The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998, VHS)

This video starts off with the usual previews and immediately goes into the story with fast paced action. The music is great and I turn the volume up while my five-year old points out the various animals in the Pride Lands waiting for the appearance of the new cub. There are deer, elephants and zebras along with the lions.

Lion King II Simba s Pride is about the journey through the circle of life for these animals. There are funny parts in the movie with Timon and Pumbaa, the characters that we have seen from their cable show on the Disney channel.

Prior to buying the video a few years ago we had not seen the original Lion King video. The movie was easy to follow without prior knowledge of the first part. The original movie is no longer available so we rented it a few times from a video store.

Kiara is the daughter of Simba who is the King of the Pride Lands. Kiara plays around and meets up with a male cub Kovu, who is the chosen one to be the next leader by Scar. The storyline of Scar and Simba would be found in the first movie.

Simba s Pride is a movie that was made for video only. The animation is superb with the sounds of the lions roar first rate. The sibling rivalry between Kovu and his older brother who constantly refers to Kovu as a termite is funny and pathetic at times.

While viewing this video you will learn the plans of the Badlanders who feel like outsiders and see Simba as the one who killed Scar their leader. At first the two cubs were playing around in the water being chased by Crocodiles and they realize who the other is once they get out of the water.

Their parents fight and then the plan is hatched to have Kovu friends with Kiara to get to Simba and take him down from the throne. At the same time Rafiki is talking to the Mufassa through the clouds and learns that the plan is for the two cubs to be together. This part here I was not clear on but I would think this has to do with not having the first video available to see how these are in that one.

Kovu is then in training with his mother and brother to learn how to get to Simba, the enemy. The mother sings a song about her plans while the next scene is showing Kiara leaving the pride to test the waters for her hunting skills alone. Simba tells Timon and Pumbaa to watch her from afar without her knowing.

Kiara starts her hunt watching some deer and ends up running too slow. Then she sees a fire beyond and gets stuck. Kiara gets dragged to safety arriving at the Pride Lands. She then realizes it is Kovu who helped her and complains that she does not want to go back just yet.

Simba then arrives and learns that Kovu saved his daughter s life and must follow Royal protocol so he now owes Kovu a debt. Kova also stood up to Simba asking why he should pay for a crime he never committed.

Kova then says he will teach Kiara how to hunt with a lesson at dawn the next day. Just at the time he is about to jump Simba, the daughter arrives ready for her session. She breathes too hard and learns how to relax and feel the earth with her paws.

The two come upon Timon and Pumbaa in the area trying to fight off some birds to get to some food. The lions roar and the four of them have fun running around until the Rhinos chase them away into a cave. Kovu then learns about having fun and not having all things being a lesson.

The video continues with the two of them getting to know each other and their parents not wanting this friendship to develop. There is a flashback scene that shows Simba with his Dad and Scar with the face of Scar changing to Kovu.

There are five songs in Lion King II Simba s Pride with drama and excitement in each one of them. It is a great story of getting along and letting go of old battle scars.

The story line has the siblings, parents, and the young ones all developing relationships within the Pride Lands along with the silly antics of Timon and Pumbaa.

The movie will lift you up making you want to turn up the volume and tap your feet as well as sitting on the edge of your seat. It is truly entertaining for me as an Adult with my 4 and 5 year-olds enjoying most of the scenes as well. If you are familiar with the characters from the Disney show this is easy to understand. I feel you do not miss that much without having seen the first movie prior to this one.

Some of the voices behind the animals are Nathan Lane for Timon, Matthew Broderick as Simba and Robert Guillaume as Rafiki. There are seventy-five minutes to this video making it seem kind of long during some scenes.

This movie is best suited for the whole family the first few viewings to get a feel for the parts that might be questionable for children under three or four. My children have been watching this with me for at least two years now.

We do not watch this video regularly, I save it for a monthly viewing as the length and intensity of the movie might be too much for frequent watching with my two children. My five-year old plays with his lion animal figures while viewing Lion King II Simba s Pride . He likes to have them imitate what is happening on the video and try to kill the Zebras and deer.

This is a great movie to have for your video collection. It is worth purchasing this movie through a video club, local video store or on-line.