The Lion King 1½

Infobox Film
name = The Lion King 1½


caption = The Lion King 1½ DVD cover
director = Bradley Raymond
producer = George A. Mendoza
writer = Tom Rogers
Roger Allers
starring = Nathan Lane
Ernie Sabella
Matthew Broderick
Julie Kavner
Jerry Stiller
music = Johnny Clegg
Don Harper
Lebo M
Ennio Morricone
editing = Joyce Arrastia
distributor = Buena Vista
DisneyToon Studios
released = February 10, 2004
runtime = 77 minutes
country = USA
language = English
preceded_by = "" (1998)
followed_by =
imdb_id = 0318403

"The Lion King 1½" (also known as "The Lion King 3: Hakuna Matata" in some countries) is an American direct-to-video animated film released by Walt Disney Home Entertainment. The film is a parallel to the 1994 film "The Lion King". The movie focuses on the meerkat/warthog duo Timon and Pumbaa before and during the events of the original film.

The film, setup as a frame story, starts out playing the very beginning of "The Lion King" movie. Timon and Pumbaa are shown watching the opening act of the original movie in a dark theater when Timon suddenly uses a remote control to fast forward to where they appear in the movie. Pumbaa argues that the movie shouldn't go out of order and attempts to rewind the movie back to the beginning. Timon and Pumbaa start fighting over control of the movie until they agree that the movie should tell their side of the story. Throughout the rest of the movie, it is occasionally interrupted to have Timon and Pumbaa comment on whatever is happening. Most memorable are "Mystery Science Theater 3000"-like moments where the characters comment on the original film's proceedings.

While the original film, "The Lion King", seemed to be based on "Hamlet", this film seems to be comparable to the Tom Stoppard piece, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead". This feature was released directly to home video on February 10, 2004. The DVD went to the Disney Vault on January 2005.

Plot

Timon (Nathan Lane) lives in a meerkat colony far away from Pride Rock. He was one of the worst diggers underground giving him titles from his other meerkats such as "Tunnel Klutz". He was also the target of comments like "Who else could "break" a "hole"?" While his mother has always been sympathetic and encouraging of Timon, his Uncle Max (Jerry Stiller) is more skeptical and embarrassed by his nephew. His father is not mentioned at all in the film, but did appear in a deleted scene; a sort of flashback. Timon's mother (Julie Kavner) convinces Uncle Max to give Timon a job as sentry. The job results in disaster when Uncle Max narrowly escapes being eaten by the three hyenas Shenzi, Banzai and Ed (Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin and Jim Cummings). Timon loses the little respect of his mom that he has and leaves, hoping to find his place in the world.

On his journey Timon meets Rafiki (Robert Guillaume), who tells Timon that he seeks "Hakuna Matata", and tells him to "look beyond what you see". Timon mistakes Rafiki's words of wisdom as an actual place located at Pride Rock. Along the way, Timon and Pumbaa (Ernie Sabella) meet for the first time. Unfortunately, Timon was scared of predators which made Timon and Pumbaa scream loudly when they bump into each other. Timon becomes acquainted with Pumbaa, hoping he will repel predators and head off toward Pride Rock together.

The adventures of Timon and Pumbaa begin to coincide with the events of "The Lion King" at this point. They arrive at Pride Rock, but to their dismay a herd of animals were already there, causing Timon to believe that Rafiki told everyone about Pride Rock. When Timon and Pumbaa walk through the herd of animals witnessing the presentation of the new-born Simba (cub by Matt Weinberg, teenager and adult by Matthew Broderick). Pumbaa has a flatulence problem, and he accidentally passes gas, which causes a few animals to collapse from the terrible smell. The animals in front see this and believe that the fallen animals are bowing, and soon they all bow together too (this is seen as being an accident, which explains while during Kiara's presentation, the animals did not bow).

Timon and Pumbaa continue their journey and find a new home at a watering hole which looks like a miniature version of Pride Rock (the same one that Zazu (Edward Hibbert) would later take Simba and Nala (Moira Kelly) to). One morning, they are disturbed by some noise from outside, which is actually Simba, Nala, and the animals singing "I Just Can't Wait to be King". Timon, believing that their new home is at a "theater district", gets mad and hits the leg of an elephant supporting the tower of animals. The elephant jumps in surprise and causes the tower to collapse, explaining why it collapsed in the original film.

Timon and Pumbaa's home is ruined by this event and they set off to find another home. On the way, Pumbaa repeatedly attempts to talk about a large, luscious empty jungle that he once saw, but Timon ignores him. They travel to the elephant graveyard and witness Mufasa and Zazu saving the cubs from the hyenas. That night, going further into the graveyard, they witness an army of hyenas marching to "Be Prepared", and the duo run away by Irish stepdancing due to a comment they've made about "Riverdance". Later, they end up in the gorge only to encounter a wildebeest stampede, which is the same one from the original film where Simba loses his father. In the midst of it all, they fall down a waterfall. On dry land, Pumbaa explains his story, saying he had nowhere to call home, and Timon is so touched that he officially declares each other friends. The wake up the next morning and find themselves before the very same jungle that Pumbaa saw in which they make their new home. Later they find Simba and the film shows us some of their life in the jungle throughout the years.

As an adult, Simba re-encounters his childhood friend Nala, and Timon and Pumbaa try everything to stop Simba from falling in love with her. This has disastrous results, although explaining a few things not touched in the original film: Simba and Nala fell off the cliff because Timon and Pumbaa tripped them with a vine; and Timon and Pumbaa re-appear at the end of the "Can You Feel The Love Tonight?" sequence at another place because they were running around trying to interfere with the lions during the song. Although they fail, they are happy when they notice Simba arguing with Nala and running off to the grasslands. They go back to sleep, mistaking Mufasa's ghost appearing in the clouds as bad weather. However, in the morning, they realize that Simba has returned home to challenge Scar. Pumbaa follows after Nala, leaving Timon alone. Rafiki appears before Timon but before he can say anything, Timon realizes that his "Hakuna Matata" is all about his friends, not his home. Timon catches up with Pumbaa and together they head to Pride Rock. There, Timon re-encounters his mother and Uncle Max for the first time since he left the colony. They battle the hyenas while Simba fights with Scar. Timon develops a plan and he and Pumbaa distract the hyenas while his mother and Uncle Max dig a tunnel. Thanks to Timon's quick thinking, the hyenas fall down the tunnel.

After the defeat of Scar, Simba becomes the king and Timon tells his mother that he found his place, but something is still missing – his family. In the end, Timon and Pumbaa return to their jungle paradise, bringing Timon's entire meerkat colony with them. The meerkats now have a safe, work-free place to call home and Timon is hailed a hero.

Awards

*2005 Annie Award for
**"Best Home Entertainment Production" (Won)
**"Music in an Animated Feature Production" (Nominated)
*2005 DVD Exclusive Awards in the following categories:
**Best Animated Character Performance (Nathan Lane - voice, Alexis Stadermann - animator) for "Timon" (Won)
**Best Animated DVD Premiere Movie (Won)
**Best Director (of a DVD Premiere Movie) - Bradley Raymond (Won)
**Best Editing (of a DVD Premiere Movie) - Joyce Arrastia (Won)
**Best Screenplay (for a DVD Premiere Movie) - Tom Rogers (Won)
*2005 Saturn Award
**"Best DVD Release" (Nominated)

oundtrack

The film soundtrack, "The Lion King 1½: Songs From Timon and Pumbaa's Hilarious Adventure", was released to CD by Disney Records on February 10, 2004. It includes two songs from the original film, "That's All I Need" and "Hakuna Matata", reperformed by Nathan Lane who took over the role of voicing the character Timon. The rest of the soundtrack includes various R&B tracks, including remakes of the Kool and the Gang classic "Jungle Boogie" by artist French, and two instrumental pieces from film composer Don Harper. [cite web |url=http://www.amazon.com/Lion-King-1-2/dp/B00018H6EY |title=Lion King 1 1/2 SOUNDTRACK |publisher=Amazon.com |accessdate=2008-09-25 ]

# "Grazing In The Grass" (Raven)
# "Digga Tunnah Dance" (Lebo M and Vinx)
# "That's All I Need" (Nathan Lane)
# "Hakuna Matata" (Lane, Ernie Sabella, Jason Weaver, Joseph Williams)
# "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" (Lebo M)
# "Jungle Boogie" (French)
# "Timon's Traveling Theme"
# "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly"

Video game

A video game version of the movie was released for the Game Boy Advance system. It was published by THQ under license from Disney Interactive, and developed by Vicarious Visions.

References

External links

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