The Lion King is out tomorrow and if it's a ritual of yours to watch all previous films in a franchise in preparation for the next, you've got a lot of work to do. You probably didn't realise there were THREE other Lion King films, did you?
First up there's the 1994 original, and most of you will have heard of the sequel Simba's Pride which was released in 1998. But six years later in 2004, The Lion King 1½ was brought to our screens.
Yeah, it's just been brought to our attention too!
The lesser-known movie, also known as The Lion King III: Hakuna Matata!, is actually a prequel/parallel movie which is essentially the original film but from Timon and Pumbaa's point of view, exploring how Simba's closest allies met.
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Timon, the black horse of his meerkat family, leaves his parents and meets Rafiki, who teaches him 'Hakuna Matata'. Later, Timon meets warthog Pumbaa and the pair head towards Pride Rock.
The duo's travels run alongside the events of the first movie and we get to see huge scenes from Timon and Pumbaa's perspective, such as Simba's ceremony at Pride Rock and the stampede that killed Mufasa (they were caught up in it just like Simba).
The movie went direct-to-video, just like Simba's Pride, but that's not to say it's bad film. In fact, critics gave it 76 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, a really good score considering Simba's Pride only got 43.
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The original got 97 percent, but there's never any point competing with that film now, is there?
You can watch the trailer for The Lion King 1½ here...
Fancy giving it a watch? Well far from having to scour charity shops for a dusty VHS copy, the film is actually available to watch now on NowTV and Amazon Prime.
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Any true The Lion King fan would be cancelling all evening plans as we speak...
Featured Image Credit: DisneyTopics: Entertainment News, The Lion King