Just Saw The New Lion King/Guard TV Movie Thing

6 min read

Deviation Actions

Monkey-Scientist's avatar
Published:
3.7K Views
"We'd like to assure you no fooling, red meat is no longer our scene! If now and then we're seen drooling, it's only AN ANCESTOR'S GENE!"
-Hyenas from the unused reprise of "Be Prepared" from Lion King 1

Believe it or not, I'm not that big of a fan of that "Lion Guard" show airing on Disney Jr. I love Lion King, but it's clear that this show is made for like 3 year olds and is just really bland. I'm not saying its bad, it'll entertain it's target demographic that's for sure. Still, not a huge fan of the series. Despite this, I got hyped when I heard they were doing a second TV movie called "Return of Scar". I loved Scar in the original Lion King, he was a great villain! So, I went into this TV movie with fairly high expectations.

So, what did I think of it? It was okay. Nothing spectacular, but far more entertaining than pretty much the entire series up to this point. So, the film introduces two characters: Some snake dude who's name I can't remember and a mandrill named Makini. As you can tell, I'm a huge fan of Makini! There isn't enough monkey / baboon / ape girls in media, so seeing one here was definitely refreshing. I also like how she's talkative and happy-go-lucky, it made her strangely entertaining. Surprisingly enough, she never really annoyed me that much. Which is good, because this movie is BASICALLY ALL ABOUT HER.

In this 50 minute film, Makini has the most screen-time out of any character! This film should have just been called "Rise of Makini", since Scar only shows up for a little bit. So yeah, time to get into SPOILER TERRITORY! Though I know few people will probably care about spoilers for Disney Jr. TV movie. XD

SPOILERS ANYWAY



This film revolves around Rafiki getting a new apprentice, the aforementioned Makini. You see, Rafiki's getting up there in age, so he finds this baboon girl to take his place when he kicks the bucket (which won't be until after Lion King 2, so he at least 3-5 years left in him) So, while Makini is being brought into the royal family, this snake dude shows up and has had enough of Kion's sh**. So, he teams up with the hyenas (lead by Janja) in order to bring back Scar AS A GHOST! Yes, they pretty much stole this story from Kingdom Hearts 2, which also had Scar come back as a ghost. So I know what you're thinking, "Oh cool, Scar in is this movie!"

Well... Yes and no. Scar is in this movie... For about a minute of screen time. They summon Scar's Ghost AT THE VERY END OF THE FILM! He only has two lines, which were voiced by some other voice actor. I get that Scar's original actor would've been expensive to get in, but you seriously couldn't bring him back to record two stinking lines? So yeah, Janja orchestrates this huge plan by kidnapping Kiara and luring Kion in, and tricking him to use his roar. This triggers a volcanic eruption that resurrects Scar.

The surprising thing is that despite the incompetence of the main villains, they are somehow able to resurrect Scar without anyone being the wiser. Sadly, Scar does not sing a respire of "Be Prepared" when brought back as a ghost. If they did that, then I probably would've been able to forgive his lack of screen-time. Also, why is it the hyenas bringing Scar back? Yeah, I know that not all the hyenas were involved in Scar's death, or that they even knew about it. Still, shouldn't they have at least known how incompetent of a ruler Scar was? All he did was sit on his furry butt all day and then whine about how he's the king when the complaints started rolling in.

At least Scar did a decent job of leading the hyenas, which is probably what Janja is counting on. While it's cool that Scar is back, I really wish we actually got to see more of him. We have to wait until next week to see more Scar, which is all kinds of lame. Disney is again showing how evil they can be, as this whole film was really just a "ratings trap". They advertise Scar being in it in order to drum up attention from hardcore fans, and then sideline you by barely showing Scar.

Though, I have to at least give credit that they were foreshadowing this event since the beginning of the series. Since, if you go back and watch the first TV film that aired before the series began, you'll notice something you may have never seen before. One painting in Rafiki's cave depicts an event of Scar's ghost rising up from a volcano, which is what happens in this film! That's kind of cool, and it's also something I missed the first time around. Believe it or not, for a show for three year olds, this series has a lot of lore, character deaths, and little tidbits that you may miss.

SPOILERS OVER

So yeah, that was Lion Guard: Rise of Scar. Was it good? Kinda sorta. It's not terrible, but you can tell that Disney was really trying to win people over. Lion Guard is going into its second season and most of its audience are kids who grew up with the films and previous cartoon show. I'd have to give this film 6 :icon98sparkz:s out of 10. It's decent, but it's nothing spectacular. If it wasn't for the adorable baboon girl and the promise of Scar, I probably wouldn't have bothered watching this. I'm just hoping that actual stuff is done with Scar and that maybe we get a story arc or two in the future.
© 2017 - 2024 Monkey-Scientist
Comments45
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Vee-the-Best-Waifu's avatar
Random, only partially related question:
What are your thoughts on the actual Lion King 2: Simba's Pride?
From what you say, I would think it at least was better than the Lion Guard stuff.