- Released: November 22 2015
- Directed by: Howy Parkins
- Running time: 44 min
- Rating 1.5/5
Synopsis
Simba's second cub Kion learns what it means to be the leader of the so-called "Lion Guard", a group of animals dedicated to keeping the Pridelands safe.
My Thoughts
The Lion Guard… Feels like only yesterday this thing was announced and I really didn’t know what to think. On one hand: more Lion King content. On the other: its premise was really…fanfic-y? Which doesn’t have to be bad, per se, but… eh? It started with the airing of a special/short movie, Return of the Roar, in 2015. Let’s have a look at it? Why not.
Story-wise it’s not much, but it’s not executed horribly. It has a decent structure, so that works. My main gripe is still that it feels really fanfic-y and also just doesn’t feel like it can exist in the canon Lion King timeline? Keep in mind that they paid attention to the sequel, so we’re expected to believe this takes place before the big time skip in Simba’s Pride. But it just doesn’t feel like it could possibly be? Kion appears to be just a tiny bit younger than Kiara, yet he was never seen, heard or mentioned in Simba’s Pride, while he does do some things that impact the continuity of that movie. When it was announced that Kiara was going to appear in The Lion Guard, I honestly expected it to take place after Lion King 2. But it takes place during the time skip, making things just impossible to be canon? Also, if Kion and his Roar existed back in that movie, why didn’t he show up during the final conflict of it? He could’ve blasted Zira and her lionesses away again Team Rocket-style with no effort. I just feel like it could’ve worked much better if it’d been set after Simba’s Pride.
The characters are not too great, either. We’ve got the original Lion King and Simba’s Pride cast, but they don’t get much screen-time. Kiara now also somehow doesn’t mind being a future queen anymore? Despite her not wanting to be queen being a big part of her character when she was a cub. As for the new characters, they’re…eh. Kion is the main character, and he’s just your standard fierce and brave do-gooding protagonist. He doesn’t really have many flaws that show here, so he’s not very engaging. I know that some of the episodes eventually go into those, but I’m just looking at the movie here. Bunga is the other character that gets featured mostly. He’s a very obnoxious character, to be honest. He constantly jumps right into dangerous situations, is careless, very loud and at times disrespectful. He’s just very annoying an I hate the fact that he has to be our deuteragonist. There’s also Fuli, Behste and Ono, but they don’t have much screen time or personality that shows here, except that Fuli seems to be kinda against the lions bossing everyone around. Just not a good first impression for most of the cast.
The villains are honestly kind of a joke. Janja himself is made up to be cunning at first and in his song, but then he’s also being made fun of and shown as pathetic when he gets a caterpillar up his nose or a butterfly on his head. If you want your villain to be taken seriously, you really shouldn’t do this. Janja’s minions are absolutely pathetic and just walking jokes, too. They don’t feel like a genuine threat in the slightest.
As for the animation, it’s kinda okay? Obviously it’s not hand-drawn digitally. Instead, we get a mix between puppet and CGI animation, with the vast majority being puppet. For what it is, the puppet animation is good, and it does blend rather well with the 3D, but I feel like the former does get a little bit too bouncy from time to time, especially the lower jaws. The teeth also don’t look right at some points. There’s also a few minor mistakes (such as asymmetrical markings/ear notches swapping places).
The rest of the visuals are rather good. Nice colors, though not perfect, and beautiful backgrounds that are almost on-par with those in Simba’s Pride. The drawing style for the character art is close to the original Lion King’s, but it has a few character designs that are (slightly) different. I don’t mind much of these design choices, though I do think that the profile views of the lion heads are kinda weird, and the proportions are definitely a bit off. Fuli also really doesn’t look like a cheetah at all, even when we discount the act that she doesn’t look like the individuals we saw of her species in the The Lion King. She’s just way too yellow, her spots are really un-cheetah-like (even unlike a king cheetah) and she doesn’t even have her tear stripes). Also, Bunga stands on his hind legs constantly, which really doesn’t make sense, since honey badgers walk on all fours. Meerkats like Timon also don’t walk on their hind legs, but it at least makes sense for him since one of the key traits of meerkats is that they stand up. But honey badgers just don’t.
The voice acting was all right. My main issue with it was Simba. He really doesn’t sound like he did in the previous movies. I’m not against swapping out voice actors for whatever reason, and I mostly don’t even mind if they don’t sound similar, but this Simba just really doesn’t match in tone and sound to his character?
The pacing was pretty good, not much to say about it. For something so short it was okay. Much better paced than that Leo the Lion: King of the Jungle thing.
Finally the songs. They’re meh. The only one I found myself remotely not hating is the "It Is Time" one, which was sung by Kion. The absolute worst one was absolutely "Zuka Zama". It was annoying, much like Bunga’s character. "Tonight We Strike" itself wasn’t horrible but still not pleasant to listen to. It did have some pretty colors during that song, but the choreography was kinda eh.
Going back to Zuka Zama, though, the forced-in new Swahili catchphrases were really unnecessary. It’s as if they’re trying to replace Hakuna Matata, which (however much I dislike the song), will always be a classic catchphrase. now they’re not only trying to have Zuka Zama be on par with Hakuna Matata or something, but almost each character has a Swahili catchphrase now, which is just unnecessary. Just don’t.
This just feels like a canon fanfic. Which doesn’t necessarily have to be bad, but the fact that it’s just impossible to have this take place in actual Lion King continuity. It has decent animation and the story itself isn’t executed horribly, but the characters, songs and catchphrases just don’t hold up that well.
Unnecessary. If they really wanted a reboot for younger children, that’s fine! I honestly don’t even mind Kion that much, I think it could’ve worked. But having it take place after Simba’s Pride could’ve really benefited this special and the following series.
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