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The Lion King 1½ poster

Movies that feel likeThe Lion King 1½ (2004)

Timon the meerkat and Pumbaa the warthog are best pals and the unsung heroes of the African savanna. This prequel to the smash Disney animated adventure takes you back -- way back -- before Simba's adventure began. You'll find out all about Timon and Pumbaa and tag along as they search for the perfect home and attempt to raise a rambunctious lion cub.

If you loved The Lion King 1½, the closest films we have are The Road to El Dorado (2000), Penguins of Madagascar (2014) and Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012). All three share The Lion King 1½'s epic and whimsical feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005).

🍅 76% Rotten Tomatoes★ 6.5 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Bradley Raymondepicwhimsicalwittyplayfulwarmcozy
9 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If The Lion King 1½ hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: The Lion King (1994) · The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998)

The Road to El Dorado poster
The Road to El Dorado
2000 · dir. Bibo Bergeron
🍅 49%★ 6.9family · adventure · animation

The same preoccupation in both: musical

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

Stowing away after a failed con, a pair of swindlers end up on El Dorado, the fabled "city of gold", where they quickly get in over their heads when they are mistaken as gods by the inhabitants.

Penguins of Madagascar poster
Penguins of Madagascar
2014 · dir. Simon J. Smith
🍅 74%★ 6.7family · animation · adventure

Both keep coming back to the same thing: spin off

Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private join forces with undercover organization The North Wind to stop the villainous Dr. Octavius Brine from destroying the world as we know it.

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted poster
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
2012 · dir. Eric Darnell
🍅 78%★ 6.8animation · family · comedyMax

One thread runs through both: lion

Animal pals Alex, Marty, Melman, and Gloria are still trying to make it back to New York's Central Park Zoo. They are forced to take a detour to Europe to find the penguins and chimps who broke the bank at a Monte Carlo casino. When French animal-control officer Capitaine Chantel DuBois picks up their scent, Alex and company are forced to hide out in a traveling circus.

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit poster
🍅 95%★ 7.5adventure · animation · comedy

Epic where it counts, whimsical underneath

Cheese-loving eccentric Wallace and his cunning canine pal Gromit run a business ridding the town of garden pests. Using only humane methods, which turns their home into a halfway house for evicted vermin, the pair stumble upon a mystery involving a voracious vegetarian monster that threatens to ruin the annual veggie-growing contest.

Flushed Away poster
Flushed Away
2006 · dir. David Bowers
🍅 72%★ 6.6adventure · animation · comedyNetflix

Witty and playful in the same breath

London high-society mouse, Roddy is flushed down the toilet by Sid, a common sewer rat. Hang on for a madcap adventure deep in the sewer bowels of Ratropolis, where Roddy meets the resourceful Rita, the rodent-hating Toad and his faithful thugs, Spike and Whitey.

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie poster
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
2004 · dir. Stephen Hillenburg
🍅 68%★ 7.2adventure · animation · comedyPrime VideoParamount+

The same mix in both: warmth, then comfort

The difference: Sits closer to fantasy than The Lion King 1½ does

There's trouble brewing in Bikini Bottom. Someone has stolen King Neptune's crown, and it looks like Mr. Krab, SpongeBob's boss, is the culprit. Though he's just been passed over for the promotion of his dreams, SpongeBob stands by his boss, and along with his best pal Patrick, sets out on a treacherous mission to Shell City to reclaim the crown and save Mr. Krab's life.

Mulan II poster
Mulan II
2004 · dir. Lynne Southerland
★ 5.7animation · comedy · familyDisney+

Both are built on the same subject: musical

Fa Mulan gets the surprise of her young life when her love, Captain Li Shang asks for her hand in marriage. Before the two can have their happily ever after, the Emperor assigns them a secret mission, to escort three princesses to Chang'an, China. Mushu is determined to drive a wedge between the couple after he learns that he will lose his guardian job if Mulan marries into the Li family.

Open Season poster
Open Season
2006 · dir. Jill Culton
🍅 48%★ 6.1animation · family · adventure

Adventure built on scale, twice over

Boog, a domesticated 900lb. Grizzly bear finds himself stranded in the woods 3 days before Open Season. Forced to rely on Elliot, a fast-talking mule deer, the two form an unlikely friendship and must quickly rally other forest animals if they are to form a rag-tag army against the hunters.

Asterix Conquers America poster
Asterix Conquers America
1994 · dir. Gerhard Hahn
★ 5.9family · animation · adventure

Animation with a pulse of whimsy, in both cases

When marauding Romans capture - and catapult - their pal Getafix into lands unknown, the shrewd and cunning Asterix and his able sidekick Obelix spring into action! But their journey leads them to a strange and dangerous new world, where they must face a tribe of Indians, a stampeding herd of buffalo and a medicine man with designs on their magic potion!

The Angry Birds Movie poster
The Angry Birds Movie
2016 · dir. Clay Kaytis
🍅 44%★ 6.3animation · adventure · comedyParamount+

Common ground: pig

An island populated entirely by happy, flightless birds or almost entirely. In this paradise, Red, a bird with a temper problem, speedy Chuck, and the volatile Bomb have always been outsiders. But when the island is visited by mysterious green piggies, it’s up to these unlikely outcasts to figure out what the pigs are up to.

Rio 2 poster
Rio 2
2014 · dir. Carlos Saldanha
🍅 50%★ 6.3animation · adventure · comedyDisney+

Witty comedy, and it commits to that

It's a jungle out there for Blu, Jewel and their three kids after they're hurtled from Rio de Janeiro to the wilds of the Amazon. As Blu tries to fit in, he goes beak-to-beak with the vengeful Nigel, and meets the most fearsome adversary of all: his father-in-law.

Horton Hears a Who! poster
Horton Hears a Who!
2008 · dir. Steve Martino
🍅 79%★ 6.8animation · comedy · familyNetflixMax

Both lean on play more than on family

An imaginative elephant named Horton hears a faint cry for help coming from a tiny speck of dust floating through the air. Horton suspects there may be life on that speck and despite a surrounding community, who thinks he has lost his mind, he is determined to save the tiny particle.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Lion King 1½’s defining feeling.