The King of Lions 1/2 (2005 animated film)

***The King of Lions 1/2***, also known as ***The King of Lions 3: In the Search of the Paradise*** outside of the North America, is a 2005 Japanese/American animated mockbuster film produced by CDS Communications and Starlight Studios and distributed by Piko Entertainment (now known as CDS Entertainment). It serves as a prequel/midquel to *The King of Lions* and a mockbuster of Disney's *The Lion King 1½* (2004). It is the third and final installment of *The King of Lions* trilogy and focuses on the escapade of Rodgy the Hornbill and his origins before, during and after the events of *The King of Lions*. The film thus revisits classic characters like Aiden, the Buzzards, Waylon as a cub, and Jazar.

The film is released on VHS and DVD on March 23, 2005 and is available at BP gas stations, unlike its predecessors (which were both exclusive to Shell gas stations). As of 2007, the film aired on CVS every Summer.

## Plot

Rodgy the Hornbill is watching the opening scene from the original *King of Lions* film and told the viewers why he weren't there at the beginning and fast-forwards to the part of the movie where he pops out of the hole to see Waylon (as a cub). He told the viewers that he never being in the movie until the tree-filled jungle scene. As Rodgy rewinds to the beginning of the film, he told the viewers about his backstory and how his life would be before the beginning of the first film.

Across from Lion Land is Hornbill Land, a place where only hornbills live. Rodgy is a young hornbill chick who is born with autism and is teased by many hornbills including his sister Judy. A week later, Rodgy is outside playing the game of "fly-catching", ignoring his father Rudy's warnings about the buzzards. Suddenly, Rodgy hears his mother Cindy calling dinner and goes in, telling her about how the buzzards gets their wings on hornbills. Months later, a now-adult Rodgy is assigned to a sentry to watch for buzzards. As Rodgy daydreams about his life living in a paradise, Cindy is nearly killed by the buzzards who were Jazar's minions. Upset by the presumed "death" of his mother, Rodgy is exiled by Rudy for not watching the buzzards, prompting him to find a buzzard-free paradise.

On his way to find a paradise, he met Nigel, a baboon who told him that the place beyond Lion Land is the buzzard-free paradise and advises him to "look what you find". Taking Nigel's advice, Rodgy observes Lion Land in the distance and ventures there that night. The next morning, Rodgy is overwhelmed by animals who celebrates the birth of Waylon. Due to his fear of crowd of onlookers, Rodgy escaped, passing by King Aiden, baby Waylon, Nigel (who mistakes Rodgy as a buzzard) and Queen Narla.

Following this, Rodgy makes several attempts to find a new paradise, but winds up being force away after witnessing several events from the first film, such as the elephant stampede caused by Waylon's "Eye of the Lion" used at the lion games and Jazar's conspiring with the buzzards. Eventually, he gets caught up with gunshots from unseen animal poachers that shot Aiden, and flew to the odd-looking tree in an attempt to escape.

Rodgy pauses the movie and goes to refill his soda drink at the fountain. Afterwards, he resumes the movie.

Rodgy is about to give up on his search until he discovers the jungle filled with waterfalls and lots of holes. He finally settles the jungle and calling it "paradise" and decided to sleep in the tree.

The next day, Rodgy met Waylon, who is a cub, in the jungle and is adored by his special "Eye of the Lion" power. Because of Waylon's power, Rodgy accepted him to live in the jungle for the rest of the cub's life.

Many weeks later, Lydia appears to reunite Waylon, who is now an adult after mistaking Rodgy as a buzzard. Believing Waylon's life is in danger, Rodgy had several attempts to sabotage Waylon and Lydia's dates, but fails every time. After causing the lions to finally break up, Rodgy heard Lydia telling Waylon that Jazar took over Lion Land and he wanted to return to get rid of him and the buzzards. Upset about Waylon returning to Lion Land (and mistaking Aiden's spirit as a hologram), Rodgy indulges himself in the jungle by himself, but loneliness started to overcome him. Nigel re-appears and is overjoyed that the paradise is indeed a jungle. Discovering about the true nature of the paradise, Rodgy takes off to Lion Land after Waylon and Lydia.

While helping Waylon to fight the buzzards and Jazar in the Lion Land, Rodgy met his parents Rudy and Cindy and his sister Judy at the hole. Rodgy tells his parents that he's helping Waylon to get rid of Jazar and his buzzards and forces his parents to dig a bigger hole with the help of his meerkat friends. At the same time, Rodgy uses various tactics to distract the buzzards (including imitating Waylon's roar) while the meerkats dig a bigger hole. Rodgy's imitation of the lion roar causes the buzzards to hit a tree branch and fell into a hole that the meerkats dug up just in time to betray Jazar and kills him. Waylon is hailed as a king of Lion Land, thanking Rodgy for his help. Rodgy takes Cindy, Rudy, Judy and the entire hornbill flock to the buzzard-free jungle paradise, where Rodgy is hailed as a hero.

Once the story finishes, Cindy, Rudy, Judy, Waylon, Nigel, and eventually many other CDS characters joined Rodgy to rewatch the film which tells the viewers about his fear of crowds.

## Characters

* **Rodgy** - A wise-cracking hornbill who is a main protagonist of the film and the son of Rudy and Cindy. He sets out to find a jungle paradise. He's autistic, causing any hornbill to tease him. He also served as a narrator of the film.
* **Cindy** - An overprotective mother of Rodgy who is often tried to accept his son to the lookout, but failed.
* **Rudy** - A father of Rodgy who doubts his son's disability.
* **Judy** - A sister of Rodgy who teases him about his disability.
* **Buzzards** - A flock of buzzards who served as the main antagonists in the film, despite that they only appeared in the beginning and in the climax. They act as enemies of the hornbills before their allegiance with Jazar.
* **Waylon** - A son of Aiden and Narla and a current king of Lion Land. As both a cub and an adult, he is Rodgy's best friend.
* **Lydia** - Waylon's childhood friend and future wife. Her cub self made a cameo in the "lion games" sequence of the film.
* **Nigel** - A baboon who teaches Rodgy about finding a paradise.

King Aiden and Jazar made cameo appearances in this film, but they never speak. Queen Narla was in the faraway cameo in this film, but she also never speak.

## Trivia

* Sound effects from *Super Smash Bros. Melee* are used in this film.
* This film ignores events from the *Rodgy's Adventure* episode "Rodgy the Hornbill Begins", which shares a similar backstory for Rodgy, but with a different plot.
* It is revealed that the buzzard leader's name of Vince Beleshmo Buzzard. It also revealed that Rodgy's full name is "Roger Harrison Hornbill".
	+ Rodgy is also called "Roger" by his oriental pied-hornbill girlfriend Dorles in the *Rodgy's Adventure* episode "Lore, Core, Singapore!".
* When one of the buzzards chases Cindy, Rodgy accidentally changes the channel to a Huell Howser BP Energy Commercial 2004 until he switches the channel back Cindy being seriously injured. Coincidentally, the VHS of the film is sold at BP gas stations.
* **Fractual error:** Rodgy wake up to find himself in the middle of the "elephant stampede at the lion games" sequence one day after he saw Waylon having just been born, which would've actually taken a place a week after then. Also, the Lion Land's home is shown to be very close to where the "elephant stampede at the lion games" sequences takes place. In the first film, this is not the case as the Lion Land home is nowhere in sight.
* **Another error:** Rodgy actually knew the buzzards in this film, eventually before Waylon's birth. In the first film, Rodgy didn't know the buzzards when Waylon (as the adult) tries to fight them.
* The working title for the film (as shown in the first advertisement) is called *The King of Lions 3*. However, Rodgy in the ad does not need a third film, and changes the logo to what it became *The King of Lions 1/2*. *The King of Lions 3* name is retained in countries other than in North America.
* On the Japanese cover of the film, Young Waylon's whiskers are missing. This was corrected in a 2017 Pearl Edition.
* When the film is first released on DVD, the advertisement for *Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness* is included before the film.
* If you look closely in Rodgy's room, there is a poster of a dog that says "Hey, Leon!". This is a reference to Leon the Dog.
* When Rodgy first greets Nigel by saying "What's Up Doc?", a sound effect of Bugs Bunny actually saying that phrase is heard.
* At the end, many CDS characters made guest appearances at Rodgy's home theater. The characters lists as follows:
	+ Rufus the Cat
	+ Pal the Dog
	+ Marcos the Mouse
	+ Cinderella and Prince Charming from *Cinderella* (1991)
	+ Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs from *Snow White* (1991)
	+ Princess Celeste and the Beast from *Beauty and the Beast* (1993)
	+ Chuto the Monkey from *Tarzan: Lord of the Jungle* (2000)
	+ Prince Aladdin and Princess Aisha from *Aladdin and His Magic Lamp* (1993)
	+ Lad the Golden Retriever, Mard the Bull Terrier and Nate the Cat from *The Incredible Journey* (1996)
	+ Zoom the Alien from *The Alien in Hawaii* (2003)
	+ Red, Granny and a wolf from *The Little Red Riding Hood* (1992)
	+ Pete (who crows like a rooster in this film) from *Pete the Entertainer* (1992)
	+ Peter Pan, Wendy, Tinker Bell and the Lost Boys from *Peter Pan* (1993)