When it comes to bad kids movies, we often regard "Foodfight" as one of the best of the worst but we are always open to more feats in sickening animation and this film, "Leo The Lion," is certainly up there. The animation looks like a game from the late 90s that isn't rendered properly and this is really notable considering the movie was made only four years ago. It is genuinely difficult to watch. And about twenty minutes in we got another reason to want to run: it's a musical. They really waited to drop that bomb until we couldn't back out, particularly since the film is barely an hour and twenty minutes. After writing the "Descendants" post I realized that whenever a music number comes up in a Bollywood movie, we get excited, but whenever a music number comes up in any other kind of movie, we scream. Also, unrelated to the film, this marked the return of Grandma! She's feeling better and is now significantly more cyborg than she was last time.
The plot of "Leo The Lion" reads kind of like a ripoff of "The Lion King" except without any of the well-structured plot, tension, or developed characters. Leo is a lion who is a vegetarian. This isn't super important except for you to know that he's harmless and that the film is totally against that "circle of life" stuff that was so important in "The Lion King." Leo's mom drowns right away and Leo makes friends with a pregnant elephant named Savanna, which has to be the most confusing name ever when you live in the savanna. Savanna is queen after her husband (who she calls "daddy"; we all had to kinkshame an elephant) got curb stomped by the White Elephant, but they think he got taken to the zoo. She gives birth to two elephants conjoined at the tail and mother and children get separated in a fire. Leo and his Uncle Lope, the antelope, have to care for the babies and a bunch of other lost young animals and they adventure to somewhere. Leo is looking for "the heart of the jungle" but they end up meeting a magical chameleon who shows him that it's actually inside his heart . . . and also a hidden grotto or something. White Elephant sings a villain song complete with goose-stepping elephants. Leo, Lope, and babies leave the "heart" to find their mom. Final battle with Leo triumphing. Leo confusingly marries Savanna and they have unholy hybrid children. Then he sings about being a vegetarian in what should have been an introduction song.
This movie is more painful than funny but we did get a few laughs from things I mentioned in the plot description. We were also disappointed to find that the film used to have really incorrect subtitles on Netflix but they seem to have fixed them. The movie was made by an Italian company and the "heart of the jungle" was originally translated as the "Lake of Milk." Apparently, Leo isn't a vegan.
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