Yeah, that’s the problem with sequels, they’ll introduce elements that are obviously created just for the sequel itself and clearly never considered during the original. They only really work if the whole series is planned out from the beginning, like say Harry Potter was. Still, my problem with SP isn’t really the writing but the fact that it doesn’t LOOK like the original. If it did, I’d surely have some screencaps of Simba from it in my gallery.
Those things you mention about Timon and Pumba: The Spin-Off are some of the worst things about it, imo. It hasn’t really aged well and isn’t canon with the movies or TLG but there’s still some decent stuff. The episodes about the other LK characters (there ARE actually a few) are definitely the strongest, and while Simba doesn’t look exactly like he does in the original LK, I actually like his look in it, it works for the show, imo.[/quote]
I guess the animation and design teams were handed a significant budget cut for the sequel, so they had to cut some corners during production unfortunately. As a result, the visuals of Simba's Pride pale in comparison to those of the original, which is a shame imo. But despite of that unflattering setback, I still enjoyed the movie.
Back in the 90's and early 2000's, many animated shows put an heavy emphasis on sound effects and over the top character expressions, along with random outlandish (and sometimes flat out grotesque) scenes that made little sense even in the context of the actual plot, more so than appealing character designs, good animation or captivating storytelling. This particular show was no exception to that, which is fine if you're a small child who finds humor in all forms of simple minded randomness, but once you move past that phase, such content inevitably loses most of it's appeal. Anyway, I do think the creators of the show could, and should have included more cannon TLK characters in the spin-off show.[/quote]
That’s good. From what I understand a lot of people give most Disney sequels a low grade by default simply because they’re direct-to-video, but I never really noticed the animation differences in them as a kid, so while I watch a lot of Disney movies a ton, I didn’t really feel there was too much of a change of quality in most sequels. With that said, Disney or not, sequels usually end up feeling more like an extension of the first film/book than anything unless the creators have an outline of the series planned out from the start (which I’m pretty sure they didn’t with LK).
As for Timon and Pumba…yes, definitely. I don’t like Timon and Pumba the characters really at all, but I’m sure even many of those who do like them prefer them in smaller doses. Either way, having the whole show be about them didn’t work, which (along with the things you mentioned that made it clearly designed for a younger demographic) is why it ended up falling into relative obscurity. Well that and the fact that it dates back to the mid-90’s, when the Internet was barely a thing.
[/quote]It's likely that the idea for a sequel came after the first movie had already been released in theaters and as a direct consequence of it's immense success among both critics and the general public. This would explain the absence of any reference to a potential revolt against Simba from Zira and the future Outsiders after Scar was defeated and the order in the Pride Lands was restored. The way the original title drew to a close hinted at a "happy forever after" type of scenario, which is why they had to conjure up a narrative that would inevitably be inconsistent with this ending for the second film if the intention was to make it a direct follow up to the events of the first. At least, that's how I see it.
I do like Timon and Pumbaa, although they're far from being my favorite characters from TLK franchise (pretty much every canon lion character relevant enough to have been given a name in either one of the movies is above them in my personal considerations, but I digress). Nevertheless, as you said, having a specific show dedicated almost exclusively to them, where they repeatedly break the fourth wall and introduce elements that are completely foreign to the universe which these characters are originally from can be off-putting to some people. Moreover, the vast majority of the character designs featured in this show deviate substantially from the original material, something I couldn't quite wrap my head around even going back to my childhood days, when I was binging on it. Honestly, a large chunk of them were just plain ugly and forgettable.
