It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

In constructive criticism, it is recommended that one starts with good feedback about a show, followed by negative feedback. With a show like The Lion Guard, I'm afraid that good list is minimal to say the least.The animation style is colourful with vast different landscapes and characters given decent characteristic details keeping the world of the original Pride Lands. The soundtrack is alright, especially with the use of Swahili language, keeping The Lion King's ethnic strength that made the film a unique success.That's about it, really.What's sad about this show is aired on Disney Junior, unbeknownst to the fact that it encourages barriers between different "races" of animals. The reptiles are villains unless you pose no a threat like a turtle or a gecko. The hyenas are given bad credit despite being starved to death thanks to the lions without resolving their characters' dilemmas. Whoever is writing the scripts for this show gives poor credit to the original screenplay written by Linda Woolverton, Irene Mecchi and Jonathan Roberts. Familiar characters such as Simba and Chiara are underdeveloped; they've lost their charm and character development that they possessed in their original movies. I was appalled to read the production team's intentions when creating this show on Wikipedia who stated that they wanted to "hold the essence of The Lion King". Whilst the essence is visually there, the plot and originality isn't. Kion is a spoilt child who sets up a biased crew based on the production crew's "choices of what strength is". Contrarily, realisation of weakness is what builds into strength. The honey badger, Bunga, is an annoying creature that is loud, empty and big-headed and his catchphrases are unnerving. Cheesy jokes with farts and silly catchphrases is understandable for bringing a child to chuckle. However, I'm sure that serious adults (and parents) watching this series won't help but wonder: how much of this is entertaining?***SPOILER ALERT*** The return of Scar, for instance, is well animated and brings back the ominous look of the character. Yet, the script and tone of his words are a letdown to his villainous prowess Lion King fans are familiar with.I only hope that young children are wise enough to ask their parents to watch the original Lion King or get the opportunity to watch the musical to truly learn something of value. The Lion Guard may succeed in being pretty, but it fails to deliver the essence of storytelling and the lack of emotional characters leaves little to taste one's empathy for the cast.

This is like the android version of The Lion King.You exploited the touching father and son moment between Simba and Mufasa. Completely trashed it. It became absolutely meaningless. Where was the crying? Where was the "aha" moment? He was dead once, and then he magically, spiritually reconnected with grieving and guilt ridden Simba. THAT'S IT. It was a great plot twist that melted our hearts but it's over.Milked it way too hard bro.And now Kiara is being stampeded by large herbivores? It's like you stuck the original The Lion King in the DVD player and pressed reverse, Except this time, you bought it off the black market. Bt dubs, very inconsistent. Like, I don't know what family issues ya'll have, but I don't care if you're out there protecting the pride lands, you pitch up to your sister's coronation which featured in the lion king 2. And remember when Kiara wasn't allowed hunting, even when she was like 35 years old? So now she gets to go out culling gazelles? With her FRIENDS? Nah Fam, she was lonelier than the last chip in the Mac Donald's take away bag. You know, I live in Africa, and I don't know how the animals over there in Trumpland look like, but they certainly don't look like a glitch in Zoo Tycoon. And where are the elephants? Oh, they were there? I couldn't tell cause all that was covering the screen were these massive blobs of WASTE. Also, what is this 'trying-too-hard' vocabulary that makes me want to strap Ariana Grande's new album to my ears? Like, we have 60+ official languages, so trust me, producers, we aren't that desperate for new ones. You're not even from the continent Africa, you can't just come along with your little yet very beautiful and respectful flag and claim the main lands. Ay-be-ka-bisa? Zoo-ka-zaba? THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN. IS THIS ANOTHER MARVEL TRASH MOVIE? NOOOO. IT'S AN ALL TIME CLASSIC FROM MY CHILDHOOD. That you have just ruined, Disney. Thanks. Thanks for ruining my childhood.

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).

To put it briefly, Ford Riley is not a producer let alone a writer. He creates brain junkfood for two year old s. So why would Disney put HIM in charge of making a sequel? Why so bad? First, Plot holes galore. Taking place during the lion king 2 only makes the lion guard make zero sense. Kion was never apart of the previously established lore so why would they shoehorn him into the "canon"? second, the writing is awful. the dialouge is more cheesy than a can of cheese whiz, the characters are either as one dimesnional as a sheet of paper or are more annoying than jar jar binks, the whole supernatural roar thing is stupid. and thats pretty much it. Its apparent Disney didn't care much for making a proper sequel