Lion King Extras Discussion

[Luke]

Of course I just wrote out a really long, detailed opinion of the TLK extras I've watched so far...but it's all gone, naturally, because I was like a sentence away from wrapping up. Let me try again in not so detail.

Okay, so we've all been bitching for months now about how lame the Lion King extras were going to be, from the press release to the website reviews...and now most of us have gotten the disc and probably gotten to check out some of the extras.

So what do you think?

Here's where I put some of my observations.

1) The features don't even run as long as the booklet says. "Reflections" ran just over 5 minutes (the book says 6:21), "Disney & Animals" ran 5:45 (book says 6:30). That's just a bad sign there - that they have to pad the running times of the extras there.

2) It all reaks of promotion. I can deal with all the music videos ending with a "Available on this CD message", but even the featurettes themselves are just like ads. The whole "Animal Kingdom" featurette(s? I think there might be more than one) runs like a corporate video. Even the "Virtual Safari" thing (which looks like it cost about $80 to create) has to say "future Virtual Safaris on Lion King II and Lion King I 1/2." "Reflections" is the closest thing to a real featurette on the film, and it's so short and says so little.

I find it amazing that Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Moira Kelly, Ernie Sabella, etc. would have the time to voice the direct-to-video sequels but couldn't sit down for a few minutes to talk about what the film means to them, their experience, etc.? And where are the directors? Actually, I believe they left Disney, and so they apparently can't lend insight to the film.

While I think most of us felt that "Beauty and the Beast" lacked the kind of depth and detail of the "Snow White" extras (and some of that was just due to the lack of a history to such a recent film)...at least there was some semblance of a making-of documentary, even if it was just editing scattered little featurettes and interspersing Celine Dion with them. There doesn't even seem to be that, from what I've seen. Admittedly I have more to go through, but I really don't expect to be surprised.

Everything here is either promotional or our favorite target here - FLUFF - or it already existed on the laserdisc and was just ported over.

And then there's the layout - everything is listed in a bunch of places and is confusingly-arranged so as to make you think there's more here than really is. And there's not. There's less, it seems.

It really disappoints me that Disney knew that they could sell X number of copies of The Lion King simply by making it seem like they'd have a lot of great content (including some stuff that isn't even there *ahem*original theatrical cut*ahem*).

I know we expected fluff, but anyone else quite bummed by this. Is there any really good stuff I should check out to turn me around and see that there is some actual MAKING-OF here?

Sorry for rambling...it was worded better last time and I friggin lost it all. Anyhow, thoughts?

P.S. Anyone else notice the original crocodile shot in one of the Elton John music videos. I'll always notice that now.

[disneyfella]

i have to agree, somewhat. when i popped in the first disc and saw a series of special features i was like, "wow, if they have this many special features on the first disc (i.e. deleted scenes and all), imagine the content on the second disc!" when i started to search through the second disc i, as well, got lost in the series of viewing modes which were no where near as clearly as explained as in the B&B or Atlantis discs (set up in the same featurette manner). also, the presence of such fluff and lack of galleries started to get me angry. i really wanted to see interviews with the people most directly involved in the film (i.e. the voice actors, the directors, the original animators, etc.) and only got to see a bunch of peter schneider, and don hahn (who are cool enough guys, but seriously we want the voice actors stuff.....like matthew broderick behind a microphone). i, however, really really liked the virtual safaris thing and enjoyed the audio promo for the lion king 1 1/2 and lion king 2 dvds on the under construction site. overall this, IMO, is NOT platinum quality with respect to snow white. honestly, Atlantis Collector's Edition was perhaps the most Platinumesque dvd since Snow White that disney has released ( I still can't get a copy of the Tarzan Collector's Edition so I'm not sure how that one is). Also, i haven't quite finished the dvd either, but am a bit more happy with the morning report sequence than i anticipated (i STILL don't like the simba singing voice). i take it as don hahn said in the B&B platinum, "It's kind of like the Special Edition of Star Wars" though and enjoy it for what it is. now it's back to the dvd and see if there isn't something of historical substance on there.

[Lady]

maybe it is just me but the extras on this one seemed more kid-friendly, which goes back to disney's roots. i'm just grateful these discs come with extras at all. i would have liked to see a "making of" documentary as well though.

[ZOOMBOOM0688]

I liked disc 1 is was okay a first sort of confusing. the games were uhhhh...boring they are good for the first time but not replayable (is that a word) i liked the personality quizes in all of the disneyDVDs and this one was better then the BATB DVD one. the deleted scenes were "okay" too i just liked the hakuna matata one.

Disc 2: was weird I didn't like the contenets thing it was a good idea but they all had the same features reapeating over and over:roll:. Maybe the should of had like ASIA:The story AFRICA: The film somthing like that. I'm glad there was stuff about the stage show . I agree that there was alot of advertizing like the Animal kingdom lodge it was just a comersial* and there was like 3 places where they were advertizing TLK1.5. I don't know if a lot of people liked this feature but I really liked the virtual safari (did anyone else like it) but i think it should have been longer or had more choices because when i played again it the other choices are pretty much the same thing they take you back to the same place ***maybe they should have added games like the wild mine ride***

overall i liked the DVD but i think i needed more or to be more special I don't know exactly what but it needed somthing

[ZOOMBOOM0688]

P.S. was there any DVD-ROM features (My computer with the DVD player isn't working**just in case u r wondering**)If there was I think there should have been more and better ones


I don't know why I said that

[Lady]

I don't know if a lot of people liked this feature but I really liked the virtual safari (did anyone else like it) but i think it should have been longer or had more choices because when i played again it the other choices are pretty much the same thing they take you back to the same place ***maybe they should have added games like the wild mine ride***

i liked the virtual safari . . it almost felt like playing a video game. really cute touch. i hope they have this kind of feature for all their movies. . . virtually being able to explore palaces (or in the case of Aladdin, Agrabah) would be really cool.

[Jack]

Well I just finished Disc 1. It was great to see the movie again after nearly 8 or so years. Here's my verdict on the features on Disc 1:

Making of Morning Report - Nice little featurette. Good enough for me.

Personality Profile Game - I enjoy these types of games. I ended up as "Timon".

Circle of Life Music Video by Circle of Stars - O.K. rendition of the song, awful video. Tahj Mowry is particularly disturbing as he tries to act like a street thug and performs an awful dance that's borderline thrusting.

Making of Music Video - Just what I was looking forward to: an ultra-speedy, MTV style making of complete with Techno music and Tahj Mowry saying suching disturbing things as "It's gonna be the bomb".

Grab a Grub Game - Booooooooring.

Sound Sensations - While very easy, I found it pretty fun.

Deleted Scenes - A very short selection of short scenes with short intros that seemed to have been shortened.

I'm dead tired. I'll get to Disc 2 tomorrow.

[2099net]

I'll make this brief because I've already posed on the DVDFile review thread but

(1) The Continents suck. When you see a disc which has to print a 'Bus Timetable' like table at the back of the printed booklet simply to tell people where everything is, you know it's unfriendly and confusing. Also what's with Disney and the repeating features? No other company does this trick as far as I know.

(2) The first disc has an "over all" menu. Despite having much more content the second disc does not? Who came up with that genius idea?

(3) The Gallaries - there are infact the gallaries we are used to on this second disc, as well as the character design gallaries. But for some unexplained reason you can only get to them from North America > Glendale > Art Galleries. That is the only way - they are not on any other continent or in the Film Journey And yet the International CD Cover galleries are in every continent? I'm sure everyone was absolutely gagging to see that gallery. Disney seem to enjoy burying the most interesting content on their discs of late (see the commentary on the first disc). In fact, I would say that they're taking sadistic pleasure in it.

(4) No Trailers. No original film publicity gallery either. Shouldn't this of see of alarms in somebodies head at the DVD production team?

(5) Luke - The Stage Journey is really, really, really well done. Play them all together and you have an A-1 documentary. Why can't all the content of the disc be this good? (Of course, it's not the making of the film which is what you are after I suspect). I've not seen it, but I also think the Music Journey may be good too. But again, that's not really making the movie. Sounds to me that they gave more time and effort to the stage and music "journies" than the film one, because you've already bought the movie, so why spend the effort on a decent documentary. But you could still go out and buy a CD soundtrack or see the stage show. Promotion again.

(6) Virtual Safari. It was OK - it really belonged on disc 1 though. I would rather they just had that on the disc and removed the other games. Also, the deleted scenes on disc 1 should be in the film journey of disc 2. I don't really want to see other Virtual Safaris.

It promised so much - in theory the Lion King should have been the best of Disney's multiple disc releases. Not only is it the most popular, but also the most modern of the Platinums released to date. It is by far the worst. If it really did take 2 years to compile and create this then I guess most of the team must have been slacking for 18 months or so.

Oh and despite what it says in the disappointing 'DVD Compantion Book' the disc is nowhere near being the "King of DVDs" - anyone would know this the instant they found out that there were no trailers.

[MickeyMouseboy]

I don't know about you guys but i'm calling BVHE later on today and complain and i wont be talking to a operator i'm going to demand talking to someone higher! cause this is BS! 8 years waiting for the dvd to get this trash? I don't think so!

[PatrickvD]

I don't know about you guys but i'm calling BVHE later on today and complain and i wont be talking to a operator i'm going to demand talking to someone higher! cause this is BS! 8 years waiting for the dvd to get this trash? I don't think so!

is it really THAT bad? how is the movie's quality? is the changed animation disturbing? never mind i can answer that question already... ''original theatrical version (actually the messed-with-version)''

[2099net]

is it really THAT bad? how is the movie's quality? is the changed animation disturbing? never mind i can answer that question already... ''original theatrical version (actually the messed-with-version)''

The sound and vision are exceptional. the main complaint is the lack of original version and the lacking supplements. However, being as the sound and vision are so good, I still think everyone should purchase the DVD.

[PatrickvD]

is it really THAT bad? how is the movie's quality? is the changed animation disturbing? never mind i can answer that question already... ''original theatrical version (actually the messed-with-version)''

The sound and vision are exceptional. the main complaint is the lack of original version and the lacking supplements. However, being as the sound and vision are so good, I still think everyone should purchase the DVD.

Thanks, i was planning on getting it anyway, i still want all the disney classics to be represented in my collection.

[Prince Phillip]

Well pretty much everything I had to say has been said. I find what little they have interesting for the most part, but there is also a lot of crap and the repeating extras was driving me nuts!!! First of all, why have the continents? The Lion King takes place in Africa!!! (Now if this were Aladdin, then that would be different since they see most of the world, on their magic carpet ride.) I swear one thing was repeated like 2 or 3 times in the SAME Continent!!! Plus in everyother continent, it may have been the soundtrack cover art, which was god aweful, halfway through, I though the thing had started up again, and I was redoing the gallery, but no, that wasn't the case.

Some of the documentaries I saw were good, could have been better, I liked when they showed ud Hakuna Matatta in all the different languages. And the documentary about having to dub the movie and all was nice. I think a lot of the stuff on disc one, which I haven't looked at, minus the previews , should have benn on disc two, and the whole Grasslands, Pride Rock, Elephant Grave Yard, set up should have been used on disc 2, plus the Music, Film, ect. option found on the bottom...




Anyway I'm sure, more will come on, and complain about the lack luster extras, and repeating and such, but in regards to this suppossing to be the best platinum, this is what I have to say. It is true that it could have been better. A long, indepth, segmented, making of documentary, where they explained how the story first came to mind, what was the driving force behind it, explained the companies lack of faith in the project (some of this was touched on), plus in corporate clips of the voice actors, maybe a few clips of the actors talking about doing the Lion King (present at the time of the film) and maybe a few reflecting back on it now, talk about how the story developed, the name change, how it's success changed disney, talk about the effect that coming 2 years after Aladdin, and right before the dissapointing (for disney) Pocahontas, had on the film, or how it may have effected the release of Pocahontas, talk about the success, how it was recieved and all. I think you get the point...

But other than that, there wasn't much for the Lion King, not as much as say next years Aladdin, which has a whole story idea that was abandoned, and working and reworking the film. It has tons of delelted/abandoned songs, it just seems there is more that can be talked about. The same was for BATB, though maybe all of it's potential was squashed... That's why DIsney added the Mourning Report, cause here were Aladdin and BATB, which each had the abandoned songs that could be added, making them more "special" and the Lion King their "greatest" animated flick, had nothing, but just because it may have raked in more money, doesn't mean, it has more of a backround story, for example The Black Cauldron was a majore failure, but I bet there is A LOT they could put on a 2 disc set, without having to repeat info...

Anyway that's all I'm going to say about that...
In closing O just want to say, disney tried something new with the Lion King, it did not go over well, I hope all of the remaining platinums (a special nod towards Aladdin, TLM and Cinderella, which all have great potential to be great) are a million times better! Hopefully TLK will be the one rut of the whole platinum run...

[Jack]

My review of Disc 2:

Story Journey - Possibly the most horribly composed "documentary" shorts I've ever seen. Not one participent is allowed to speak for more than a few seconds. You just have all this random information thrown at you intercut with clips from the movie. Not well done.

Film Journey - This is where I expected something somewhat like Beauty and the Beast's Cogsworth and Lumier Section: shorts arranged in order, taking you through the production process. Instead, short featurrettes randomly touch on various aspects of the production. It's not linear, its not cohesive, and its shallow. Pure promo fluff.

Stage Journey - Excellent. Much better than I expected. More in depth than any of the other shorts on the DVD, and as 2099net has said: if you string them together with the Play Journey button, it's a very nice documentary.

Music Journey - A lot like the Film Journey. Not linear and not cohesive. Random info & interviews intercut with numerous clips from the movie. Some pretty good footage, but not well composed at all.

Animal Journey - While it doesn't contain much in-depth info, this is a well-composed documentary thats fun to watch. The constant short clips from the movie were a little annoying though.

Virtual Safari - MUCH better than I expected. This was actually pretty fun, and reminded me a lot of the Disneyland Adventureland rides. Sure its on the tacky side, but I enjoyed it.

Continents - The non-Journey content was great. But the organization: Blech. Gave me a headache. The galleries were nice, but it seemed Disney was holding back on giving us all the artwork. I would've liked the guided, virtual galleries, but these were good anyway. The best stuff on the disc is the abandoned concepts, international release examples, and DVD sound design.

OVERALL: I'd give it a B-. It seemed everything but the actual info on the making of the movie was good. Unfortunately, this is not worthy of a Platinum Banner and doesn't even quite match BATB's DVD. It's great to finally have the movie on DVD, but it is dissapointing otherwise.

My main peeve though: Why does there have to be so many damn clips of the movie interspersed with the interviews? Most of the time, the participents are not even talking about a particular scene, yet you see clips from the entire movie over and over and over. I bet if you had all the clips by themselves, it would equal the movie times 3.

I'm praying Disney gets a clue for Aladdin.

[MickeyMouseboy]

Don't worry they will get the point for aladdin cause i'm about to call them! and I wish you guys would too instead of bickering your dislike in a forum. I think should call them and voice it!

[Jack]

Don't worry they will get the point for aladdin cause i'm about to call them! and I wish you guys would too instead of bickering your dislike in a forum. I think should call them and voice it!

While I don't think it's going to make much difference (as in, sales will be huge no matter what), I decided I am going to call and complain. I know exactly what I'm going to say too:

"I've been waiting for this DVD for years, and all I get is a bunch of fluffy extras that don't go in depth, are confusingly organized, and poorly composed. The Platinum Editions should be ensuring "ultimate entertainment value" as it says on the packaging, and it certainly didn't do so with The Lion King."

While it probably isn't going to shake things up, at least they'll know one of their consumers is unhappy.

Lemme know how your call goes, MMB.

[Luke]

I'll be sure to check out the Stage Journey and others today/tonight...but of course, unless I'm mistaken, the Stage Journey has nothing to do with the movie, beyond the fact that the play is adapted from the movie?

[Luke]

From the featurette on redoing the sound for DVD...


One of these things is not like the others...

[indianajdp]

I have to say I'm extremely disappointed with what I've seen thus far, especially for a Platinum Edition release. Granted I too still have quite a bit to go through but what I've seen thus far reminds me of the extra air they use to fill potato chip bags to make them seem "fuller"

[Jake Lipson]

I don't understand why everyone is bashing on this set. YES, it isn't all that it could have been and leaves much to be desired. YES, it would have been incredibly easy to improve it. But NO, what IS here IS NOT that bad. (This is just reflective of what I've gone through so far.)

Personally, I think there's a lot of good stuff here, it just needs to have a bit more structure and be less cluttered. Here's what I would have done to improve the second disc.

1) Esckew the journeys and continents modes. Instead, string all of the journeys together into one doccumentary. Since the journeys are very reflective of the "phenomonon" The Lion King instead of the movie The Lion King, I would call this doccumentary "Circle of Life -- The Life of The Lion King Franchise." This would string together all of the journeys to make a big doccumentary about the various things that resulted from the success of the film -- Rythm of the Pride Lands, the video sequels, the Timon & Pumbaa TV show, the Broadway musical, and what the filmmakers think of it today. The Making of the Morning Report would also be on this disc as opposed to disc one, and strung together as part of this doccumentary. For the impaitent and those who want quick content, divide this up into CHAPTER STOPS like the main feature.

2) Then, for the portion of the DVD that takes a look at the film -- port over the original 1994 making of from the laserdisc as the second main doccumentary.

More later.