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The Lion King 1½

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The Lion King 1½ (2004)

February. 06,2004
|
6.5
|
G
| Animation Action Comedy Family
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Timon the meerkat and Pumbaa the warthog are best pals and the unsung heroes of the African savanna. This prequel to the smash Disney animated adventure takes you back -- way back -- before Simba's adventure began. You'll find out all about Timon and Pumbaa and tag along as they search for the perfect home and attempt to raise a rambunctious lion cub.

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Reviews

Vashirdfel
2004/02/06

Simply A Masterpiece

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Stevecorp
2004/02/07

Don't listen to the negative reviews

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BallWubba
2004/02/08

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

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Francene Odetta
2004/02/09

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

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ravsten428
2004/02/10

The best movie from the whole series.I really enjoyed this film which tells the story of how Timon and Pumbaa met each other, met Simba and focuses on their lives together and into adulthood.This movie isn't actually a sequel but more of a filler of what happened in the first film.It gives us a look into Timon and Pumbaa's lives before and after their encounter with Simba. In this film we are introduced to Timon's family. We meet his mother who is a little overprotective, but cares about his well being nonetheless. Timon's mom is voiced by the talented Julie Kavner. For those of you who may not know who that is, she also voices Marge Simpson. We also meet his crazy but lovable Uncle Max also voiced by someone familiar, Jerry Stiller from Seinfeld lore. Timon isn't the most popular of his Meerkat family because he tends to be a little laze and clumsy, so he is told to watch for the Hyenas and one day he isn't watching as well as he should and things go haywire. Timon decides to venture out on his own feeling that he is a burden to his family. During his travels he meets Pumbaa, the warthog who is outcast because of his flatulence issue. Pumbaa doesn't let Timon know this at first but once Timon finds out he is he doesn't see it as an issue. They decide to pal together and find a home. During the course of their adventures they meet up with a badly injured lion and the rest is history.This film is clever and funny. I personally feel that it is the best out of the whole series. While the animation doesn't match the original it does at least have a great story, unlike the sequel Simba's Pride which had only decent animation and a plot filled with holes.

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SnakesOnAnAfricanPlain
2004/02/11

Well they tried something different, but it will probably fail to impress fans of The Lion King. Placing Timon and Pumbaa into earlier events and adding plot points later, just tarnishes the original and even contradicts it. It just seemed like a lot of, sometimes inventive, excuses to make a few cheap jokes. At least they managed to get back the majority of the original voice cast, but to imagine Pumbaa's fart caused the bowing at the beginning of the original is actually kind of annoying. By the end it is obvious that the makers were favoring parody, but these two work best as co-stars, and comic relief, rather than the heroes of the movie.

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jvfunn1
2004/02/12

I think Lion King 1 1/2 is one of the best sequels ever as if not the best out of the three Lion King movies! In the movie Timon and Pumbaa tell us where they came from and having trouble fitting in with others such as Timon having trouble digging tunnels with other Meercats! Timon and Pumbaa journey off into finding their dream place and find it and soon find it and also Simba who they raise but soon they must choose between their dream place or helping Simba face his evil Uncle Scar and proclaim his right as the Lion King of Pride Rock! Filled with wonderful new characters like Timon's Ma(Julie Kavner) and Uncle Max (Jerry Stiller). I think my favorite character was Uncle Max because he was very funney and was voiced by a funney comedian Jerry Stiller the father of Ben Stiller. Disney was smart to cast Stiller in that role! Filled with wonderful characters, animation, and story and music Lion King 1 1/2 is in my opinion the best of any sequel and better than Simba's Pride even though I will admit I really did like that one too! Lion King 1 1/2 is a great Disney sequel the whole family can enjoy! It's got a good story and is very funney! 10 out of 10!

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Electrified_Voltage
2004/02/13

I learned about this film early in 2004 when I saw a trailer for it on the "Finding Nemo" DVD. That was before I rediscovered "The Lion King", so I didn't have much interest in seeing it at the time. Four years later, I have finally seen it. Even though I wasn't too impressed with "The Lion King II: Simba's Pride" overall, I still gave this one a chance. However, both of the LK sequels (though "The Lion King 1½" isn't exactly a sequel) weren't that much different for me. I think the main difference I found was that this one is slightly inferior.In this film, the main characters are Timon and Pumbaa, instead of Simba. Basically, the movie tells the original story at their point of view, starting before Simba. The story begins with Timon's unhappy life in a meerkat colony. The story then moves on to the young meerkat leaving his colony, learning about "Hakuna Matata", and meeting Pumbaa, a lonely warthog, for the first time. After this, it shows their lives together, and eventually, of course, their adventures with Simba. All of these things tell viewers parts of the story they've never known before.Timon and Pumbaa are responsible for a lot of the humour in the original "Lion King", but as I stated in my review of "The Lion King II: Simba's Pride", they're not they're not as consistent in that sequel. As the main characters in "The Lion King 1½", they're occasionally funny, like they are in the second film, but have not returned to full comic form. There's some surprising toilet humour (not a lot of it, but coming from a Disney animated film, it's still a bit surprising), usually involving Pumbaa and his farts, and I'm not sure whether this works or not. The part where the water hole stops bubbling as soon as Pumbaa gets out sort of left me with mixed feelings. If you ask me, the idea of this film, telling the original story at the point of view of other characters, was unnecessary, and I know I'm not alone. I'll admit, while watching it, stopping wouldn't have felt right, as I was curious to see what would happen. However, it's certainly not something I would want to watch again.I know not to expect sequels to be as good or better than their predecessors, as they sometimes are, but not usually. However, I have also learned that Disney's straight-to-video sequels (or ones that aren't really sequels, but still straight-to-video films that follow a theatrical film and use the same characters and setting, like this one), are usually if not always FAR inferior to their theatrical predecessors, and aren't usually too highly entertaining. My favourite of the ones I've seen is "Aladdin and the King of Thieves", but even that one didn't blow me away. Like I said, "The Lion King 1½" is better than "Belle's Magical World" (it definitely has less problems, I certainly can't complain too much about the animation here), but it does seem to lack quite a bit of what made the original "Lion King" so excellent.

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