The Lion Guard

"The Lion Guard" is an American animated television series developed by Ford Riley based off the 1994 Disney film, Mh:greatestmovies:The Lion King and it's squeal. The series was first broadcast with a television movie titled The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar on Disney Channel and Disney Junior on November 22, 2015 and began airing as a TV series on January 15, 2016 on Disney Junior and Disney Channel. It is the second television series to be based on The Lion King, the first being  Timon & Pumbaa. The Lion Guard is a sequel to The Lion King and takes place during the time-gap within the 1998 Disney film The Lion King II: Simba's Pride.

The second season premiered on July 7, 2017. A third season was commissioned in March 2017 and premiered on August 2019.

Why It Is The Circle Of Life

 * 1) It continues the story of mh:greatestmovies:The Lion King. It also later continues the story of mh:greatestmovies:The Lion King II: Simba's Pride.
 * 2) Full of action scenes.
 * 3) It has positive role models, like how Kion shows he's eager to learn, and he turns to his father and the spirit of his wise grandfather for guidance when he needs it.
 * 4) The show introduces kids to general environmental issues and the idea of conservation.
 * 5) There are a lot of positive messages, like when Kion learns that being a leader is more about reasoning and being open-minded that it is about physical strength, and he solves many problems with words rather than with might.
 * 6) Beautiful, fluid animation that almost rivals the movie series.
 * 7) Very catchy theme song. The full version is even catchier.
 * 8) Scar (the main antagonist from The Lion King) finally returned in Season 2 (as a spirit since he was killed), and he was still an intimidating villain.
 * 9) Likable and well-written new characters, such as Kion, Fuli, Beshte, Ono, Makini, Jasiri, Janja and Rani.
 * 10) Despite Bunga being especially annoying at times, no one can deny that his character design is just wholesome and cute. Let alone his baby design.
 * 11) *His voice in the Brazilian Portuguese dub is also very cute and charming, and a lot less annoying than his original version.
 * 12) It has lots of good songs like Sisi Ni Siwa, A New Way to Go, Tonight We Strike, Of the Same Pride, Panic and Run, Bird of a Thousand Voices, as well as more.
 * 13) The show teaches children to be tolerant of many kinds of people and to be aware of them. Additionally it teaches children to not to judge a person they have met because of their background.
 * 14) The voice acting is great.
 * 15) Deals with mature issues like death, for a preschool show. For example, Ushari was the first character to die onscreen in a Disney Junior TV series.
 * 16) It teaches facts about African animals, even unfamiliar ones such as Aardwolves.
 * 17) It doesn’t simply focus on only African animals, instead, it also focuses on Asian animals, like Mama Binturong. Even if no European animals are used, it’s still good the producers focus on animals outside of Africa.
 * 18) The series final Return to the Pride Lands was a good way to end the series.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Bunga's voice is especially annoying, flawed, and decisive in general; some of his decisions were rather mean-spirited as well.
 * 2) * Makucha from Season 3 is a weak and unlikeable antagonist.
 * 3) Simba and Kiara here feel rather different due to the devastating flanderization from how they were in the movies, although this is ensured to make Kiara less bland in terms of characterization. For example, Kiara seems like she'll enjoy being a future queen, something never once exhibited in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride.
 * 4) * Simba, went from a kind and helpful father who is very overprotective to Kiara from Kovu and Outlands, but they peace them successfully to a very pointless stereotypical over-caring father towards both Kion and Kiara. And guess what? It really happens from The Return Of The Roar that he scolds Kion ungratefully that he needs Ono, Beshte, Bunga, and Fuli as their incomplete guards! But he didn't do anything wrong in the movies.
 * 5) * Kiara, went from a calm and humble daughter to a stereotypical arrogant-like brat. When she bullies Kion because he's a boy it is sexist. However, she does redeem herself as the series goes on.
 * 6) Toilet humor courtesy of Bunga, though at least it makes sense since honey badgers fart/spray like that in real life.
 * 7) Some of the new designs (especially Simba), while decent, are pretty ugly.
 * 8) In the episode Timon and Pumbaa's Christmas, Bunga literally dabbed for a slight second, which could mean that the episode in question was trying to be hip and cool with the kids.
 * 9) Thurston the Zebra can be annoying at times due to how dumb he is.
 * 10) * Hafifu and Majinuni can be annoying as well.
 * 11) Many animals are depicted as antagonists simply for being predators or scavengers like hyenas, vultures, leopards, jackals, etc, a tiring trope that only harms the reputations of animals like these in real life though viewers still enjoys it.
 * 12) Some bad episodes like "Bunga the Wise", "Can't Wait to Be Queen", "Paintings and Predictions", "The Imaginary Okapi", "Beware of the Zimwi" (depending on your view), "The Savannah Summit" (depending on your view)", "Friends to the End" (the worst episode of the show), "The Tree of Life" and "Poa the Destroyer".
 * 13) Scar make the mistake of betraying the hyenas again (something that could be said that because of it caused his own death in both occasions).
 * 14) The flash animation it really looks like done by Ánima Estudios when they only focused in Las Leyendas movie franchise.