zacharychitwood The show itself doesn´t look terrible but it doesnt look great. It completely changes the characters of Kiara and Simba. But there are a few stand out moments. Such as any of the three episodes with Jasiri (voiced by Maia Mitchell), Jasiri is a friendly, sassy, clever, kind-hearted and overall a very likable character. But overall the show is mediocre because it messes up the first 3 Lion King movies.

kristynapokorna As a big fan of The lion king franchise, I was pretty excited when I found out that Disney is planning to release TV series based on The lion king. However, I was quite shocked by the drop of quality and most importantly, depth of the story in TLG. Of course, let me tell you that I'm aware that a TV show has much smaller budget than a movie, so it basically has no chance of being as good as the original movies, but still, I did expect more in terms of visual appearance and story.Now, the first thing that sucks here is the animation and design. The characters look flat, their bodies look weird and their movement is unnatural. Just look at Simba's feet - his toes don't move at all and when he runs, he looks like he wears shoes. Also, they should tone them down in terms of color - they seem too unnaturally bright.Now the characters. It is true that most of the lion guard members just seem to be pulled out of thin air when Kion assembles his guard. Kion's character seems too blunt for me as a protagonist. Bunga, even though he is supposed to be the funny dude here, is too reckless and teaches kids that being brave means putting your life at risk by jumping from cliffs and trees - not only that this is the total opposite of the first movie, where Mufasa explains to Simba that being brave doesn't mean you go looking for trouble and sadly, children tend to repeat the actions of their cartoon heroes which can end up in hurting themselves. It is also very disappointing to see them change the personalities of the original characters. Simba, in lieu of being overprotective like in the second movie, seems like he doesn't care about his kids at all, especially about Kion in Return of the Roar - he acts like Kion is just an accident, Nala barely does anything and so does Timon and Pumba,and Kiara? She is completely different. Seriously, the second movie was based on Kiara being annoyed by having to become a queen and she wanted go on adventures, while here, she is a weak snob who is proud of being the next queen accompanied by her even more snobby friends. Yuck! Plus the villains are pathetic. I never get why Janja and his pack keep on hunting in the Pridelands. Why would they over hunt? If the franchise follows the idea of the circle of life, they should integrate the fact that animals (yes, even hyenas) never kill prey just for fun. And if Janja does, then why? If he just hunts there because he is hungry, then I don't see the reason why Kion keeps on chasing him out the Pridelands. Just because he is racist ( you and your kind are not welcome, ever - really??) and the hyenas are just evil for no reason and need to be defeated? Wow. Despite this, I do like Fuli and Ono. Beshte doesn't really do anything.In terms of the story, it is much more shallow than the movies and pretty nonsense at some points. So, we basically have a group of baby animals with superpowers who run around the Pridelands and defeat every villain like nothing - that just makes it really shallow and unnatural when the original story rather follows the laws of nature. Also, the series states for multiple times that the Pridelands will be defenseless without Kion and his group of baby animals. Just come on! How can a group of babies (even with superpowers) be the only ones who can protect a whole pride of adult lions?! Does Simba really need is cub to protect him from villains that he banished before Kion was even born? I know the guard is supposed to be important, but this is just ridiculous. Maybe it would make more sense if Kion became the leader of the guard when he is older - Kiara will also become a queen when she is an adult. This makes as much sense as if Kiara became a queen while she was still a cub. I too don't understand the whole magical roar/cutie mark business. In the original story, there is no magic at all, it doesn't defy the laws of nature in this sense at all. According to my opinion, adding magic to the story wears down it's depth by a lot and makes it seem more like a cheap fairy tale. OK, I maybe get they wanted to make the show more cool by adding the roar, but cutie marks? Seriously? They don't even do anything and I have no clue why they included this nonsense in the series.Overall, this thing has some positives, like some of the characters, concepts ( the LG itself isn't a bad idea, they just didn't integrate it well) and catchy songs, but I think it could have been done way better, as it feels pretty cheap and shallow compared to the rest of the franchise and kind of melts away the original emotional depth. It just lacks the feel and impact the movies leave in me. It also doesn't fit the canon. Kion was never part of the story and it just makes things confusing. In their place, I would put the series in the time gap during the second movie, focusing on Kiara's childhood, her potential friends (Ono? Fuli?) and adventures (more secret meet-ups with Kovu?).

kcmatter When I heard the news, I squealed like a little girl and counted down the days until its release; the beloved characters of the hit movie "The Lion King," along with its sequel "The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride," have returned to the television screen in a brand new adventure: "The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar." As a major Lion King fan, having watched it a million times as a little two year old girl to the point that I wore the VHS tape out and my mother had to buy a new one, I was extremely excited by the news and very eager to watch it with my own daughter when it came out. And when it finally did, I was very pleased with what I saw.Meet Kion- younger brother to the future queen, Kiara, and son of Simba and Nala. He is a confident, fun-loving cub who is much less of a rule-breaker than his father was; he enjoys hanging out with his best friend Bunga, a rather peculiar looking honey badger. Kion develops this magical ability called 'the roar of the elders'- which allows him to roar with such ferocity that he can send his enemies flying and clear the leaves from a grove of trees. It is after he uses his roar for the first time that he is told of the lion guard, a group of lions who defend the Pridelands and the Circle of Life with the leader being the one who develops the roar. The young lion doesn't realize his father meant for him to recruit only other lions, so Kion goes and brings in a group of his other animal friends from around the Pridelands to form the lion guard. He brings in Bunga as the bravest, Fuli the cheetah as the fastest, Ono the egret as the keenest of sight, and Beshte the hippo as the strongest. While his father doesn't approve at first, Kion and his friends manage to convince him otherwise through a demonstration of their skills while facing the movie and show's main villains: Janja the hyena and his clan. From there- the lion guard continues to defend their home and livelihood against Janja and many other new enemies in the Disney Junior television show that followed a few months later, while also making many new friends along the way.While there have been many complaints for both the movie and television show by many of the hardcore fans of "The Lion King," I personally believe this show to actually be pretty decent in comparison to other shows within the same targeted demographic. The background art is superb and the animation for most of the animals are absolutely wonderful compared to other shows; I do however feel that the animation for certain well known characters- such as Simba, Nala, Rafiki, Zazu, Timon, and Pumba- is not nearly as well done as other characters and the lions themselves feel to be a little sloppily done at times in comparison to the well-drawn, non-lion animals. I especially like the amount of effort put into the animation of Janja and the hyenas, along with the hippos, crocodiles, giraffes, and many other non-lion animals in the show. I don't just watch the show with my daughter for the animation of course- the stories, music, and messages the show provides young children are pretty decent as well.I've enjoyed the majority of the episodes that have aired to date. My personal favorite is actually the very first episode of the television series: "Never Judge a Hyena by Its Spots;" this episode takes Kion out into the outlands without the rest of the lion guard, where he meets a female hyena by the name of Jasiri. She helps him through the outlands and in the process the two characters become friends; of course- it takes a little time, danger, and a cute musical number to finally get to the point of friendship. The song for this episode also happens to be my favorite song so far, follow closely by the song sung by Beshte in "Follow That Hippo!" While I do like some of the songs, there are a few that I'm not a big fan of- such as the "Please Don't Make a Stink" song in "The Rise of Makuu" and "Bunga the Wise" as found in the episode with the same namesake. Regardless, most of the songs are a hit in our household- my daughter especially loves the funky, colorful animation during the songs sung by Janja and his clan.One of the things that really peaks my interest in this show as a major lion king fan is the background stories and plot hole fillers the show is providing; in the movie, it is explained that Scar was once the leader of the lion guard who lost his roar when he used it for evil to destroy the other members of his lion guard when they refused to help him dethrone Mufasa. In the television show, Nala's father was briefly brought up in a short story from when he was a cub in the episode: "Painting and Predictions." All in all, despite a few shortcomings in the animation department and a couple hit-or-miss songs, I believe "The Lion Guard" to be a worthy precursor to the previous two movies. It makes me happy to see that my daughter will get to grow up with a whole new generation of "The Lion King" characters- just like I got to grow up with the original movie. What great timing on Disney's part to release this new movie and television show during a time that "The Lion King" generation is raising children of their own. Now to wait for the next episode to air so my daughter and I can cuddle up on the couch together and sing and dance to the newest song.

David Bythewood (windthind) I loved the Lion King when it came out, but I've never lost sight of the simple fact that its story is extremely biased and human-centric: lions good, hyenas bad. This is purely based on human views of the two animals and not at all on their behavior or society. In the wild, hyenas have a complex pack culture dominated by females where, in hard times, they still look after the young first. They are not just scavengers but alpha predators; however, because of their appearance and sound, we revile them. Lions, on the other hand, can be pretty cowardly and callous, and in hard times have been known to kill their cubs to survive, yet are held up as grand and noble beasts based purely on their appearance.So here we are again with more of the same. Pretty, 'fun' animals good: check. The heroes are a lion, a honey badger, a cheetah, a hippo, and some variety of insect-eating bird. Never mind that hippos are notoriously aggressive and rather disgusting animals, and one of the most feared creatures in Africa.Ugly animals bad: check. So far the antagonists we have seen include the hyenas, a vulture, and a crocodile. At least in the original movie we had a bad lion and a good warthog (and Poombah is still around, but I think he falls on the side of 'gross is funny').Also, the Lion Guard consists of five members, only one of which is female, and the leader is naturally male even though it is a female character, his sister, being groomed for leadership. Well, okay, at least his sister is being groomed for leadership, but another female lion cub acted like a stereotypical girl, whining over a broken claw, bugs, and every other little thing, and the sister just had to hurt herself and be rescued.Oh, and we get casual racism. Simba chastises his son for even thinking of bring non-lions into his Lion Guard. Though the son's decision is eventually vindicated and upheld, this was a very disappointing thing to see from Simba, a character who should know better after his long associating with a certain warthog and meerkat duo.There's also a lot of music, at least in the pilot. We get a song that is clearly meant to be a successor to Hakuna Matata without really explaining much, and a lot of other songs featuring quite a few trite lyrics that go well with the trite dialogue when they're not singing. The songs and dialogue both seem to rely a lot on repetition to make their points. There's also the frequent scattering of catch phrases throughout; each character seems to have their own African, or perhaps pseudo-African, catchphrase or phrases, which they use with great regularity.Ultimately, I am unimpressed. This show goes to great lengths to hit all of the old clichés. I could practically just run down a checklist of them. In fact, I believe I just did.