As a big fan of the original movies, this is something I've been looking forward to for a long time. This is actually the pilot movie to the upcoming TV series to air sometime in 2016. Both were developed by Ford Riley (Special Agent Oso, The Land Before Time) who actually wrote on the original Timon & Pumbaa show back in the 90s. The animation was really good, though you could tell at places that it was computer generated (like when Simba is walking down Pride Rock to go to the underground cave)
Glad to see they got some of the original voice actors back, even if it was only Ernie Sabella and Kevin Schon (Schon voiced Timon on-and-off when Nathan Lane was busy) and James Earl Jones, who I'm betting got paid more than the entire cast just for the handful of lines he had. Max Charles does a great job as Kion and so do the other children. Rob Lowe is okay as Simba, but I'm surprised they didn't go with his usual voice actor Cam Clarke.
For some reason I wasn't thinking this would have songs in it. However it does and they are really good, especially "Zuka Zuma" and "Tonight We Strike". Nothing compared to the Elton John classics of course. Also I'm liking the extra Swahili words the characters say.
My biggest complaint is with that honey-badger, who is extremely annoying. He really seemed out of place with everyone else acting calm. I know he's a kid and this made for kids, but he was just too hyperactive in my opinion.
Also I'm disappointed the show rewrote the canon of the first and second movies ("Simba's Pride" takes place after this show but Kion isn't present), especially on some silly plot device that wasn't even necessary. I would hope the "Guard" won't be fighting hyenas every episode. I'd much rather have a regular TV series that just focused on the Pride Lands and their everyday adventures without having a forced "good vs evil" story line.
In conclusion, I give it a 7.5/10. Can't wait for the series but I have a hard time imagining what other story-lines the show could come up with. I'm really hoping that one of those is a flashback episode with Simba and Nala as cubs. And maybe we finally see those "plenty of good lions" that were talked about but never shown...
Glad to see they got some of the original voice actors back, even if it was only Ernie Sabella and Kevin Schon (Schon voiced Timon on-and-off when Nathan Lane was busy) and James Earl Jones, who I'm betting got paid more than the entire cast just for the handful of lines he had. Max Charles does a great job as Kion and so do the other children. Rob Lowe is okay as Simba, but I'm surprised they didn't go with his usual voice actor Cam Clarke.
For some reason I wasn't thinking this would have songs in it. However it does and they are really good, especially "Zuka Zuma" and "Tonight We Strike". Nothing compared to the Elton John classics of course. Also I'm liking the extra Swahili words the characters say.
My biggest complaint is with that honey-badger, who is extremely annoying. He really seemed out of place with everyone else acting calm. I know he's a kid and this made for kids, but he was just too hyperactive in my opinion.
Also I'm disappointed the show rewrote the canon of the first and second movies ("Simba's Pride" takes place after this show but Kion isn't present), especially on some silly plot device that wasn't even necessary. I would hope the "Guard" won't be fighting hyenas every episode. I'd much rather have a regular TV series that just focused on the Pride Lands and their everyday adventures without having a forced "good vs evil" story line.
In conclusion, I give it a 7.5/10. Can't wait for the series but I have a hard time imagining what other story-lines the show could come up with. I'm really hoping that one of those is a flashback episode with Simba and Nala as cubs. And maybe we finally see those "plenty of good lions" that were talked about but never shown...