One thing I noticed immediately was that Timon
did know the 'monkey' (Rafiki), while he's all like "WHO'S THE MONKEY!?" (quite literally) in the original movie. It would have been weird if he would respond to the monkey that has given him advice already in the past and clearly does know him.
Other than that, I didn't really find this movie an actual movie, or a sequel, for some reason. I saw it as an additional background story for Timon, Pumbaa and Simba about what happened in the blanks in the original movie (how Timon and Pumbaa met and how Simba grew up). It was rather amusing though. And to be honest, I don't find it disrespectful that they made a joke with the stampede. Hypothetically, how were Timon and Pumbaa supposed to know someone died there anyway. It's not like they were mocking Mufasa.
I actually found it rather amusing how they managed to include all the major events of the original movie into TLK1.5
[quote="Moka"]Very true, Amanda. They just seemed to mess with the original too much. This movie just seems to prove that Disney can't make an emotional movie anymore

[/quote]
Excuse me? Have you even seen Brother Bear 1 and 2 (which released 1 year before and 2 years after TLK1.5)? Whether those are good or bad movies is up to debate, but you can't say they aren't emotional.

I could also name the Princess and the Frog, but that one released after you made this statement.