Should I watch this movie?

[Elton John]

I gotta be honest.....when I first saw trailers for this 10 years ago it looked....not very good at all? Taking my favorite movie {or at least, in my top 3 favorites} and turning it into some.....dumb.....looking comedy kind of really turned me off from it.

It took me from 1998 to this year for me to bother rewatching simbas pride, when I originally hated it many years ago to kind of actually liking it this year...

I know that the original lion king had comedy, but I thought it was good comedy. Funny gags, puns, and other wordplays that still make me laugh to this day. I don't normally like comic relief characters because they feel forced most of the time but at least timon and pumbaa were good for storytelling purposes, and felt more like real characters rather than just there to be there and fill a comic relief quota.

Toilet humor is one of my least favorite kinds of humor. Yeah, yeah, I know that the original had a fart gag but at the very least they tried to be.....somewhat......subtle about it.

[Jiirani]

I haven't watched it since I was a child but I just hated that they had the opportunity to make another TLK movie and they wasted it on Timon and Pumbaa. Don't get me wrong, some of the songs are catchy and still get stuck in my head occasionally despite it being over a decade and there are some sweet things about 1 1/2. Really though, you won't be missing out on much if you don't decide to watch it

[Titanic-Wyvern]

I haven't watched the movie in a very long time but I remember it enough that unlike back then, I'm not a very big fan of TLK 1 1/2. Don't get me wrong, I love the TLK Movies, despite the flaws that exist (like the numerous plotholes in Simba's Pride). But 1 1/2 is a movie I just don't like!

It doesn't really add anything to the overall story line except how Timon met Pumbaa, Timon's life slash backstory, and how he and Pumbaa raised Simba during their years in the Jungle. The songs were okay, but everything else I just didn't like. Plus the only parts I do accept are the ones I listed above. I'm just disappointed that Disney went with making a movie about Timon and Pumbaa which honestly wasn't very good when they could have easily make a TLK movie that extended the timeline after the events of Simba's Pride. But that's what The Lion Guard is for, I guess.

All in all, I don't really think you'll miss anything if you don't watch it.

[Timon the great]

It's been a while since I've posted in any of the topics in this LK film sub forum aside from the Line by Line thread.

But as you can see from my avatar, member name and profile, yes I like Timon a lot from the films. Especially this one, being foremost about him. But, I'm going to try and take a neutral stance on this post and I hope it'll be of at least some help to you and others who read this, even though this may be a little long, because I'm one of the few on this forum who know a lot about this film.

What I really want to mention first about this film concerning it up-front and a character, is that if you don't mind seeing Timon at all on-screen for 70 minutes, then you should give this film a go at least once. You may actually be surprised with what is shown about my fav' on this film compared to what you see of him on the other ones, because this is really his own film (not actually "Timon and Pumbaa" as many or Disney itself classifies it), just like LK 1 is foremost Simba and LK 2, Kiara.

Since Timon's the main protagonist of this film, there are scenes that go uniquely in-depth with this meerkat character that define him as much more than a simple comic relief and in many ways, thoughtfully too (humor included). There are scenes/moments on this film, to my initial surprise, that move me and some are even lovely with Timon and his mother, Ma. And I don't find any of these things to be exaggerated about Timon, himself.

I find that while storyline or plot is not something big on this film as it is in the other ones, the characters and certain moments of themselves still have a good deal of power on this film.

Many people in the fandom won't really mention these things because I've concluded from my experiences in the past on this that many choose not to look at this film on all sides and it's probably also because it deals directly with a non-lion character. Especially with what on the film that I've mentioned in the previous paragraph. It may also simply be that some don't know and Timon is not as widely recognized from 1 1/2 as he is from the other LK films.

Yes. There are some scenes that are not "top of the line" on this film and I'll admit too that I find that it could've done better without, for ex., the silhouette scenes of Timon and Pumbaa in a movie theater, and even with Timon in-depth, who's a non-lion character. But since this is the third film of the trilogy, it has a legit excuse to not be the same overall quality as the previous ones.

I accept it for everything that it shows about Timon here and it's one of the reasons why I like it the most, because when I first saw the trailer back before it was released, I was also thinking too that the film wasn't going to be good because I thought it actually was going to be just a joke thing about Timon and Pumbaa. Just like their TV show. Until I saw it entirely for the first time two years ago when I came back to Timon and LK.

From what I've been seeing since around the time I joined this forum and from my experience, true universal LK fans and people who like Disney films in general don't really have a problem with the film. It's mainly those who are hardcore on the lion characters that despise it. After all, when Lion King was put back on television for a while after the original film was re-released in theaters back in 2011 here in the USA, they would only air the original and this one on Disney Channel and ABC Family. But never SP. So that tells me that the audience, in general, has a better response to this film of 1 1/2 more so than the sequel.

Bottom line, if you like or don't particularly mind Timon and seeing why he's considered to be a misunderstood or unsung LK film hero, then I really recommend giving it a go. But if you're expecting to see something new about the lions (save Simba's life with Timon and Pumbaa in the jungle) or the like, I won't sugarcoat it, but you'll probably be rather disappointed on this aspect.

True. As the other posters in this topic mentioned above my post, when it comes to TLK story itself, you may not be missing too much else. But it doesn't mean in any way that there's nothing valuable to take from this film and the characters of it. Especially for me, since I'm always foremost driven by the characters from these films, themselves. So, in my book & as a standalone film, it's worth watching more than once.

P.S. Based on what I also read from your topic post, there isn't really much toilet humor (with just a short, big one of Pumbaa farting), and more of the film's humor is generally quite mature in that it doesn't just appeal to 5 year old people.

[Elton John]

Heck, I might give it a try now.

Mostly because I miss traditional western hand drawn animation so much. Most of the animation I see on tv these days is either CG, digital animation that tries to recreate the flavor of hand drawn while missing the point or stuff that looks like cardboard. It took me many years to accept SP as a canonical sequel to the lion king that when I did rewatch it many years after it came out I kind of liked it.

I saw princess and the frog in theaters, bought it on blu ray, and was devastated when disney, the house that was built on hand drawn animation decided to close down their studios in favor of digital and CGI.

I like CGI movies it's just i like hand drawn animation even more.

[Timon the great]

I'm just curious. But did you ever watch the film? (I'll understand if you did and didn't like it too much)

[Elton John]

Not yet but i am currently saving up for multiple things right now. My summer Disneyworld trip (mostly been paid for, need the money for food and merch) an xbox one, new headphones, oh and those pesky things called bills. And food, gotta eat.

Will likely buy it on dvd soon though. Amazon prices for a used copy aren't that expensive.

[Elton John]

So i visited a neighbor early this morning, and he happened to have a copy of this on dvd. He let me borrow it. I just finished watching it.

My thoughts.

The good

The best part of the movie was the serious bits. Most notable being the scene where young simba had a bad dream and cuddles up next to timon and pumbaa. Got me all misty eyed.

The backstory behind timon and pumbaa is semi plausible.

The animation was pretty good. Not as good as the first but good for a low budget direct to video release.

Some of the comedic moments were kind of funny.

I loved the part at the end with the various disney characters.

The bad


Most of the comedy fell flat. Some of the comedic bits were really bad.


The original musical numbers were bland.

The verdict?

Could have been much better but it also could have been much worse. I think if they didn't make the movie mostly a comedy and had more heartfelt moments and a better soundtrack it would have been great.

As it stands i give it a 6/10

[Adofo]

Yeah, the movie was good but not great. Bottom line is they wanted to cash in on the lovable sidekick(Timon and Pumbaa). Not that it's bad, but it obviously wasn't going to be as high quality as a true Disney movie like The Lion King, Tarzan etc. It's a good movie, but not the greatest. Also something that has always bugged me is that there are SO MANY goofs and errors in 1 1/2. You can go find a list of them online but trust me, it's a lot! So yeah, it's a good movie. But I don't even think it's canon. At least I think that's what's been said about it. I think it's only semi-canon, they said somewhere. But in any case, a good movie for any The Lion King fan to enjoy!

[Lauren]

When I first watched it, I thought it was okay at first, but after watching it several more times, I started not liking it as much due to the fact that they focus on characters that I'm not really interested in nor does it hold up to the standards of the first two films. If this was to be taking place before the events of the original, then I would've made it a prequel about Mufasa and Scar's childhood and how they came into terms of their positions in a monarchial family. I would love to know how Scar received his scar, how Scar met the hyenas, how Mufasa's relationship with his own father was like since he told Simba that he learned about the Great Kings of the Past being the stars by his father, how Mufasa met Sarabi, how was Pride Rock established as an important place for the royal family since it's their home, how did the monarchial family begin, and etc. All those things would've been so much more interesting to learn about if this was a prequel.

If they made this as the sequel to Simba's Pride, then I would've loved to see Kiara and Kovu receiving training to become the future king and queen from Simba and Nala. We never saw Simba receiving training from Mufasa since Scar killed his father, so I always wanted to see how actual training is like between the parent and child since they become next in line for the throne. If Kiara and Kovu had children, then it would've been so cool to see how Simba and Nala are like as grandparents. I'm not sure what kind of conflict they could face, but I would hope that it was effective enough for the story. Well, at least now we're having The Lion Guard as our sequel to SP even though it's going to be a show.

I really do not understand why out of all the characters from the entire trilogy, Timon and Pumbaa were chosen to be the main characters for this movie in particular. They work as comedic/minor characters, but they do not fit into the protagonist territory. As a film on it's own, it's not awful, but it could've been so much more that what we got. I feel that they missed an opportunity to make the prequel or sequel that would've been much better choices for the third film. It's called The Lion King for a reason.