This sequel to one of my favourite movies of all time was oddly enough never released in theatres, only getting a release directly to home video (VHS and DVD), This was the custom when it came to Disney animated sequels at the time, they created countless direct-to-home video sequels through the 1990s and 2000s, yet you'd honestly think they'd make an exception for the sequel to the highest-grossing animated movie ever at the time. Hmm oh well.
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, is the sequel to the ever-popular "The Lion King", and came out 4 years after the original, in 1998. This runs just about 10 minutes shorter than the first movie, at 1 hour and 20 minutes and serves as the finale to The Lion King franchise....which is strange as it wasn't exactly a huge franchise at the time. Oddly enough, despite being such a popular movie, Disney never really milked The Lion King when it came to making movies or tv shows or things like that. Of course, they did it up with the merchandising and the storybooks for kids but they only made two "sequels": This one and the 2004 "The Lion King 1 and 1/2" which is less of another sequel and more of a retelling of the original movie from the perspective of the comedic relief side characters Timon and Pumbaa (a la Rosencrantz and Guldenstern Are Dead). Prior to this movie, the only Lion King anything we got (other than of course the first movie) was a very comedic show on Timon and Pumbaa. Only very recently, years after Lion King mania has died down, have we gotten The Lion Guard, a TV series more focused on the actual lion family...and it's totally aimed towards children. Either way, all of this previously mentioned media is set in the gap between this film and its' predecessor. To date, this is the chronologically last thing to happen in the franchise and I feel it might stay that way for a long time (not that I can't hope otherwise). Overall, it has much more of a feeling of an ending than the previous film. While The Lion King ends with the main character having a baby and than a title card flash, this movie ends with no hints at future generations and a card that actually says "The End"
But speaking of The Lion King ending with Simba's baby, this movie actually opens up with the exact same scene the last movie ended with, but with a lot more buildup and detail. You should note that there are a few differences between this version and the original, most notably the baby: The baby here looks chubby and also happy and excitable, whereas the original baby looked slimmer and also more confused yet serious, you might think i'm nitpicking but it's actually pretty noticeable. This of course has fueled countless conspiracy fan theories about the babies actually being two different babies but we're not going to get into that right now. Putting all that aside, you have to got to love the bookends with these movies. The first movie opens up with our main character (Simba) being presented as a baby and then ends with him presenting his own baby, but more rushed and less pomp as we're not setting up for a movie this time around. The second movie begins with the same scene as the first movie ended off on, but they redo it with all the pomp of the first movie's opening scene, as yet again we ARE introducing a protagonist who's gonna carry the movie. This time, Simba's daughter Kiara.
If you've been living under a rock for decades and somehow do not know the story of The Lion King, you should read my review on that movie (http://that90sguyreviews.blogspot.ca/2016/02/the-lion-king.html) but if you don't want to, I'll summarize it very quickly here as you really have to know that movie to understand this one: Mufasa is the king of lions and all of Africa, he gets killed by his own brother Scar who then tricks Mufasa's son, Simba, into running away, one day Simba gets brought back by his childhood friend Nala and he slays his evil uncle (just like Hamlet). Unlike Hamlet, this ends pretty good and Simba becomes king and lives happily ever after...until this movie.
The premise of this movie is that Princess Kiara ends up falling in love with Kovu, a kid who's mom is the leader of the Outlanders: a group of lions who supported Scar and got exiled when Simba came back, and because of that, they hate Simba. So basically, two young people from feuding clans fall in love regardless of their family differences and then have to work through those family differences if they want to be together (kinda like...Romeo and Juliet....this entire franchise is literally Shakespeare but with lions, I love it). Like the first movie of course, this ends a lot better than the plays it based itself on and spoiler that isn't even really a spoiler: happy couple stays together, everyone gets along in the end.
Special Note: This movie keeps the previous movies protagonistic comedic relief in the form of Timon and Pumbaa, and yet it loses the previous antagonistic comedic relief: Scar's minions, the hyenas. Their replacement is Kovu's brother, who is only one guy and is a bit more serious than they were anyways, so this film just isn't as funny as the previous one. However, for me at least, I watch the Lion King for the drama first and foremost so this doesn't take that much away.
This movie just will never get as much recognition as what came before it, considering it never got a theatrical release (or it's own broadway muscial for that matter), and frankly it doesn't deserve too: The story is just plain not as strong as it's predecessor. There are plenty of movies that outdo what came before them (Superman II and Star Wars Episode 5 come to mind) but this is not one of them. However, that doesn't mean it's a bad movie or even a movie that gets as much credit as it deserves. Many will tell you this is not a good movie, however I beg to differ. The animation is still great (probably even better than the previous one) and to be honest, I actually enjoyed this movie's musical soundtrack even more than the last one's. And though it might be stuck in the shadow of it's predecessor story-wise, it's still a good movie that's 100% worth a check-out.
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