I avoided this movie for the longest time after it came to video. Because of the mediocre press of the other Disney sequels, I was very careful. But a few years ago I came upon some clips on YouTube and after watching them it made me very interested in what I was missing. So I rented the movie and enjoyed every moment. Then when it came out on blu-ray and DVD like a year ago, I did not waste my chance and I got it. So far, I've seen it three times and I would love to watch it again with the other Lion King movies. Besides Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella lending their talents to one of our favorite Disney duos, Julie Kavner (of The Simpsons) and Jerry Stiller (Ben Stiller's pop) also add new characters to the continent of Africa and its wildlife. So is it as good as the first one? Not exactly, but that doesn't mean it's bad. Some things I could probably do without and some things could have been handled better but it did its job and I was happy with the end results. More from our furry fictional friends from East Africa return to make our lives more fun and exciting. And it worked!

The Lion King 2 was a rare example of a Disney sequel that stood shoulder to shoulder with the first one so you can see why Disney would want to try again and turn the series into a trilogy (Disney do love a good trilogy). By focusing on Timon and Pumbaa, who pretty much stole the first film,all the omens seemed good for this entry.The problem for me is that the idea of them retelling the story from Lion King 1 from their own point of view wasn't enough to sustain a film,which considering the short run length doesn't bode well. In some places it works OK, but when it starts to contradict the original it's hard to stay interesting.The voice cast do a good job,and it's nice to see (or rather hear) that many of the originals from Lion King 1 pop up again. There isn't anything really wrong with this film, it just pales in comparison to what has gone before.

The comedy duo Timon and Pumbaa are back for more laughs and to tell their version of the story "The Lion King". Each one wants to explain to the viewer what happened in the first film but from a very different perspective. It adds a twist to the original film while detailing how Timon and Pumbaa met. This movie is great for kids and adults alike but fair warning: it does contain some childish funny humor like fart jokes. This film is worth viewing but I would recommend watching the first film The Lion King before watching this Timon and Pumbaa's version of the tale followed by The Lion King 2.Similar films: "The Jungle Book" and "The Fox and the Hound" 9/10

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.