The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride

Well everyone, now we've come to one of the most fantastic Disney straight to video movies out there in my opinion and one of only two that I love, the Lion King 2: Simba's Pride. I think this is an absolutely fantastic movie and I love it a lot. Again, not perfect but still undeniably really fun and enjoyable and one of the best Disney sequels ever in my opinion. And I'm not just talking about the straight to video sequels, I mean in general. This is one of the only Disney straight to video sequels I have on DVD and I love to watch it a lot. And, no, not just because of the Lion Guard. But because I really, really love this movie. But first, what's the story? Simba and Nala have given birth to a little cub named Kiara. Years later when she's still a cub, she's just as energetic and playful as Simba was at that age. One day when she's off by herself she goes into the Outlands and meets another cub there named Kovu and they're having fun for a second until we meet his mother, Zira and her and Simba argue and both Kiara and Kovu are taken away.

However, now Zira has a plan. She was originally close to Scar and wants to get the Pride Lands back for him so she's going to use Kovu to pretend to be friends with Kiara so he can get close to Simba and kill him. Years later they both grow up and even Rafiki has a plan.

And then this happens.

But eventually Kovu and Kiara begin a real romance which causes bad things on both sides. I remember first hearing about this movie when I was a really young kid and watching A Bug's Life on video and this was one of the trailers before the movie. This is the trailer.

That trailer is sorta nostalgic for me, but I also remember watching it thinking I would really like to watch it and years later, I watched it and I loved it and I still do. I think I remember watching this when I was young at a friend's house and I think I have some memories of that. I can't remember exactly, I just said think there. But anyway, this movie is brilliant. Really great in my opinion. And I know what you might be thinking, "Well, Hunchback of Notre Dame 2 did the same thing and you hated that movie, so why do you love this movie so much?" Well, that is true, but here, it's just the execution of the story is so much better than Hunchback 2. And the characters, dialogue, animation, songs and writing are also a lot better. I already stated before that I think Kiara and Kovu are one of my favourite Disney partners or teams and maybe just characters of all time. I love these two. Simba, Nala, Timon, Pumba and all the returning characters are great again. But the other new ones are great too. Zira's a cool villain and so is Nuka and I really like Vitani as well. This animation is also fantastic, one of the best looking Disney sequels ever in my opinion. And I really love the songs too. There's only one I don't really like all that much, but besides that one, I love the rest. Listen.

I would think that He Lives In You is the most popular as I've heard. I'm also not one for romances or love songs, but both of those are fantastic here. I actually kinda believed the chemistry between Kiara and Kovu. And, again, I'm not just saying all this stuff because of the Lion Guard and stuff like that, I really do love this movie and think it's one of the best Disney sequels ever and one of the best animated sequels ever. I also love the movie's ending too.

But, as much as I love it, it's not perfect. It's close, but it's not and it's definitely not as good as the first Lion King. Firstly, there's that one song called Upendi which, is fine and is nice to listen to, but I don't know if I really like it all that much. And the second problem I have with it is that I feel some aspects of it are kinda similar to the first movie. But I don't know if I can say that that's necessarily a flaw. I love this movie and can't wait to see how the end of the Lion Guard ties into this one. As I said, maybe they'll remake this movie or something like that. So yeah, as you couldn't tell, I'm of course recommending that you go see this if you haven't already because it just might be my favourite straight to video Disney sequel along with another one that we'll get to soon. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below to tell me what you think.