My Lion King Forum

I gave it a nine. It'll never be as good as the original but its pretty close

8/10.

If you asked me this five years ago, I would have said 4/10, but the movie has really grown on me. I recently rewatched it and it was not all that bad. He Lives In You, My Lullabye, and even Upendi are tunes I find myself humming. I have grown attached to Kiara and Zira and Kovu. The plot is kind of clever, poorly executed, but still engaging. The animation is a problem, but I'm letting that one pass. Still there are a few things I still don't enjoy.

Top Five Reasons For Disliking This Movie
5. Color Scheme - I know a lot of people don't get bothered by this, but I do. The way Simba is colored looks weird. I am still not sure for the cause of this. The Lion King was colored by computer (look at the bottom center; the man is coloring Simba with a computer) so getting the same colors is not that difficult. Heck, Microsoft Paint, going back to Windows 3.1 (1990), had a color picking tool. It's that simple!!
4. Continuity - Instead of answering questions left unanswered by the first film, this sequel elects to pose new ones (Zira) and leave half of those unanswered. With all the comics and fanfics I've read that do a great job with both expanding and explaining the holes in TLK1 and TLK2, there really isn't a reason this movie couldn't done better.
3. Nuka - I found nothing desirable about this character. Every time he talked, I wanted to strangle him. His appearance was just awful, not evil awful, just ugly. He had no significance, Vitani could have handled his role much better solo. He was only here for the laughs, because kids love seeing a goofy, crazy character on the screen. And seriously Andy Dick?? I am so glad he died because if he hadn't, he would be in a LOT more fanfics.
2. Kovu's Voice - There should be a law against a celebrity voicing two popular characters. Every time I heard Kovu, I picture Max, Goofy's son. Ughh. It's for this reason I voted for Cub Kovu. Also, not to sound like a perv, but every time Kovu says something in a 'deep tone' I can't help but think of a child predator. "Hey look, we are one!" *shutters* Between this and Andy Dick, my respect for the casting director has disappeared.
1. Romeo & Juliet - I would LOVE to ask the writers of this movie as to why they decided to go down this path. Not only has it been done endless times before, but you get a whole load of cliches and eye rolling moments attached: Kiara's whiny attitude, Simba's inept judgement, groanworthy romance issues, predictable plotlines, etc.


(Dis)Honorable Mentions
*Love Will Find A Way - The only Lion King song I didn't fall in love with after the second listen. Only after recently rewatching (fifth time) did I finally enjoy it.
*Watered Down Story - The most intense and epic elements of the first movie are the reason the original is a masterpiece. However, because of either Eisner or some big wig, the really hardcore stuff was cut. Nuka's death scene and Zira's suicide would have been great. If those people were involved with the original film, I doubt Simba would have lost a dad.
*Animation - I probably shouldn't complain about this (except for the color issue) because I know the production team tried their best. But the errors in characters and the horrible CGI do some serious distracting.
*Timon & Pumbaa - They are saved by the fact they are actually funny. However they keep interrupting the truly emotional moments in the movie. I love Seinfeld jokes, but I don't want to hear them during my grandmother's funeral.
*Kovu's Scar - I don't care if literally no one else in this forum agrees with me, I still think this was mean of the writers to do. Poor Kovu! After all he has been through, he now has have a permenant mark comparing him to the Prideland's version of Hitler. I should make a "I Am Pro-Temporary Wound" stamp for my signature. LOL.

This concludes my rant.

8 - A very good addition to TLK, with memorable songs, a clever plot and some unique, new characters to watch. A few general flaws, sure, but not enough to makes this movie bad. I quite like the film.

When I first watched it back in 1998, I HATED it. I liked Kovu, but everyone and everything else about the movie I couldn`t stand. I was 12 back then, and my excpectations to the movie where SKY high, so naturally it was easy for me to get disappointed.

However! The movie did grow on me quickly, once I decided to give it a fair chance and watch it more than once. Certainly, the plot could have been excecuted better, but I`d say SP is generally a pretty good movie. In any case a hundred times better than any of the other direct-to-video Disney sequels. *shudder*

My two major dislikes with the movie has to do with certain characters: Nuka and Timon and Pumbaa. Nuka is just annoying, a pest.. Hiis desperate craving for Ziras attention and approval is to a certain degree interesting, but Nuka is mainly a comic relief character, and as such he comes across as too annoying, hyper and over-the-top for my liking. He steals the spotlight from Vitani, and she ends up not being as developed as she could have been, had she been allowed more actual interaction with Zira and everyone else.

Timon and Pumbaa were alright in TLK, and back then they were actually important to the plot, saving Cub Simbas life and all. But in SP.. OMG. Pumbaa would have made nice prey for Kiara on her first hunt. Sorry to all T&P fans, I don`t mean to be harsh, but those two just annoy me.. a lot. In SP. I understand their importance in Simbas life, but I still think their roles could have been more downplayed..

Eight! It has a good story and new characters. It has a few hard to notice flaws.

Somewhere between a 2 and 3.

I voted 2 to be truculent, although truthfully, I do in some very, very small way appreciate SP, and that one redeeming way is in the form of all the very thoughtful and rich fanfictions and fancomics/fanart that have taken off from it. So for the sake of the many wonderful things some very talented people have developed off of it, I probably actually give it a 3.

Will never admit that out loud to anyone, though ;P

(Yes, I know I'm on a public messageboard.)

4- I can't get over the animation, color, watered-down dialogue and chunky simba lol I guess he gained sympathy weight when Nala had Kiara

Yee, I went with four. It's a cash cow, a sequel made with smallest budget for greatest profit and it shows in a bajillion ways which is why this forum is chalk full of "uh why is this like this?" topics pointing out errors. My favorites include:

Upendi time warp: Before, they stargaze at night. After Upendi, it is sunset. Wait... what?
Nala is not in the movie: Self explanatory
Kovu is a chicken: the trained super-lion cannot help save Kiara from the flood because he is apparently scared
Kiara screams in fright at mundane things: self explanatory
Simba is a completely different character: Apparently the writers and the animators both ignored the character briefings


My grumpy two cents. =P

We cannot forget Nala's giant chin of doom!

Somewhere between 3 and 4. I never really watched this as a kid as much as a watched the first one. Infact, with the first one I would act it out as the movie went along. I think I rented it once or twice when I was 5 or 4. When I rewatched it when I was like 12, I really wanted to like it. Because, hey, it's the sequel to one of my favorite movies. But really, it kinda baffled me. Simba was turned into a "racist" of sorts, Nala is barley seen. We focus on his daughters whiny attitude and Timon and Pumbaa are just their for the little kids. Oh, and we never see Rafiki. Andy Dick. Dear God. I could stand him in Hoodwinked, but this is too much. Watering down the elements that made the Lion King the blockbuster it was would ultimatley fail.

Oh and the fur colors. Simba in the first movie had a vivid bright yellow and orange mane, now he's brown (?) and looks nothing like Mufasa. Nala, what the heck. Her chin was flippin' huge.

I really like it, but there were a couple things I didn't like about it.

I didn't like how there were some confusing plot holes and or course, the usual questions about relationships, like who was ______'s father and stuff like that.

Also, I didn't really like how the animation and colors were different than the first movie. Otherwise, I really like the movie.