Good movie but grossly overrated

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

"The Lion King 1½" is basically Timon and Pumbaa showing us what they were doing when the parts of "The Lion King" that they weren't in were going on. It tells us a lot of Timon's back-story, and we even get to see his family.Unlike it's predecessors which contained a lot of dramatic scenes, this movie is a 100% comedy film. And it does a good job, this movie has a good sense of humor, and Timon and Pumbaa are back to their old funny selves (they weren't all that funny in the 2nd film). The animation is nicely done too. Also we have Julie Kavner (Marge Simpson) voicing Timon's mom, which is really cool.But there are some things that I have to criticize. And the main thing is that this movie ruins some of the best moments of the first film. For example "The Circle of Life" scene. Having it where Pumbaa farts and that's why all the animals kneel down, while it is funny, it completely kills one of the best scenes in the "The Lion King". And there are much more of those scenes than the one I just mentioned. "The Lion King 1½" is a fun comedy film, and it's certainly one of the better direct-to-video sequels. But it does ruin some of the classic moments, and it's really not a masterpiece. Overall, I recommend it, but it does have flaws.Rating: 6/10 "Decent"

I am 18, and I absolutely adore the first Lion King film. It is gorgeously animated, has terrific music, likable characters and makes me laugh and cry, in short, like Beauty and the Beast and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs The Lion King is an animated masterpiece. Judging by the fact that I liked Simbas's Pride, not loved, just liked, I watched The Lion King 1.5. It is not a bad sequel at all, like Simbas's Pride it is not as good as the original, but I think like the second it is one of the better sequels. It does have its problems, it is too short(then again this is a problem most of the sequels have), some of the story, the Lion King but in Timon and Pumbaa's perspective is predictable but it is a great concept and there are a few parts such as the ending that felt a tad rushed. However, it is vibrantly animated, the music is very good, there are some surprisingly funny jokes(like Timon and Pumbaa's stalling during the climax), the dialogue is well written and hilarious and the voice acting is very well done. Overall, a fun, cute and entertaining, if inferior, sequel. 7/10 Bethany Cox

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.

I have seen All of the Lion kings, (1, 2 and this) and in my Opinion, this is the worst! It, just wasn't funny, It wasn't entertaining and it was BORING!!! I still can't believe I watched the whole thing!!! Now, The Movie was Okay story wise, Length wise; Way to long! Design Wise; Looked a lot like the first one, and finally, Sound wise; It was good sound wise... But the sound was not able to save the rest of this tragic Failure! I can just hope they don't make a 2 1/2! Sigh... If you want to see a Lion king that's not the first, Then at least the 2ed one is worth a rent! 4/10