the fans, and the fans will be annoyed to hell by the re-recordings because they're out of place and sound wrong when trying to replicate the original. So why do it?

And Timon & Pumbaa pausing the movie every now and then got ever so slightly annoying, especially since they did it during the big scenes (Max being chased by the hyenas, the waterfall, etc.), but it was usually done to add another really-funny gag, so I don't mind it as much. Pumbaa changing the channel at the worst exact moment is PRICELESS. I thought I had changed it by accident until I realized that the movie was still running.

Hats off to whoever came up with "HE'S WEARING A DRESS!!!!"