What makes it different from others?

disgusting, overrated, pointless

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

This movie is definitely aimed towards a younger audience – I suppose the Disney Junior should have been a big hint but I was still hopeful. Many things are different and inaccurate compared to the first 2 films and the characters are irritating and flat.First off, the movie is incredible short. Which is probably a good thing because it was incredibly bad but maybe a longer film could have given it some redeeming qualities.By far my biggest issue is with how they presented Kiara. Maybe I watched a completely different Lion King 2 but she was always striving to be more than just a princess and discover who she was. I always saw her as the opposite of younger Simba – who just couldn't wait to be king – where she wanted to be everything but a princess and be more than just a princess. Within the first minute she's smug about training to be queen where before I feel like she would have been more whiny and sulky about it. At some point in the middle Simba states "Kion you need to take your responsibilities seriously as Kiara takes hers" and I'm just no. Kiara doesn't want to be a freakin' princess. I related to her character a lot when the movie just came out and Lion King 2 will always hold a special place in my heart and I hate that they messed with her character so much.Another big thing for me was Mufasa popping out of the clouds for a little chit chat. I always took his appearances after his death to be more metaphorical and the characters remembering what was said to them previously. But maybe I'm wrong and maybe Cloud Mufasa is lonely and just wants to chat with his grandson.Next up: messing with Scar's story. I thought him being such a prick was just usual sibling rivalry (plus maybe some mental health issues SINCE HIS PARENTS NAMED HIM SCAR) and jealousy over his brother getting to rule the pride lands. I'm sure there could be much more to this back story and maybe it's covered in countless books already. I've read a few reviews where people have said Scar would be banished from the Pride Lands entirely for the act he did when he was leader of the Lion Guard but since he lost his power for using it for evil I feel like Mufasa would have been smug and confident enough to see that Scar was no longer a threat and probably even rub it in from time to time and just let him stay.While we are talking about Scar let's talk about the hyenas. They have been recreated somewhat into looking more cutesy I feel – rounder, funnier looking. They are dumber than anything and not as conniving as their predecessors. Scar's hyenas were at least a little bit intimidating and scary at times but these guys were just lame. I have some thoughts about them still being banned from the pride lands and that they're starving and such but we don't really need to go into Lion King Politics.There's a new Hakuna Matata – Zuka Zuuma or something like that. I believe it translates to "YOLO" as the irritating honey badger shouts it every time he does something that may get him killed. He is by far the most irritating character but he is designed for small children and I guess acts like one to. Kiara had a really snooty friend who flipped over breaking a claw and I'm glad she was only around for one scene.The songs are kind of cute but that's about it.Just don't watch this. I regret buying it and I should have just assumed it would be as bad as Lion King 1 ½. This movie is so problematic with everything set up in the first two films it's just not worth it (plus Rob Lowe as Simba was a terrible choice oh my god why).

As a huge fan of the Lion King, having grown up with it as a kid, this was an extreme disappointment to me. To see the characters of Simba and Kiara being reduced to these uptight royal semi- antagonists is painful to say the least. Kiara, from the sequel "Simba's Pride" was adventurous and headstrong, like her father was when he was young. And now she's this obedient, tattletale daddy's girl who is also reduced to the stereotypical damsel in distress. All to make new male protagonist look good. Kion, Simba's son (who strangely didn't appear in Simba's Pride) wants to be part of the Lion's Guard, (Kingsguard) but not the king, as the throne will go to Kiara. So he assembles a diverse group of animals as his "soldiers". This is where the producers thought "The Lion King meets The Avengers" comes in. It doesn't. It really doesn't.I can't even begin to tell you how stupid, predictable and lazy the dialogue and story was. Why do they have make every single scene so utterly childish? When I was child, the Disney films I watched weren't dumbed down or censored to appeal to a younger audience! They were intelligent, meaningful and heartfelt films. People are too scared now to take risks with animation. It's all about the money and never about the art. Very sad.2 out of 10

I loved the Lion King when it came out, but I've never lost sight of the simple fact that its story is extremely biased and human-centric: lions good, hyenas bad. This is purely based on human views of the two animals and not at all on their behavior or society. In the wild, hyenas have a complex pack culture dominated by females where, in hard times, they still look after the young first. They are not just scavengers but alpha predators; however, because of their appearance and sound, we revile them. Lions, on the other hand, can be pretty cowardly and callous, and in hard times have been known to kill their cubs to survive, yet are held up as grand and noble beasts based purely on their appearance.So here we are again with more of the same. Pretty, 'fun' animals good: check. The heroes are a lion, a honey badger, a cheetah, a hippo, and some variety of insect-eating bird. Never mind that hippos are notoriously aggressive and rather disgusting animals, and one of the most feared creatures in Africa.Ugly animals bad: check. So far the antagonists we have seen include the hyenas, a vulture, and a crocodile. At least in the original movie we had a bad lion and a good warthog (and Poombah is still around, but I think he falls on the side of 'gross is funny').Also, the Lion Guard consists of five members, only one of which is female, and the leader is naturally male even though it is a female character, his sister, being groomed for leadership. Well, okay, at least his sister is being groomed for leadership, but another female lion cub acted like a stereotypical girl, whining over a broken claw, bugs, and every other little thing, and the sister just had to hurt herself and be rescued.Oh, and we get casual racism. Simba chastises his son for even thinking of bring non-lions into his Lion Guard. Though the son's decision is eventually vindicated and upheld, this was a very disappointing thing to see from Simba, a character who should know better after his long associating with a certain warthog and meerkat duo.There's also a lot of music, at least in the pilot. We get a song that is clearly meant to be a successor to Hakuna Matata without really explaining much, and a lot of other songs featuring quite a few trite lyrics that go well with the trite dialogue when they're not singing. The songs and dialogue both seem to rely a lot on repetition to make their points. There's also the frequent scattering of catch phrases throughout; each character seems to have their own African, or perhaps pseudo-African, catchphrase or phrases, which they use with great regularity.Ultimately, I am unimpressed. This show goes to great lengths to hit all of the old clichés. I could practically just run down a checklist of them. In fact, I believe I just did.

I'm reviewing this film as someone who grew up watching The Lion King.. I truly appreciate the film for its beautiful animation, powerful story, well written script, likable characters, and catchy music. TLK is simply one of the best animated films to ever be made.And The Lion Guard tainted all that it stood for.I understand this is meant to be a kids' film, but as I said, I'm reviewing this based upon how well it continues the story of TLK.The story TLG tries to tell doesn't continue the movie series well. Firstly, most of the characters are not who they once were. Nala is severely downplayed, and is only there to be a caring, advice giving mate/mother. She barely does anything. Kiara brags about becoming queen when in TLK2, she didn't even want to be queen! She hated the thought of it! She didn't take her position seriously until growing into an adult! Simba has become overprotective, and kinda racist. Rafiki is only around to shout, "It is time!" Timon and Pumbaa are treated as if they're only side characters. If it weren't for them, Simba wouldn't even be alive. They played a BIG role in the first film, but there's no appreciation for them in TLG.As for the new characters, they add NOTHING to the story. Kion is a ripoff of Simba. He looks EXACTLY like him, and even has his personality. His "powers" are just unrealistic, and are an obvious excuse to give him a big role in the show. He's an unnecessary character, and I refuse to accept him as Simba and Nala's cub. Bunga.....my God. He is the most annoying little twerp. He takes up WAY too much screen time. I can't stand him, yet they're making it seem as if he were the main character. The other 3 characters mostly just comment on what's happening. They're not very useful. Zuri is a whiny little snot, and Tifu, while much better than Zuri, barely does anything. She does fetch Simba for Kiara, but that was it. The Hyenas are pathetic villains, and got annoying pretty quick. They also try to make the same mistake that was made in the first film. If they knew of Scar, then they knew that he was why the Pridelands fell apart, since his hyenas hunted down nearly every animal. They should know that they would be screwing themselves over. The whole Lion Guard thing is utterly ridiculous. You don't need just 5 lions to protect the Pridelands. You need a whole freaking pride! The other lions, including the king and queen, are pretty much useless according to this Lion Guard legend. The story behind Scar as the Lion Guard was pointless, so I won't get into that. A couple other things that bothered me were the constant African phrases popping up, the "magic", and the...farts. I feel like other random African phrases were thrown in so the show could come up with possible phrases that would become as popular as Hakuna Matata. It seems like they're trying too hard to establish that the show takes place in Africa. I understand if they're maybe trying to teach kids different phrases, but it becomes cringe-worthy when the same phrases pop up every 5 minutes. As for the "magic", why? Why is there even magic? Why/How did the paintings on the cave wall magically move? Why/How did a tattoo appear on Kion and his friends? People may say that there's magic because Mufasa is a magic lion in the sky. He's meant to be a spiritual presence, not a magic freaking genie! The Lion King is not meant to have magic. It's one of Disney's more realistic films. There's no Bibbidi- Bobbidi-Boo. The only reason why Mufasa was able to appear to Simba was because he was meant to be a spiritual guide to his son. There's a huge difference between that and just throwing in magical elements. As for the....farts......why do shows feel that they need fart jokes these days? They're not funny. They're crude. The only thing fart jokes do for a show is show that the writers are not that good at what they do. When Bunga saved Kiara with a FART, I flipped out. I understand that kids may find this stuff funny, but it does nothing for them. It just encourages them to act disgusting, and may possibly dumb them down. Fart jokes, especially in a show based on one of the most critically acclaimed animated movies of all time, should NOT be relied on to bring humor.The acting was decent. James Earl Jones and Ernie Sabella did well with their original roles. I believed that it was really Mufasa and Pumbaa in their scenes. Rob Lowe did a decent job as Simba. He's a great actor, but his voice was an odd mix between being low and growly, and soothing. It didn't sound at all like Simba. The others I can say, well, for the original characters, were decent as well. I am very disappointed with The Lion Guard. True, I shouldn't have expected much from it, but I still did regardless because of my love for TLK. Instead of watching a nice continuation of the franchise, I instead witnessed a poorly written, cheaply animated show that barely understands its source material and brings nothing good with its new material. I may watch an episode or two of the new show just to see if maybe they fix their mistakes. But, I will make sure that I won't expect much out of it like I did with this film. If you're a die-hard Lion King fan like me, I suggest you stay away from this. It doesn't do the franchise any justice, and it just messes up the story line laid out for TLK.