Tuesday, July 23, 2013

The Lion King 3: Hakuna Matata [G]


Far, far away from Pride Rock, Timon the meerkat wreaks havoc and creates disaster after disaster in his colony’s tunnel-digging regiment, trying desperately to fit in. When he’s put onto lookout duty, he realises that he doesn’t want to live underground in fear and worry. So he ventures out to find a new dream home, being guided by Rafiki the baboon who says that he needs to find hakuna matata. Along the way he meets his best friend Pumba the warthog and soon the two are blessed with another friend in Simba the lion… the rest of the story, we already know. 

In a nutshell, this movie is The Lion King, but told from Timon’s real estate point of view. Because Timon and Pumba were such classic comic characters together, they were late merited with their own movie about how their friendship started and although it harbours a few lovely and emotionally cute points (and I’m only saying this because I’ve had a few wines), ultimately this movie is tacky and a cheat’s flick. There’s no nicer way to say it really. 

Far, far away from Pride Rock, Timon the meerkat wreaks havoc and creates disaster after disaster in his colony’s tunnel-digging regiment, trying desperately to fit in. When he’s put onto lookout duty, he realises that he doesn’t want to live underground in fear and worry. So he ventures out to find a new dream home, being guided by Rafiki the baboon who says that he needs to find hakuna matata. Along the way he meets his best friend Pumba the warthog and soon the two are blessed with another friend in Simba the lion… the rest of the story, we already know. 

This is undoubtedly going to be the shortest review I’ve ever written. As I mentioned before, this movie is nothing more than The Lion King told from a lesser, more comic angle: at the perspective of the comic supporting characters. Every chapter of this film is dictated and indicated by memorable or iconic scenes or musical numbers from the first movie and, for the rest of the duration, it’s padded out with silly and haphazard bouts of writing and storytelling with tacky references to Apocalypse Now and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, which are the desperate attempt to engage an audience of various ages obviously. 
Admittedly, at the end of the day, there’s not much going for this film is there? I’ll let you in on a secret: I missed out on getting The Lion King before it went back into the ‘vault’ years ago and forked out $80 on the trilogy pack just to get the first film (we had it at work). That’s the only reason I have this in my collection. 
Featuring the voice talents of Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, Julie Kavner, Matthew Broderick, Moira Kelly, Robert Guillaume Cheech Marin, Jim Cummings, Whoopi Goldberg, and Jerry Stiller, The Lion King 3: Hakuna Matata is a typical and silly Disney milker movie that’s filled out with comedy, shoddy and cheap writing, morals, and just that little bit of nostalgia that pulls it though (the references to the first film that spark emotion). There’s not much more to say about it really, it was a reunion and a fun, silly movie to make. Kids will love it fine. 

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