Disney’s 1998 sequel sends Simba’s daughter into the Outlands and comes back with a decent movie about who gets to belong.
Trailer, via matt415263.
Kiara Grows Up Fast
The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride picks up the circle of life where the 1994 film left it. Simba and Nala have a daughter, Kiara, and she is as rebellious as her father was. When she wanders into the Outlands, she meets Kovu, a cub from an exiled pride that once answered to Scar. The two befriend each other. Their parents do not.
Darrell Rooney directs, from a script by Cindy Marcus and Flip Kobler. The film runs 81 minutes. It went out direct-to-video through Walt Disney Video Premiere on October 27, 1998, and it is the second installment in The Lion King trilogy. The plot borrows its shape from Romeo and Juliet, which is a fair description of two kids caught between feuding families.
Zira Trains an Assassin
The engine here is Kovu’s mother, Zira, voiced by Suzanne Pleshette. She leads the Outsiders, and she is secretly raising her son to kill Simba and take the throne. That is a sharper villain than the material around her can always carry.
Years later, Kovu rescues Kiara during her first solo hunt, after his siblings Nuka and Vitani set a wildfire. Simba lets him into the pride but stays suspicious. Kovu begins to reconsider the mission and tells Kiara he is not Scar’s actual son.
“The Circle of Life continues…”
Familiar Voices, One Notable Swap
Most of the original cast came back. Matthew Broderick returns as Simba, Moira Kelly as Nala, Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella as Timon and Pumbaa, Robert Guillaume as Rafiki, and James Earl Jones as Mufasa’s spirit.
Two roles changed hands. Edward Hibbert replaced Rowan Atkinson as Zazu. Jim Cummings took over Scar from Jeremy Irons. Neve Campbell voices Kiara, Jason Marsden voices Kovu, and Andy Dick plays Nuka.
Where the Movie Stalls
The animation came from Walt Disney Animation Australia, and it shows in the best sense and the worst. The Outlands have real menace. The songs and the middle stretch do not.
Rafiki leads the lions into the jungle and teaches them about upendi. It is a pleasant detour that stops the plot cold. A movie about two prides that cannot forgive each other should not need a musical number to remember what it was doing.
The Case for 6.7
The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride never draws the attention of its predecessor, and it was not built to. It was built to sell tapes, and it does that job with more care than most sequels of its era.
The Kiara and Kovu bond is the part that lasts. Two children inherit a feud they had no hand in starting, and the film lets them choose each other anyway. That is a real idea, told simply.
The problem is that Simba’s prejudice gets resolved too easily. He spends the film suspicious of Kovu, then the plot needs him to soften, so he does. Zira’s plot is the stronger thread, and it gets the weaker ending.
The Verdict on Pride Rock
This is a good movie for the age it was made for, and a thin one for anyone older. It earns its place in the trilogy without ever justifying one.
Key facts
– Release: October 27, 1998
– Runtime: 81 minutes
– Director: Darrell Rooney
– Writers: Cindy Marcus, Flip Kobler
– Rotten Tomatoes: 67%
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