It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

As the only true direct-to-video Disney movie that I own, The Lion King 1 1/2 is a good step up from several others (at least from what I've heard others say about them) in that it doesn't entirely soil the original film. The animation is very good for a DTV, though it doesn't try to show off some effects and prefers to rehash stuff from the original Lion King with updates. The characters for the most part maintain their personalities quite well, though the character cameos at the end seemed pointless, and Timon and Pumbaa in silhouette made TLK1.5 feel like a rip-off of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The story is among the most imaginative in a Disney sequel, taking advantage of its "movie within a movie" thing enough to pass (though again, we've seen it in MST3K, so I took points off for that). As for the humor, I found about 45% of them to hit. I was already not a fan of Pumbaa discussing his flatulence issues in TLK, so having more scenes (3?) with wind-breaking isn't going to help, especially with further mentions of it that I couldn't count. As with any direct- to-video sequel that's actually not bad, you should still consider a good handful of questions for yourself before you see it. If you liked the original LK, then I think you will find something to take away from TLK1.5, if superficial and non-cherishable.

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.

Overall, Lion King 1 1/2 is a sadistic experiment in throwing pop culture and toilet humor into the original classic. However, it could have been good. It does bring a few good ideas to the table. Timon's back story isn't executed too poorly, and the idea of giving Timon and Pumbaa a back story was a great idea. However, the execution of the plot was horrendous, as it can never make up its mind; is it a parody of the first film or a serious back story? There are also numerous continuity errors between this and the original Lion King. For example, in the original Lion King Rafiki tells Timon and Pumbaa that Simba has went to fight Scar, but here, it is Nala. Why did they do this? Simple; in this film Rafiki serves as Timon's guardian angel, a plot element thrown in to make this film a cheezier midquel (Kudos on the honest title by the way, this is not a Lion King 3 and I'm sick of midquels and prequels being paraded as sequels). Classic scenes from the original such as the sunrise, the animals bowing to baby Simba, the "Be Prepared" musical number, the stampede that KILLED MUFASSA, and just about every serious moment are ruined by Timon and Pumbaa's unfunny commentary and fart jokes including cutting to QVC footage, Pumbaa breaking wind numerous times, and literally pausing the movie to parody Mystery Science Theater (disrespecting fans of that show as well). If you respect the original, I suggest not only avoiding this film, but throwing any copied of this film in the nearest blender you can find ASAP. This movie may not be a complete disaster because of its decent execution of the story it is telling by itself, but the way it literally pastes jokes on the original film to pander to the little kiddies is a disgrace. A disgrace to everyone who loved the original, everyone who worked on the original, and a disgrace to people who value film as an art-form in general. From a moral perspective, it is perhaps the most tasteless, disgusting, and sickening heap of trash ever designed by the utterly worthless Disney Toon Studios.

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.