The Lion King II: Simba's Pride
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, later retitled The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride, is a 1998 animated musical film produced by Walt Disney Studios and released by Walt Disney Home Video.
The story takes place in a kingdom of lions in Africa and was influenced by William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. According to co-director Darrell Rooney, the final draft gradually became a variation of Romeo and Juliet.
King Qualities
- Beautiful animation, just like the first film, and Then Lion King 1½. Despite looking odd at times, the animation overall is impressive for a direct-to-video film.
- Great songs (especially "We Are One"); literally all of them are memorable.
- Zira is almost as great a villain as Scar was. As she aims to make Kovu the new King of the Pride Lands, take over the Pride Lands under her order, make Kion her apprentice, and kill Simba in order to avenge Scar's death.
- Additionally, her eventual demise is one of the darkest Disney villain deaths ever, as it's implied (and outright confirmed in a deleted scene) that she commits suicide by allowing herself to be swept away by a raging river current, due to her deciding that she'd rather die than live with Simba.
- Some scenes with Timon and Pumbaa are funny. And it's nice to see them return here.
- Nuka's death was very emotional.
- A great setup from the last film. As while the original was inspired by the story of Hamlet, this one is based on Romeo and Juliet.
- Delivers a very strong message about peace and feuds. About how people who make look and act different shouldn't be alienated and excluded, but instead accepted and understood, because behind all that fear of the unknown many people have, there's someone with complicated feelings and struggles of their own (personified perfectly in Kovu).
- Kiara and Kovu's relationship is greatly executed and even important, with it being based off of Romeo and Juliet, but they settle the feud between their tribes instead of killing themselves.
- Kovu is a very well-written and complex character, as he becomes conflicted between either continuing the legacy of Scar or rejecting it, and ultimately chooses the latter at the end.
Bad Qualities
- It is generally considered to be not as good as the previous film, and the plot can be slightly generic.
- On that topic, Simba is flanderized to being just another generic overprotective father who is also a huge jerk to Kovu.
- The performance of Edward Hibbert, who voices Zazu in the film (reprising his role from the Timon & Pumbaa TV series), is a bit of a step-down from Rowan Atkinson in the previous film.
- A major plot hole: for some reason, Mufasa's spirit informs Rafiki to set up Kovu and Kiara together instead of just convincing Simba to unite the two prides.
- In a deleted scene, Zira falls in the flood, but her face was smiling creepily, which is downright suicide.
Reception
Siskel & Ebert gave the film a "two-thumbs up" and said it was a "satisfactory sequel to one of the most popular films of all time, The Lion King". However, they also said it was best that it went to video, citing that the music was lacking and not remotely equal to the original's soundtrack.
Writing for Variety, Joe Leydon commented in his review: "In marked contrast to most of the studio's small screen sequels to bigscreen animated hits, the new pic isn't merely kids' stuff. Not unlike its predecessor, Lion King II has enough across-the-board appeal to entertain viewers of all ages".