The Lion King 1 1/2 Review; Meerkats are Jewish

The Lion King 1 1/2 is a weird movie, as it’s part prequel, part midquel and part sequel. It tells the story that runs along side The Lion King, the story of Timon and Pumbaa.

Many people like this movie but this movie comes at the expense of the original. Nicely put, this movie is basically goofy cliff notes to the original but really it is a parody of the original made to get money without much effort on the writing front.

Story goes, Timon, in his Meeket colony, is a dreamer and a bit of an outcast. He doesn’t enjoy digging and hiding so he leaves. He meets Rafiki who tells him to look beyond what he sees. Timon not being one for metaphors decides to head to Pride Rock. He meets Pumbaa and decides to pair up with him since other animals leave him alone.

From that point the movie follows the original, they fart indued the bow, I can’t wait to be king wakes them up, the stampede is nothing really ect ect. Timon and Pumbaa find the jungle place and Simba joins them and Timon gets mad when Simba goes back. Then Timon learns that friends are awesome and helps wins the day with help of his mother and uncle.

The movie is funny and delightfully meta but it’s just reference after reference. The parts that are the best are the prequel and sequel parts. Those parts are the plot, you have Timon’s dilemma and his resolution. The midquel parts which make up the most the movie just poops on The Lion King.

 

The bow part and the stampede are particularity guilty of ruining the original. This movie indicates that bow for Simba was started by Pumbaa farting and animals passing out. One Zebra misconstrues it as a bow. Oh isn’t that gas (pun in intended), that glorious opening is ruined.

But the stampede part is by far worst. Timon and Pumbaa get caught up in it and dismiss it as nothing. This mocks Mufasa dying and makes it a farce.

When they movie is doing it own thing, it’s great and enjoyable but every time a Lion King scene is lifted from the first movie, it’s annoying and desperate.

I wish the story was more Timon and Pumbaa’s tale of friendship and not Timon and Pumbaa were really in every single scene of the original just off frame.

The Lion King 1 1/2 would have been much better if it didn’t have the first movie shoehorned in the narrative. I get that they were trying to be cute and poking fun at the sequels with the 1 and 1/2 but it really ruined many beautiful and dramatic aspects of the original.

But then again Dumbo does have a cameo in the theatre at the end and Dumbo is the greatest, so I take it all back. Clearly, if Dumbo is in it, it must be a magnum opus of genius.