Review Time: this film is good
Fundamental elements: there are cultural
elements, background music, no subtitles when another language is being used,
slow-motion effects, mental imagery, interpreter elements, time jumps and place
jumps
Origin storylines/Storyline: these are
straightforward, but I have one problem with it, when did Timon & Pumbaa
have all these other friends? Sadly I may as well give you a heads up right now
this will not be the only time I will be discussing these two individuals in
one way or another in this review.
Artistic visions/Action sequences: the artistic visions be it on a visual level or musical number level
are really eye-catching, show great imagination as it relates to the musical
numbers [including the background music] and their visual interpretation of
each musical number. But they really did Pumbaa no favours whatsoever visually
[in fairness and balance this character has other issues as well,] so I am not
too sure if it is a mixture of those other issues and this one, which I will
discuss these other issues in the next section or if visually like I have just
said they have done him no favours whatsoever and what happened to the
legendary Mufasa cloud image it wasn't in this version?
On to the
action sequences; for one example I would just say this; they do the entire
antelope stampede sequence proud [that is all I can say about it because I
don't want to give too much away, yes I am sure at least 99.9% of you have seen
this tragic yet legendary sequence from the legendary and iconic The Lion King
1994 version, but as most of you should know by now I don't want to give too
much away or in this case I am trying not to give too much away regardless if
99.9% of you have seen it.
Character developments/Voice performances/Comedy level: just to give you a heads up this is where I'm going to be saying
things as they are; which basically means I am still going to put this review
across cleanly, but you will notice some differences so in short/straight to
the point everything before Timon & Pumbaa's entrance is comfortably excellent,
there is chemistry/friction between these characters [depending where you are
is depending what you get,] the voice performances on any level put across
these character developments, chemistry/friction and the comedy level which is
multipurpose [for this example Mufasa is teaching Simba the art of stalking his
prey and eventually the take down of his prey and the prey is Zazu [which he is
not aware of this lesson/practice] which in this one sequence it covers these
three points at the beginning of this paragraph perfectly.
The
characters/voice performances on any level from these fully grown or seemed to
be fully grown characters from the beginning of this title from Pride Rock to
The Elephant Graveyard really understand their characters which shows itself in
the chemistry/friction/comedy level as it relates to the hyenas throughout this
project. Even when Rafiki was making no sense or speaking another language or
something like this and I couldn't understand him in tiny elements, just to
cover my back I could be wrong about this; but if my memory is correct he was
well-known for doing this in the 1994 version as well [in human form he would
be like a medicine man/wise man.]
Timon &
Pumbaa I absolutely, strongly dislike these two versions of this legendary partnership,
there is nothing remotely likable about them I think I might have had a little
tiny laugh when they were enticing the hyenas but I think that was it.
Everything
about these two characters is just wrong, it's like someone had gotten their
legacy and smeared donkey diarrhea all over it, the character developments are
so wrong, like Timon is meant to be the crafty, opportunist which comes up with
most of the ideas [with sometimes taking some of Pumbaa's ideas as his own.]
Then we have Pumbaa which has gas problems, he is soft natured at heart, but
because of Timon's influence they often get into mischief or trouble he doesn't
overly like doing anything wrong, he tries to keep Timon on the straight and
narrow by nagging him, he is the muscle and don't call him "Pig"
because he will get angry I will use a little bit of Pumbaa's speech from the
1994 version "They call me Mr. Pig"
[even though they completely and utterly messed this up in this version]
they are in human form individually social misfits, but with their
personalities/chemistry/comedy it creates a perfect equilibrium between these
two characters for them to use with one another and whomever they come in
contact with, but I have one more point to make that they had a self-titled
spin-off TV program from 1995, so as you can see/read they are or were really
popular in their own rights and what I remember they explored this relationship
in this TV program amongst other things as well [or I think so it was in the
1990's but something is telling me in my memory they did this kind of thing in
this TV program but just to cover my back again apologies if I have gotten this
wrong, but what I can clearly remember is it was lots of fun.]
But these
versions are [do I really have to talk about these two characters/voice
performers] yes I am still going to be professional, but it is absolutely heart
wrenching to see how poor they are [yes before you say it; I have been doing
this kind of thing for many, many years so I have come to expect that these
versions possibly weren't going to be as good as the original versions of
them.]
But having
said that it would have been good if they were in a similar ballpark to the
original versions not miles and miles away from one another and if you are
wondering how many miles are they a part from one another, well let me put it
this way 2.7 billion miles [this is when
Neptune and the Earth are lined up on the same side of the Sun, yes I
researched this;] and this figure would just about cover the distance between
these two versions of these characters and no this is no exaggeration.
They are
self-serving, their chemistry isn't there, meaning the chemistry between these
two is there, I could see it and it ranges from poor to painful to watch which
makes it really surprising when they go to help Simba [yes I know this is what
they are meant to do,] but because of their character developments/chemistry
being what they are and not progressively changing [may be a small bit
something like a pinch of salt when they are singing about three becoming two,]
but other than that they haven't done the leg work between these two characters
or trio throughout the years to make it natural or believable that Timon &
Pumbaa would do this. I know I have said something to this effect once before
in this review but it was absolutely heart wrenching and incredibly difficult
to see what these two characters have been reduced to consequently it effects
this trio of not having a strong bond or basically being like family [two
uncles and a nephew] and these two performances are poor on any level and that
is me being nice [so as I have already referenced to this; if Pumbaa had
something more closer to his original personality if I could maybe overlook how
they have made him look in this project, I just don't know and this is just
speculation at this point because I have no way of finding this out, but as you
should be able to tell by now I am so not impressed on how these two iconic
characters have turned out] and whilst I'm on the subject their friends
characters may as well not be in this project they do absolutely nothing in
this title to make a positive impact, which I have just realized, these
characters/voice performances are in essence a contradiction on what Timon
& Pumbaa are preaching to Simba, briefly about looking after yourself and
no one else, so if this is true what are these friend characters doing here? If
it should happen that there are some people out there in Internet land that
don't see these characters as friends, you are firstly more than welcome to
have your own opinion but if these characters are not friends, why are they
eating with Timon & Pumbaa and secondly being in a musical number with them
if they were not friends?
On to the
characters/voice performances which we can see have grown in this project the
voice performances feel like they are doing their job, but in fairness and
balance they can sing.
This film receives: 7/10, I don't know
what to say here because even though this mark from a scale of 1 to 10 is
reasonably high obviously, from where it starts to where it finishes, this film
had the potential to be so much more, I really didn't feel the same about this
title after Timon & Pumbaa's entrance, I must stress it isn't just them,
but they are the key point where and when this film slips down the marks, you
couldn't get much more worse than these two versions of these two legendary
characters, so after this section this project stabilizes at this mark, now I
have seen this film the way I feel about it isn't going to change, so if I had
the choice I wouldn't watch it again [meaning if I was in a date situation or
something to this effect or somehow I lost this review,] I would watch it again
but other than that no.
Last updated: Friday 26/07/2019
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