My Lion King Forum

I understood what you meant, and I answered your question earlier, but I thought it would be interesting to post that.

Is it funny that at one point during its production in the early 2000s, Timon's film (LK 1 1/2) was planned to have a theatrical release at least here in the US?

'Not trying to get attention or anything like that, but it's actually pretty obvious from the visual/animation quality of this film, and how well it compares to that of the first LK film. Which is actually a lot closer to it, unlike SP.

If necessary when I can find and come back to them, I'll post two sources pointing to an originally planned theatrical release of the third film that I found a while back on this, to back it up.

Huh, could've sworn I had replied to this thread. I know I've read it before. They "why" has been answered - were it not for the success of Return of Jafar, I doubt TLK would have gotten a sequel at all. Which would have been a huge shame, but Disney was doing roughly one animated film per year, and I don't really see that changing. Unless perhaps, in their struggling "Home on the Range" days, they thought it better to focus their efforts on their golden franchise. It's a shame, really, that theatrical sequels weren't anywhere near as popular in the 90s and early 2000s as they are today.

I would love to see where the original writers and directors went with everything. The possibilities are pretty much endless. One thing's for certain, Timon and Pumbaa's jokes would have been far, far better from the lows that were their jokes in SP. Working within the boundaries of SP, perhaps Kovu would have been Scar's son. I know Romeo and Juliet needs the forbidden romance, but I could see the original crew eschewing that for something a little more original. The subject matter of the songs would probably be about the same, but the songs themselves would be better-written. I'd assume Upendi would be scrapped, though, because it's kinda weird and unneeded (I love it, but still). There would be a proper score <3 And everything would just be better-written all-around.

1 1/2 would be pretty great if done by the original crew as well. I'd imagine we'd get a more serious take on Timon and Pumbaa's origins, with none of the walking-through-scenes-from-TLK thing. I'd have liked 1 1/2 so, so much better if it hadn't spent so much of its runtime going back through the first movie. Show us Timon growing up and getting bullied (Timon was bullied as a kid in one of the deleted scenes). Show us Pumbaa's troubles in his sounder. A more serious take doesn't have to be devoid of comedy, though - it could add a lot of fun new characters. Keep, or even build upon, Timon's character progression from 1 1/2, as that was the best part of the film for me. Give Pumbaa equal amounts of progression. End it on the two finding Simba, because we know what happens next.

I'm just bitter that Frozen and wreck it ralph are getting full theatrical sequels while stuff like tlk and aladdin got dtv sequels. The rescuers down under was a theatrical sequel.

[quote="The Lionvengers"]I'm just bitter that Frozen and wreck it ralph are getting full theatrical sequels while stuff like tlk and aladdin got dtv sequels. The rescuers down under was a theatrical sequel.[/quote]

The biggest reasons LK and Aladdin didn't get theatrical sequels is because Walt Disney and later the studio that followed him didn't like the idea of sequels they believed they were lazy and limited creativity and imagination they also didn't believe there was much profit in them. Return of Jafar wasn't written to be a movie but rather a three part pilot to the Aladdin TV show, which in truth explains nearly everything about the film's animation, music and lower quality script. It was originally never meant to be a movie but the studio decided to release it as a direct to video before launching the show. This was actually a rather big deal back then as direct to videos didn't exist I actually believe Return of Jafar is one of the first direct to videos ever. It was massively successful way more than Disney ever believed possible the reviews were mixed but I don't think those reviews were fair as a full on sequel to Aladdin yes it's wanting but as a TV premiere it's pretty awesome.

The success changed Disney's stance on sequels and the LK sequel that was being talked about was actually green lighted. For the longest of time SP was going to be a theatrical movie but due to not being able to get the original team back as well as their first theatrical sequel not doing so well along with a few other factors the theatrical release didn't fall through. SP was also made due to fan demand Disney didn't care about sequels and only did Return of Jafar because it was part of the show. With SP fans wanted a sequel to LK and after ROJ proved successful Disney agreed to the fans wishes.