The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar (2015) Reviews

• So disappointing

  rokkstarr82015-11-29

  This movie has taken The Lion King that we all know and love and carried the story to an unbelievably horrible place. I know the following is a pretty powerful statement but unfortunately it's true. First of all, Simba is now a Lions version of a racist bigot. Basically, if you're not a lion, you're not "good enough" for the pride lands. Remember the most impactful characters in Simba's life other than his father? Timone & Pumbaa! Yeah, it's like that relationship never existed and Simba is too good for the friends that quite literally saved him as a cub. Now that Simba's son is building friendships and a team with other animals (honey badger, hippo, cheetah, bird) it's unacceptable and not good enough for the King. Annoyingly, this is a huge problem but not the only one. The movie gives an almost makeshift 'Power Ranger' like feel, with each member of the Lion Guard getting mystical powers and symbols embedded in their fur, simply appearing out of thin air. There's many more issues, from Rob Lowe being a terrible choice to voice Simba, to the fact that the hyenas aren't fierce like they used to be, just a nuisance that are easily handled and chased by baby animals. I know this is a kids movie, but to look at the beauty of the Lion King and then this bastardized version of a continuation is just plain disappointing. Sad to say. 2/10

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• One Disappointed Lion King Fan

  meshjoy2015-12-05

  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.

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• Insulting (Minor Spoilers!!)

  thepinkpanther-765912015-11-30

  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

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• Just don't.

  afoxcalledcallie2016-03-12

  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).

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• They should have never done this

  bigblack20092016-04-05

  This series is an absolute abomination. Disney totally ruined their best movie/franchise by making this awful series with cheap animation, horrible voice acting, no-sense my-little-pony-themes and plots and more discontinuities with the main movie than the X-Men movies. The Lion King is by far my favorite movie and Simba is my favorite Disney character. They have both been disrespected and ruined by this no-sense cartoon. This is not The Lion King. The characters from previous movies are completely OOC or disrespected or doing pretty much nothing for all the episodes, the new characters are stereotypathed annoying children- cliché, there is not even half of the epicness from the original movie. Disney forgot that what made The Lion King so successful and beloved is the epic tone of the story and the characters. This is cheap-animation, not worthy anyone's time.

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