Opinions of TLK1.5

[WildSimba]

I didn't care for TLK 1 1/2. It tried to go far with the jokes and stuff, and I just never saw TLK as a full-blown out cheesy, CGI filled movie that little 8 year olds, or really immature 16 year olds would watch, and would think it's the best movie ever.

TLK 1 1/2 failed with trying to please me like the other 2 movie did. It wasn't a good movie, there were a few scenes that I thought were funny, But overall it didn't hit the side of my brain that thinks something is great.

I'd much rather stick with the first 2 films.

[YFWE]

I enjoyed the movie, and I think this is because of my unheightened expectations going in.

I didn't expect a Lion King 3 going in, obviously. I knew what it was going to be about and took it as such. I thorougly enjoyed Timon and Pumbaa's comic relief in the first two movies, so I knew that, in some capacity, a movie centered around their misadventures would be highly entertaining to me. I knew it wouldn't bring the entire animation world to its knees, and, of course, it certainly didn't. But it was enough to suffice for me, at least; obviously, there had not been any new LK material for a while, and when it came out, I was just then starting to get back into the franchise after many years of being out of the loop.

If one knows his or her Shakespeare (or, at least, has memorized every random LK fact known to man), one'll know that conceivably the first two LK movies were based loosely on a Shakespearean work (or had striking similarities). 1.5 was no different, really, for it was based on a play that was BASED on a Shakespearean work--Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, by Tom Stoppard. Without a shadow of a doubt, this play is my favorite play of all time because of its witty, comical backstory to the more-recognized Hamlet, written of course by Shakespeare. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead featured a multitude of scenes in which the titular characters (who were supporting players in the original Hamlet, as Timon and Pumbaa were in LK) appear in the background of a famous scene of Hamlet--thus showing that they (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) were in fact in every scene of the original play in some capacity.

Now, many of us are aware that LK was loosely inspired by Hamlet. Thus, Lion King 1.5 is the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to The Lion King's Hamlet. And it works well, especially if one knows the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern play well-- recalling how hilarious the play was in relation to Hamlet, this made 1.5 all the more enjoyable to me.

It didn't disappoint me that they "messed" with some of the original scenes. I LOVED that!-- another take on a classic scene from a classic movie. It certainly wasn't intended to tarnish the original scene, but instead to create an alternate, comical take on how something actually occurred, and how something can be seen from a different point of view.

And the animation was fine to me. I'm just a lover of animation, through and through: to me, whether it's CGI-influenced or not, it's still animation, and that's what I love. Purists are purists, and that's all right, but with the computer age dawning, a predilection toward animation assisted or done completely by computer was just bound to happen. While I cannot truly say what Walt Disney would've thought about this (NO one can), I can only speculate from what I know of the man that he would've understood that the time for an evolution in animation was imminent, and he would've been behind this project. Once again, that is an opinionated statement based on what I KNOW of Walt, but I am not saying that, undoubtedly, he would have liked the direction animation has gone in. But I digress.

This is not to say I enjoyed the entire movie-- the entire Meerkat back story with Ma and Uncle Max is slightly annoying, though only more annoying is their infernal song-- but it was a sufficient movie all and all. It was undoubtedly going to offend some purists to the original, but I don't think you can find one movie whose sequel did not do that. It was merely meant to entertain and to provide a witty back story (rather than inventing a whole new story, which very well could've ended bad), and I must say that, taking it for what it is, I enjoyed it very much. If that makes me a bad TLK fan, oh well.

[Majordomo]

Well, the "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" parody would probably have worked better using Shenzi and Banzai. Because, if I remember correctly, R & G are the antagonist's henchmen in "Hamlet", though it's been a while since I've read the play...

[YFWE]

Yeah, R+G were the henchmen, though they certainly weren't any good at it. Shenzi and Banzai in their place MIGHT have worked... however, where would that have left Ed? R+G didn't have a third person. Further, I guess what kind of extends the metaphor for me is how R+G were supposed to keep watch on Hamlet early on in the story as spies, just as Simba enlisted Timon and Pumbaa in LKII to watch Kiara (though this would be the only Hamlet similarity in LKII)... though, of course, R+G were a bit more malevolent in their intentions. Either way, it's only a slight similarity (the likening of R+G Are Dead to LK1.5), but it's good enough for me to enjoy the movie as a whole, since I was thinking of that basically the entire time I watched the film.

[JesstheCougress]

I've never heard of that play sounds interesting! i didn't mind the computer animation... I like all kinds of animation, as long as it's done well. Like Dreamworks' Spirit <3.

[Kovu]

I didn't really think TLK3 was that bad, but I guess that I was expecting something much worse when I watched it, so it would seem good compared to my original expectations for it.

The bit I didn't like was how they messed with the Circle of Life scene. It just didn't work for me.

Another thing - just how long did Timon and Pumbaa sleep for? They go to sleep the day Simba's born, then they wake up in the middle of IJCWTBK - They must have slept for years!

I also don't get how Max could dig a tunnel right through Pride Rock - which one would expect would be made of solid rock, and therefore impossible to dig through.

- Kovu

[Panda-chan]

Yeah, TLK 1.5 was definitely funny, but it ruined some of the best parts of TLK, which really sucked. And like you said, some parts didn't make sense and conflicted with what happened in the original movie.

[rachelanne]

I agree with you, Amanda. TLK 1.5 did make me feel like the emotional parts of TLK were not as serious and meaningful, such as the gas making the rhinos bow in the beginning. I mean, it was a funny, childish joke, but not really appropriate for such a scene in that movie. I try not to think about TLK 1.5 when I watch the first one now, but sometimes I can't help it. I liked what they did with the parts of Simba's adolescence but that's really the only reason why I was curious to watch it in the first place haha I wanted to see what they came up with (which is why I really watch any Disney sequel)

[PrincessKiara]

I only watched this movie once, and it really did not fall in my taste. It felt like a parody of TLK. I don’t know, maybe I’m just too old, lol.

[CheetahCat]

Meh, I'll admit that this film isn't your standard TLK film but I still enjoyed it nonetheless. Anything that is TLK related in someway, I wanna see so this was no exception! I really liked the backstory with Pumbaa, Timon and Simba. Throughout the film though, I think my favorite bits were the Snail Slurping contest and the scene where all of them were in the waterhole which acted like a Spa. lol!

The way Simba and Timon shared expressions after Pumbaa got out was too funny! I cracked up so bad after that.