(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from The Lion King 1½)
Doug (vo): By God, we've had so many Disney sequels, they can't even give them full numbers anymore. This is Lion King 1½. Well, how does that work? It's because this film is a prequel...uh, kind of. It's focusing more on Timon and Pumbaa and where they came from and all the funny ways they were interacting through The Lion King film without us even noticing it. A cute concept, if you like Timon and Pumbaa, which...I don't hate them, but I don't know if I want to watch a movie with these guys.
Story
Doug (vo): The story is, not surprisingly, about as generic as it gets. Timon is an outsider among his group, and one day, he's put in charge to make sure the hyenas don't attack. Of course, he gets distracted, the hyenas attack, he feels awful, and he has to go find his own way. He ends up leaving, coming across a companion named Pumbaa, they form a bond with both of them being outsiders, and, yeah, you just sort of see them insert themselves in random clips.
Review
Doug (vo): Some are funny, like when you see what actually ended the "[I Just] Can't Wait to Be King" song, but a lot of them just kind of seem pointless. You just kind of point and go, "Tee-hee. Oh, that's what was going on. Ha-ha." And half the time, there's really no connecting story to it. When the story does come back, it's okay. I mean, there's sort of a nice connection with Timon and his mother. Once in a while, there's an okay laugh.
(Scenes focusing on the movie's animation are shown)
Doug (vo): But it's so strange seeing such good animation put to something that's clearly just kind of an in-between prequel. Like I said, they call it 1½. How is a movie called "1½" given this good animation? The only thing I can figure is because, it is Lion King, and that's one of their biggest properties. It kind of figured to give them the really nice animation, especially when it's supposed to connect back to the original film. But... (Sighs) it's Timon and Pumbaa. Why are these great backgrounds being used for Timon and Pumbaa? That is to say, if there was a good story that went with it, like a really great story that surprised you like Kung Fu Panda or The Lego Movie or something that you didn't think was gonna be phenomenal but was, then I would understand it. But it's just kind of them inserting themselves into certain parts and not really flowing at all and...I don't know. It just kind of seemed like a mess, but not a godawful mess. It still looked nice in parts.
Final thought
Doug (vo): The only thing I can really say about it is, if you like Timon and Pumbaa, you'll like this fine. It's basically the Timon and Pumbaa movie. I don't hate Timon and Pumbaa, I just don't feel like watching an entire film dedicated to them. But if you do, maybe you'll like it fine. One or two of the songs are surprisingly kind of catchy. I swear, that digging melody is gonna be in my head forever. And...that's about it. Again, I think that's all it was supposed to be, I don't know if it's supposed to be like this grand film or this grand comedy, it's just supposed to be Timon and Pumbaa being Timon and Pumbaa. And if you like that, you'll like this fine. Me? I think the cartoon show was a little funnier, but I guess if you're looking for better animation, this is the one to check out. Give it a watch and see if it's slimy, but satisfying, enough.
(A scene showing Timon and Pumbaa walking towards Pride Rock is shown)