Just think, today's pre-teens will look back at full screen VHS movies the way some of you look back at vinyl records and floppy disks. Even better, there is no full screen version, it's widescreen only. A VHS release is coming but it won't have the second disc of extras.
The other very good portent is that this is a DVD-only release, at least initially.
THE LIOTHE MOVIE THE LION KING 2 FULL MOVIE TV
Since Jonathan Taylor Thomas is now in his 20s, he's not suitable to play young Simba any more, so they got a Disney "veteran" (for a fourteen-year-old) Shaun Flemming, who also works on the Lilo & Stitch TV series. As in The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride, Rowan Atkinson didn't come back to voice Zazu, but he's in this movie for all of 10 seconds. For starters, except for Zazu and young Simba, they got all of the original cast back, even Robert Guillaume (who suffered a stroke a few years ago and has had his speech diminished somewhat) as Rafiki. There's some good news to be had with the DVD. Like MST3K, all we see is them in black outline. It's actually shown MST3K-style, with occasional pausing of the movie to let Timon and Pumbaa, sitting in a theater, have a brief exchange.
By the second half of the movie, many of the events on screen are the same events as in the first film, but from different angles. The Movie The Lion King 1 1/2 takes place before the events of The Lion King, eventually merging into the timeline of the original film. As you can imagine, if they are focusing on these two, the level of story is squarely designed for kids. Instead of focusing on Simba and family, the emphasis is on sidekicks Timon and Pumbaa. Now comes the sort-of prequel, The Lion King 1 1/2. So far we've had one sequel, which picked up after the events of the first film and wasn't half bad, for a direct-to-video release. There's no way Disney could pass up on a sequel to its modern animation masterpiece, The Lion King. But at the end of the day, if I ever want to see The Lion King again, I'm going to watch the original.No good idea goes unsequeled in Hollywood. I ultimately give it a moderately positive review because…damnit it's still The Lion King, and yeah there were enough things it did right. It's these narrative moments that make the film work. Yes the visuals are nice, but the animals don't show the personality like they did in the animation because Lions can't cry/smile/laugh in real life so what were left with is a really pretty Disney Nature CGI-fest. It's expansions like this where the film does its own thing where it really shines. I also liked how their home is inhabited by other animals and it shows how Simba became part of that community in his exile. They even have a new philosophy and debate on Hakuna Matata versus Circle of Life that's actually genuinely interesting. They were allowed to improvise and give their own spin with new lines and humor. They're essentially the same sort of characters, but Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen bring their own personality to them. A lots been made of Timon and Pumbaa in this movie, and rightfully so, they're one of the few things that is expanded and made to live on their own. However, when it's doing it's own thing, it actually kinda' works.
It was different artists with different visions. It lives under the shadow of the original often doing things because "the original did it" without really seeming to have an understanding of why that worked in the original. That's this films biggest flaw, and it really did bother me. Look I'm not saying it needs to be a shot for shot remake, but if you are going to go through the effort of doing the exact same scenes, either do them better, or do them at least as good, don't just rush through them to check off a box. Here, he just kinda looks at it, sniffles a bit, and the scene moves on. I remember in the original there was time dwelling on Simba looking at the body and begging for Mufasa to get up. Most notably, Mufasa's death scene (spoiler's I guess) feels weirdly rushed. The weird thing is despite being longer a lot of times it feels like it's rushing through the beats of the original. Really, there is a lot to admire about the movie, but still it can't escape the shadow of the original.
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