This is my first movie review and I have very mixed emotions about this film. I understand that this is a film that several people worked tirelessly on and that it took a lot of their time, energy and passion into making this film. Expectations were already extremely high for this.

Pros: The stars of this film were the animators, the folly artists, the art department, the sound department etc. The "real life" animation was very appealing. The animators worked hard to make every detail and movement of the animals as life like as they could and how they drew from real life animal interactions. All of the people who worked hard to create this film deserve a lot of credit for their hard work. They should have been the ones promoting this film.

Cons: I have the same reactions as others here so I won't repeat what they have said but:

When I was younger and would watch a Disney or any animated film, my family and I would see a movie based on its story and the characters. We didn't know famous actors as children and we didn't care if one particular actor was in an animated movie or not. I still think that this rings true for my children today. They know of actors but they do not care who's in the film. Disney and other studios are choosing actors based on who they are rather than finding a better fit. As an adult I know who the actors are in this film and because I know who the actors are it took away from my experience. You can recognize their voices and reference them to another film/tv show/ etc. While all of the actors in this film are talented I believe in giving other actors an opportunity to showcase their talents and Disney like other studios continues to help make wealthy actors even wealthier. I think I would have focused more on the storyline had it been different from the first one if the animation had more facial expressions and if the actors were completely new. Furthermore Disney could have created more speaking roles for this film to add new character development and again give other an opportunity at employment. Disney makes a lot of money and as an adult I'm tired of feeling forced to watch a film with a certain actor or group of actors because of who they are. I think the enjoyment of movies for myself and family has been taken away over the years because Hollywood continues to use the same group of actors over and over again. Like in the Lion King the Lions of the film mattered more than the humble giraffe.