Simba is now king of the Pridelands, and his little daughter Kiara is the light of his life. But Kiara craves freedom and to be seen as more than just a princess. Her independent spirit leads her to meet a male cub named Kovu, one of a group of banished lions that view the deceased villain Scar as a great martyr. Kovu is, in fact, the chosen one to the Outlanders, handpicked by Scar to be his successor. With all this known to Simba, he is intent on keeping the cubs apart, and as time passes, Kiara grows into a beautiful and strong lioness ready to prove herself, while Kovu grows into a powerful and dangerously brainwashed young lion taught by his mother, Zira, to hate Simba and his pride. Kovu has feelings of doubt though, and an inner wish to live a life without hatred. When he is reunited with grown-up Kiara, their blooming romance washes away his learned hatred and upsets Zira's plot to destroy Simba, only making things worse for the young lovers who just want the pride's dark past to be forgotten.
So, that's the story of "The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride", and while I never intended to be the Disney direct-to-video defender guy, I do seem to play devil's advocate from time to time. It doesn't earn me much respect among my fellow artists or Disney fanatics, but, oh well. The fact is, some of Disney's direct-to-video releases were real gems. Yeah, some were awful, a lot were just okay, but a few were really great. The Lion King 2 was the first of the really great ones. Not the best of them, but a very good direct-to-video release. I mean, when you consider that it could have worked as a big screen release, and in some places it DID get such a release, that's pretty good for something of the direct-to-video line.
The story is basically Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. That's appropriate, since the original Lion King was basically Shakespeare's Hamlet. Of course, doing something as serious and dramatic as Hamlet and following it with the slightly cheesy and overdone these days Romeo and Juliet, well, you're naturally going to have a picture that is less epic. The animation quality is nearly as good most of the time (not all the time, but most), but something else that hurts the film in comparison to the first is that less attention is given to the pure beauty of the music and visuals. One could easily fault most direct-to-video sequels for catering to a younger set by being more vocal and colorful, with more characters bouncing around all over the screen all the time and breaking into songs that stink compared to those in the original films, almost never having pure and quiet moments of emotion and beauty. "Lion King 2" is better than most direct-to-video sequels in that respect, but there is still a touch of the problem and it is what really makes the film look and feel different than the original, but not troublingly different. In general, it's still very good and works very well as a sequel, unlike some others that have had bad continuity or are just ridiculous. Some folks might make issue of the cub at the end of the original film looking like a male (and having a life of his own in a series of popular books released before this sequel), but most viewers will not even notice this.
Elton John is missed from this sequel's soundtrack, but in general "The Lion King 2" has fantastic songs for a direct to video release, even making use of some of Lebo M's work from the first film's follow-up soundtrack, "Rythym of the Pride Lands". I only take issue with two songs from the film that give it that weak direct-to video quality: "My Lullaby" and "One of Us". My Lullaby is an okay scene, I just often find villain songs for direct-to-video releases to be rather clunky, and this one is no exception. As usual though, the voice performer (in this case, Disney alumnus Suzanne Pleshette), gives it their all nevertheless. More troublesome for me is "One of Us", which is an okay enough song but starts out terribly to me and I really don't care for how the animals, zebras, giraffes, etc..., are the singers... It just comes off silly and very direct to video. That is the one scene in this film that is very direct-to-video to me. The rest, even "My Lullaby" for the most part, is scores above what I ever would have hoped for from the medium at the time and still holds up very well.
Oh, and before I forget, one of the great original songs in "Lion King 2" is called "Upendi" and sung by Rafiki. Here's a fun game for immature adults watching the film. Sing along during this scene, but instead of "Upendi", replace that word with "your panties". I know, sounds dumb, but it is hilarious how well it fits if you have a twisted mind.
Where was I? Ah, yes, back to the film, one of its strongest points, though a less unusual one, is that much of the voice cast of the original film returns. Zazu, whose role is small, is adequately replaced and some characters do not appear (like Sarabi). Of course, Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella return as Timon and Pubaa, and it's great to hear the original voices of Simba and Nala return, Matthew Broderick and Moira Kelly, no to mention Robert Guillaume as Rafiki. The new characters, which are also pretty good, boast a great voice cast as well, like Neve Campbell as Kiara, Jason Marsden as Kovu, Suzanne Pleshette as Zira, Andy Dick as his sniveling, jealous big brother Nuka, Jennifer Lien as sister Vitani and Lacey Chabert as the young Vitani, among others.
Though it's not the dramatic, epic masterpiece the original "Lion King" was, "Lion King 2: Simba's Pride" delivers its share of drama, romance, comedy, fun, and adventure as well, and within the realm of direct-to-video, it's a worthy and appreciated follow-up to the beloved classic. The story is solid and consistently entertaining. The characters are excellent and the music for the most part is too. The visuals may be a notch below the original, but not by much. Some folks simply will not accept a direct-to-video sequel to an animated classic, but this is one of those cases where they'd be missing out. I highly recommend "The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride", and for those who enjoy it, I also recommend "The Lion King 1 1/2", "Mulan 2", "Lilo and Stitch 2", Tarzan 2", "Bambi 2", "101 Dalmatians 2", and "An Extremely Goofy Movie", which are among the best of Disney's direct-to-video sequel offerings, though a few other titles are just as good, like "Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, the Three Musketeers", "Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas" and "Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas".
As for the DVD itself, 1998's "The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride was rereleased in 2004 in a 2-disc Special Edition with a book-style slip-cover. The anamorphic widescreen transfer looks and sounds fantastic. Disc one doesn't have much for extras. There's a pop-up "Matter of Facts" version of the film you can watch if you want a lot of animal facts and things like that to pop-up as you view the film (you may want to change the audio during this, or else suffer through annoying sound effects whenever a pop-up appears), and there's direct access to the songs in a sort of sing-along-song form. Disc 2 is where the worthy bonus features are, though there aren't a lot of them there either. The best one is undoubtedly the short, "One of Us", originally intended for the canceled "Fantasia 2006". It takes another Lebo M song from the "Rythym of the Pride Lands" album (a great album that I need to upgrade from cassette to CD myself...) and sets it to traditional animation about a group of African children inspired to share a day of kite flying. As always, it's great to see new traditional animation from Disney, and this short is carefree and lovely to watch, reminiscent in a way to oldschool Disney stuff like "All the Cats Join In". The other great Bonus Feature is the very brief behind-the-scenes look at the film, "Proud of Simba's Pride". Short, but the kind of thing Disney DVD collectors wish they would get more of (in a longer presentation of course). A music video for the end credits song, "Love Will Find a Way" (performed by Heather Headley and Kenny Lattimore), is also included on disc 2, as it should be. Let's face it, music videos, theatrical trailers, and at least one behind the scenes look should be standard on all DVDs. Sadly, the trailer for Lion King 2 is one thing from the previous DVD that was not ported over to this newer release.
Besides those excellent but few bonus features, we also get another Virtual Safari (though I found the ones on Lion King and Lion King 1 1/2 to be better), a coconut shell game, and a game on shapes and counting. Frankly, the only games I like on DVDs are trivia games with video prizes at the end, like on some of the old Disney Gold Collection releases. Two other bonus features remain to be mentioned: Lots About Lions, an informative bit about the big cats narrated by Timon and Pumbaa, and "Find Out Why", a collection of 5 very short shorts in which Timon and Pubaa educate us on behalf of the National Science Foundation. I actually am very glad for the inclusion of the "Find Out Why" shorts. They were entertaining and I'd never seen them before. I find myself wondering what they were created for. Perhaps they aired on Toon Disney, a network I never received, though I could see them being quite at home somewhere in EPCOT Center on a video screen.
Overall, it seems this 2-disc edition of Lion King 2 should have had a lot more to warrant the second disc, but it is still a must-own for the great feature and the only DVD release of the short "One by One". If you don't have this film yet, get it, and if you only have the original release, upgrade. The film looks better than ever and some of the very few extras are gems. "The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride": If only Disney had made sure all their direct-to-video sequels were on this level, even a few they decided to release to theaters.
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"The Lion King 2!!!"
"Lion King II"
"lions"