The Lion King 1 ½

Well, finally I’ve seen TLK3 – or TLK 1 ½…and being the huge Lion King geek that I am, I’ve got lots to say about it.

It was an inventive idea, and quite cleverly done. Putting Timon and Pumbaa in scenes before their original appearance and showing how they interacted with the film’s earlier events is clever, and some of the ways they are integrated – such as causing the mass bow in ‘The Circle of Life’ or making Nala explain things again and again – are irreverent and funny.

But because of all the holes – why does Timon not remember Rafiki? The end of Can You Feel the Love Tonight gets integrated well, but what about the beginning? – I have to consider it more like a piece of fanfiction, a bit of non-canon playfuless, rather than a real prequel. What happened to Timon’s mother after this? When did they move back to Pride Rock for Simba’s Pride? And the passage of time is iffy – are we to think Simba going from cub to ‘I Just Can’t Wait to be King’ took just one night? That said, little Simba was adorable…

There were other, larger questions, too. Were there more explicit statements about gay adoption here? Were they equating meerkats with Jews? And…was that Marge Simpson?

Definitely a cheeky direct-to-video film worth seeing. A ‘Rozencrantz and Guildernstern are dead’ to the original’s Hamlet – only less carefully woven…and with considerably more snail-eating content!

(slightly tweaked from when originally written on October 31 2004)