- Released: February 9 2004
- Directed by: Bradley Raymond
- Running time: 1 h 30 min
- Rating 2/5
Synopsis
It's just the story of The Lion King, but retold comically through Timon and Pumbaa's point of view.
My Thoughts
Originally wasn’t going to do a Movie Thoughts on this one but I’m kinda irked by it so might as well. I could also do TLK1, but it’s in my apartment and I’m at my parents’ place at the weekends so I can’t get it. But I did watch this…thing a few days ago and still have thoughts so might as well dump ‘em here, right?
Fun fact: This movie is titled “The Lion King 3: Hakuna Matata” in my country. What’s odd about that is that:
The Dutch movie title for the original is “De Leeuwenkoning” (literally Dutch for The Lion King). So why they suddenly kept the title in English is beyond me. Second, it’s called The Lion King 1 ½ in the OV. Not really sure why they bothered doing all these changes. The English title is much more accurate than the “3″ one we have in the Netherlands.
I remember actually kinda liking this movie when I was little when it just came out. I never even got the DVD or anything, I think I just got and returned it at the Video and DVD rent one, maybe two times. But really, other than being like “heh, apparently Timon and Pumbaa caused X in the original”, and the hyenas (I have a soft spot for hyenas), I didn’t really much care for it.
So then last year I got it for like one Euro at some secondhand booksale (they also had some films). I figured, why not complete my TLK trilogy (though it’s currently a mystery for me where my copy of Simba’s Pride resides)? Only re-watched it this week but I have Some Words to say on this film.
Fun fact: This movie is titled “The Lion King 3: Hakuna Matata” in my country. What’s odd about that is that:
The Dutch movie title for the original is “De Leeuwenkoning” (literally Dutch for The Lion King). So why they suddenly kept the title in English is beyond me. Second, it’s called The Lion King 1 ½ in the OV. Not really sure why they bothered doing all these changes. The English title is much more accurate than the “3″ one we have in the Netherlands.
I remember actually kinda liking this movie when I was little when it just came out. I never even got the DVD or anything, I think I just got and returned it at the Video and DVD rent one, maybe two times. But really, other than being like “heh, apparently Timon and Pumbaa caused X in the original”, and the hyenas (I have a soft spot for hyenas), I didn’t really much care for it.
So then last year I got it for like one Euro at some secondhand booksale (they also had some films). I figured, why not complete my TLK trilogy (though it’s currently a mystery for me where my copy of Simba’s Pride resides)? Only re-watched it this week but I have Some Words to say on this film.
My first though during and after the re-watch was: Disney wanted an “Emperor’s New Groove”-style movie set in the Lion King universe. Both movies are self-aware and break the fourth wall a lot. However, the difference is: Emperor’s New Groove is funny and works. This one is and does not. The canon Lion King universe until now (not counting the spinoff Timon and Pumbaa TV Series, which isn’t canon as far as I know) has always been serious (with the occasional comic relief) and no fourth-wall breaking or stuff like that at all. Then there’s this movie…which goes overboard with it all. Honestly, the segments where Timon and Pumbaa are watching the movie in the theater really add nothing except dumb jokes and basic exposition about how this is the story from their point of view (which could’ve been delivered in another way, maybe by having them tell the story to young Kiara or something). Either way, this total tonal shift doesn’t work.
The movie also often contradicts the original movie. There’s a bunch of inconsistencies, mostly for jokes. Either way, if they wanted us to see this movie as part of the TLK canon, they shouldn’t have contradicted these things (as well kept the same tone as the first two).The jokes are often just tasteless and gross-out. Incredibly juvenile and just overall not enjoyable. It also ruins good moments of the first movie (apparently all of the animals bowing during the Circle of Life sequence in the original is due to Pumbaa farting and a bunch of them fainting from it, falling over, and causing the other animals to start bowing). It just doesn’t work.
The songs are…meh. The only one I found myself quite liking was "Quick Before he Hyena Comes" or whatever its official name is. It’s catchy, but the rest just falls flat.
Timon is also really not too nice a character here. He’s irresponsible and could very well have gotten several of his meerkat peers killed because he just couldn’t help but forsake his sentry duty for a (bad) song. Him constantly acting like he knows better and stealing Pumbaa’s ideas doesn’t come off as charming anymore when we have him as protagonist of the movie. It was just a few moments in the other movies…here he is just downright unlikable for quite a bit of it. Pumbaa is slightly better, but this movie still suffers from the “comic relief becomes the main character”-syndrome Cars 2 also has. It’s not a good idea, never was.
Another thing that kinda bothered me was the fact that Timon didn’t get the Hakuna Matata phrase, which is such a big part of his character in the other movie, from himself or Pumbaa for the first time. It was Rafiki. Honestly, what does this monkey shaman have to do with Timon and Pumbaa? I don’t even think they interacted in the first or second movies? Just kinda random and it makes the phrase feel less meaningful. We could’ve had Timon discover it himself or adopt it from Pumbaa, but he gets it from Rafiki of all animals.
So was there nothing I liked? Eh, not completely. If there’s one thing I like better here than in Simba’s Pride (but not the original, obviously), it’s the animation and the colors. I really like Simba’s Pride as a movie, but the animation doesn’t feel as lively as here or in the original. At least Timon and Pumbaa are very on model in comparison to the first. Simba, Nala and the hyenas look a little bit off, but still enough like their original counterparts. The lions in the sequel always looked just a bit too unlike the first movie for me. The colors are also really an improvement. Simba’s Pride’s characters also have a very different color palette in comparison to the first (Simba is much darker, Nala a lot paler and has blue eyes suddenly), whereas here they are much more on point. There’s actually quite a few people I’ve seen do color/model comparisons between the first and second, which is entertaining to see. And that’s not even mentioning the backgrounds and scenes, which do have some really pretty colors.
The movie also often contradicts the original movie. There’s a bunch of inconsistencies, mostly for jokes. Either way, if they wanted us to see this movie as part of the TLK canon, they shouldn’t have contradicted these things (as well kept the same tone as the first two).The jokes are often just tasteless and gross-out. Incredibly juvenile and just overall not enjoyable. It also ruins good moments of the first movie (apparently all of the animals bowing during the Circle of Life sequence in the original is due to Pumbaa farting and a bunch of them fainting from it, falling over, and causing the other animals to start bowing). It just doesn’t work.
The songs are…meh. The only one I found myself quite liking was "Quick Before he Hyena Comes" or whatever its official name is. It’s catchy, but the rest just falls flat.
Timon is also really not too nice a character here. He’s irresponsible and could very well have gotten several of his meerkat peers killed because he just couldn’t help but forsake his sentry duty for a (bad) song. Him constantly acting like he knows better and stealing Pumbaa’s ideas doesn’t come off as charming anymore when we have him as protagonist of the movie. It was just a few moments in the other movies…here he is just downright unlikable for quite a bit of it. Pumbaa is slightly better, but this movie still suffers from the “comic relief becomes the main character”-syndrome Cars 2 also has. It’s not a good idea, never was.
Another thing that kinda bothered me was the fact that Timon didn’t get the Hakuna Matata phrase, which is such a big part of his character in the other movie, from himself or Pumbaa for the first time. It was Rafiki. Honestly, what does this monkey shaman have to do with Timon and Pumbaa? I don’t even think they interacted in the first or second movies? Just kinda random and it makes the phrase feel less meaningful. We could’ve had Timon discover it himself or adopt it from Pumbaa, but he gets it from Rafiki of all animals.
So was there nothing I liked? Eh, not completely. If there’s one thing I like better here than in Simba’s Pride (but not the original, obviously), it’s the animation and the colors. I really like Simba’s Pride as a movie, but the animation doesn’t feel as lively as here or in the original. At least Timon and Pumbaa are very on model in comparison to the first. Simba, Nala and the hyenas look a little bit off, but still enough like their original counterparts. The lions in the sequel always looked just a bit too unlike the first movie for me. The colors are also really an improvement. Simba’s Pride’s characters also have a very different color palette in comparison to the first (Simba is much darker, Nala a lot paler and has blue eyes suddenly), whereas here they are much more on point. There’s actually quite a few people I’ve seen do color/model comparisons between the first and second, which is entertaining to see. And that’s not even mentioning the backgrounds and scenes, which do have some really pretty colors.
I wouldn’t recommend this movie to any Lion King fan, unlike Simba’s Pride. While it has some better qualities (the animation and the use of color), it still utterly lacks in the characters (mostly the protagonists), jokes and consistency. This definitely belongs up there with the bad Disney sequels if you ask me when it comes to these points (though it’s far from the actual worst).
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