What do you not like about 1 1/2?

[Rollo]

.

[PridelandsPhantom]

Honestly, I will tell you what I did like. I liked seeing the scenes with Timon and Pumbaa and Simba. I liked seeing how they raised Simba as a cub (I'm going to get old walking over this thing-Timon),to teen Simba (one of the best parts for me). I liked the joke about seeing Scar's Be Prepared and Timon's joke (I'm guessing this isn't the traveling company of Riverdance! ). I liked Ma and though she was sweet and added quiet a bit to Timon.

The rest of it, well I hate the fart jokes with Pumbaa. I really do it is just gross. I don't like Uncle Max and would rather have seen Timon's father and more of his early life. I guess most of the movie was just rather flat for me.

[Squeely]

Then I put it into the DVD player, and the disappointment set in. It still hasn't left.

The one thing that has always bothered me about 1 1/2 is the wasted potential. I think it's very unfair on the fans that T&P, who already had a series dedicated to them, were given another theatrical-length film - why not treat us to another character's story, preferably a prequel dealing with Mufasa and Taka? So many fans have said that was their desire, and reading back on archives, when the third movie was announced, a lot of TLK lovers had their fingers crossed that it was going to be a prequel to the original movie. If not that, then a sequel to Simba's Pride, which I wouldn't have minded either despite not liking it that much. Anything but Timon and Pumbaa, please.

You had the exact same first reactions as me, haha. I was 14 when it came out, though. I remember reading all the pre-movie buzz and hype; I remember when everyone was excited about possibly getting a prequel or another sequel. Which just made it all the more disappointing that we got... this.

Heck, even for a Timon and Pumbaa movie, I feel like it could have been a whole lot better. Show us more events in Timon's past, show us Pumbaa's past, show the two as kids and give us some major adorability... Give us some more original songs! Digga Tunnah was great, but then we're left with the not-so-great "That's All I Need" and cliched pre-existing songs... Do away with events from the first TLK, we already saw those and it doesn't feel like there's much to be gained from seeing them from T&P's perspective. Heck, it sometimes made things worse, like the extra Nala-explaining just made T&P seem dumber, and Timon refusing to join his friends once they left detracted a lot from how well the writers had done portraying Timon in a caring light. Add more original characters, with Swahili names. To this day, Ma and Uncle Max really stick out like sore thumbs when listing TLK names, and they were both pretty meh... It's a shame that those are the only characters unique to the film. Had things been handled better, we could have gotten some fleshed-out characters from both Timon's colony and Pumbaa's sounder, and probably another interesting character or two. Maybe Pumbaa's family is friends with a hippo, for example.

As it is, a lot of the movie just feels not-very-original and uninspired, and I think that's what I dislike the most. Say what you will about Simba's Pride, at least it had a soundtrack full of original songs and a host of new characters.

[BrianGriffinFan]

Not enough of the hyenas.

[Amur_Tiger]

There's a few angles you can look at 1 & 1/2 and see it pretty well fall apart, some of which have been touched on already.

1. If you wanted to tell story concurrent to TLK, Timon and Pumba weren't it. The obvious place to start here is what happened in the Pridelands while Simba was growing up, there you've got a more varied cast then the Hakuna Matata trio and plenty of available conflict to tap as a source of making an actual story arc. This would have prevented the awful clashes in tone between TLK scenes where moments of serious drama are going on and the comedic tones of T&P, which gets this movie a lot closer to being able integrate TLK scenes in a respectful manner.

2. If you wanted to tell a story about T&P, don't do it concurrently. A T&P buddy story would have went great in showing the actual connection between the duo growing over time to the relatively familiar state we see it in in TLK. Doing a longer arc of their developing friendship and their learning how to survive in the jungle that culminates with meeting Simba at the end would have let T&P do their thing without either treading on TLK's legacy, being constrained by the plot timing of TLK or both.

In trying to do both they ended up with a hacked up mess of a movie.

Here's just a few stories asking to be told in the TLK universe:
1. Elaborating on the 'what's going on in the pride lands' idea I think there's two character perspectives that'd be interesting to follow, Sarafina & Nala. The former would allow more fleshing out of the relationships between various pride members before Mufasa dies, the latter would allow more fleshing out of the journey to find Simba. I didn't choose Sarabi for this because we know a bit more about her particular relationships.
2. Prequel to TLK, what made Scar bad, what made Mufasa the chosen heir, how did Sarabi and Mufasa hook up, what made the hyenas bad, etc. Lots of questions to be answered, not all of them would need to be answered by a prequel but pick a few and I think there's a good story to tell.
3. Kiara & Kovu, circle of life, etc. Further sequels are a lot more open ended of course but it would be interesting to see how they'd do, though SP had already drawn much of the available tension from the setting so it's going to be hard to make a credible bad guy when there's two royal lion couples wandering around.
4. As mentioned T&P buddy story could work too, though there isn't as much drama built into the premise alone.

[rachel]

the lionking 1 and 1/2 just was a waste of time. ugg. It was cool to see timon's mom and and uncle, but whare is his dad? and where are the other female meerkats? did ma have like 300 kids or somthing? . The only scenes worth watching were the simba scenes. the rest of the movie I just skipped through. It also makes me wonder why is that jungle so lifeless. Sure there's trees and bugs but if you cut timone, pumba and simba it's bacially a desolate area. And who attempted to teach Simba how to defend him self(simba fights like a sissy)? was it timone who wanted Simba for portection? and what did Timone and Pumba need portecting from? because there was nothing there! all the movie did was leave a bunch of holes in the story. Maby timone and pumba needed portecting from the snails? Ha ha ha!!!!


watch out for snails. dangorus little suckers evil laugh.

[Bazla1995]

As a kid, I loved the movie to bits, it used to be one of my favourite movies...However, as an adult, I've realised it takes away so many things from the original lion king, and a lot of things don't make any sense!

Like, for example. In Lion king 1 1/2, Rafiki told Timon about Hakuna Matata. But, in the original Lion King Timon literally says "Who's the monkey!?"

There were other things that bothered me like, Pumba being the one who made the animals bow down because he farted. it takes away from the impact of that scene in the original!

So yea...as a kid..loved it. Adult..not so much.
(although there are some scenes I still enjoy..)

[Bunga1973]

I did like "Digga Tunnah"

Me too.

[rachel]

Digga Tunnah was one of the only songs that I liked

[DGFone]

Warthog Rhapsody is better than Digga Tunnah