Before Disney decided to make sequels for their animated movies large scale theatrical releases, the company was typically known for rapidly releasing animated sequels to DVD. Most of the legendary Disney animations from the last few decades got direct to DVD sequels in the 90s and 2000s, mostly seen by Disney fans as money grabs, broken only by more modern higher quality theatrical sequels like Frozen II, Ralph Breaks the Internet, and Moana 2. One of the most well known of the direct-to-DVD animated sequels from this era is Lion King 1 1/2, which tells the story of Timon and Pumbaa and acts as more of a spinoff of the original than an actual sequel. It took the basic premise of the successful Timon and Pumbaa cartoon series that aired from 1995-1999 and turned it into a feature length movie.
Lion King has seen a recent resurgence with both the live action remake in 2019 and the prequel Mufasa, coming out in just over a week. One of the largest selling points to the new Mufasa movie will be the music, which is being provided by Moana and Encanto‘s Lin-Manual Miranda. Miranda is most well known for his musical, Hamilton, but does not shy away from providing iconic music to classic Disney movies. Moana and Encanto have some of the most memorable Disney music of the last twenty years, and that comes courtesy of Lin-Manuel Miranda.
It looks like one of the reasons Miranda enjoys doing these movies is because he is a fan of the source material himself. While speaking to ComicBook.com, Miranda was open about which project he’d like to do next: Lion King 1 1/2. According to the composer, “I’m holding out for a live-action remake of Lion King 1 1/2. Because you know what, that’s the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of extended Lion King universe, and it’s low key great!” To be fair, Lion King 1 1/2 isn’t even low-key great. It’s kind of just great. The movie features Timon and Pumbaa in a theater, watching the events of the first movie and providing their commentary. It shows that Timon and Pumbaa were just off screen for a lot of the movie, and that Timon’s family of meerkats were pivotal in defeating Scar and the Hyenas. It did the whole fourth wall break thing before it was cool, and something like that would probably do very well with audiences today.
Miranda isn’t the only person who wants to see this, as Billy Eichner, the actor who plays the voice of Timon, also mentioned that he wants to see a Timon and Pumbaa led spinoff series opposite Seth Rogen as Pumbaa. He doesn’t mention Lion King 1 1/2 specifically, but this sounds a lot like either Lion King 1 1/2 or the Timon and Pumbaa cartoon series. Eichner also spoke with ComicBook.com and said, “I want a musical – why stop at shorts? Yeah, I love playing Timon, and I love working with Seth Rogen. I would do anything with Seth and these characters, it’s so fun to work with him, and when we’re in the studio it doesn’t feel that different than working on a more traditional live-action movie.” So while Eichner does not mention Lion King 1 1/2 or the Timon and Pumbaa cartoon specifically, that seems to be what he’s indirectly saying. Lion King 1 3/4, anyone?
So, what is the general take away from all of this? I think we will most likely be seeing a Timon and Pumbaa led project at some point (as long as Mufasa clears its budget), and my money is on some sort of spiritual successor to the Timon and Pumbaa cartoon show on Disney+, with the potential to spinoff into a Lion King 1 1/2 movie (at least that’s what I’d like to see). Eichner and Rogen are arguably two of the largest names in the voice cast and could easily carry a project, and if the popularity of both the cartoon show and the pseudo Lion King sequel tell us anything, it’s that you should be putting some respect on the Timon and Pumbaa names. Who knows, we might be well on our way to a Lion King extended universe, and as weird as that sounds I’m here for it – as long as the quality keeps up, and with some of the names attached to these projects I can’t help but feel confident my favorite Disney franchise is in good hands.
Do you want to see more Timon and Pumbaa? Would you rather see a movie or a Disney+ TV show? Sound off on our social media and don’t miss Mufasa, coming to theaters the 20th of this month!