The Lion King 1½
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 "Hyenas in the hole!"
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The Lion King 1½ (titled The Lion King 3: Hakuna Matata in some regions) is a 2004 American animated adventure comedy film produced by the Australian branch of DisneyToon Studios and released direct to video on February 10, 2004. As the third installment released in the Lion King media franchise and the final installment in the trilogy, it focuses on the escapades of the meerkat/warthog duo Timon and Pumbaa before, during, and after the events of The Lion King.
A majority of the original voice cast from the first film returns to reprise their roles, including Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella as the voices of Timon and Pumbaa, respectively.
Plot
The story of The Lion King is retold from Timon and Pumbaa's point of view.
Good Qualities
- Like The Emperor's New Groove, this film is very hilarious for a G-rated Disney movie.
- Disney finally managed to get its chance to give Timon & Pumbaa their very own feature-length movie, and their movie is one of the few pieces of media to have a comic relief character as the protagonist(s) and make it work.
- It tells the story of how Timon and Pumbaa became a dynamic duo, and despite the plot being somewhat silly, it manages to be executed well.
- Speaking of Timon and Pumbaa's story, they amazingly tell themselves their story.
- The plot is way better than not only most other films with comic relief as the main character(s) but also most other Disney direct-to-DVD sequels. And given how many terrible films of the latter variety were being released at the time, this movie felt like a breath of fresh air.
- Amazing animation.
- Wonderful soundtrack, especially its very catchy song, "That's All I Need".
- Like the Timon & Pumbaa TV show, it was a wonderful comedy for The Lion King universe.
- Countless funny moments are very perfect, like when Pumbaa changes to the QVC network.
- Timon did the hilarious G-rated moment when he did the "everything the light touches is our kingdom" quote.
- Timon, Pumbaa, and Ma are beloved comedic protagonists.
- Simba, Nala, and Rafiki are also likable characters and very faithful to their original roles.
- The Hyenas are top-notch main villains.
- It was a great way to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Lion King universe.
- The character designs are very reminiscent of those from the original film.
- According to the teaser trailer, Pumbaa tells Timon that the third film was an in-between-quel, which is a pretty clever way to call the film.
- Timon and Pumbaa perfectly retell the events of the first film, including the duo being chased by the wildebeests.
- The ending is really cute as it has various Walt Disney Animation Studios characters (around the time the film was released) showing up to the theater Timon and Pumbaa were at in silhouette form.
Bad Qualities
- In terms of the part where Timon and Pumbaa rewatch the classic film, it makes the film feel like it's just another run-of-the-mill clip show, with clips from the first Lion King movie being reused to save Disney's budgets.
- There is no actual story either, unlike what we were given with the onscreen events on how Timon and Pumbaa met for the first time.
- The basic concept of retelling the events of The Lion King 1 from the perspective of Timon and Pumbaa feels quite ridiculous and it feels kind of like a premise for fan fiction than of an actual film, despite the whole thing being well executed.
- It has its fair share of childish levels of humor that do not fit in with the Lion King universe, including toilet humor (despite the whole movie being given a G rating), especially when Pumbaa breaks wind during... Simba's presentation is one of the most iconic sequences from the original film.
- The revisionist positioning of Timon as Simba's stepdad seems rather forced (at least in the context of the franchise), mainly since Simba's relationship with Timon had no emotional echo in the original film.
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 78% approval rating based on 17 reviews, with an average rating of 6.41/10.
Frank Lovece of TV Guide gave the film 3 1⁄2 stars out of 4 stating that "This retelling of The Lion King (1994) from the point of view of comic sidekicks Timon (voice of Nathan Lane) and Pumbaa (Ernie Sabella) is one of the rare Disney direct-to-video sequels worthy of the original." He went on to say that 'the only aspect of the film that feels forced is the revisionist positioning of Timon as young Simba's step-dad, which has no emotional echo in the first film. The quality of the animation is surprisingly impressive; some static backgrounds are the primary concession to a small-screen budget and the fluid character movements and expressions are vastly superior to those of, say, The Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa TV cartoon series.'" Joe Leydon of Variety gave the film a positive review writing "toddlers and preschoolers will be equally enchanted and amused by colorful toon shenanigans."
Los Angeles Times article writer Susan King wrote "Because Disney's made-for-video sequels to their classic animated films have been mediocre at best, expectations for this new sequel to the Mouse House's 1994 blockbuster were slim. But thanks to a clever story line, snappy dialogue that kids and adults will enjoy, a couple of decent new songs and the return of the original voice actors, Lion King 1 1⁄2 is an irreverent gas."
Many reviewers have suggested that the film was influenced by the Tom Stoppard play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, which follows Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters from Shakespeare's play Hamlet, and details their experiences taking place during the same time as the events of Hamlet, similar to what the film does with its predecessor, which has been similarly compared to Hamlet.
Screenwriter Tom Rogers confirmed that this was intentional in a 2019 interview, adding that the film's frame story was inspired by Mystery Science Theater 3000.
