Still overall, I get the feeling that it should be more and better with all the time that supposedly went into making this "The King of All DVDs."
Lion King Extras Discussion
Watched more of it today - and there was some slightly better stuff. The music content and the African influences was interesting. Still, it's tough to get into things through 4 minute featurettes. Journey sounds like it would play a lot of the stuff together, but it'd probably also duplicate stuff I've already watched. That "Disney & Animals" thing is listed like 3 times at least.
Still overall, I get the feeling that it should be more and better with all the time that supposedly went into making this "The King of All DVDs."
Still overall, I get the feeling that it should be more and better with all the time that supposedly went into making this "The King of All DVDs."
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Tascar
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Jake, normally, I'd agree with you on this. The Lion King DVD is certainly better than alot of the other special edition DVDs out there.Jake Lipson wrote: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.)
However, there is a specific reason why I am bugged about the both the horrible supplementals and their not including the original version of the film.
In regards to the original film being included, Don Hahn and the promotional literature specifically said that the original theatrical version, the original animation and all, would be included on the DVD. So something that has been promised has not been included. Plus, with all the fuss about the original version of Beauty and the Beast not being included, I would have thought that Disney learned their lesson this time around. Obviously not.
And finally, the reason I am bugged about the lack of meaningful supplementals. I have the original laserdisc collector's edition of The Lion King and it has some of the best supplementals of any Disney special edition release. It is all on the topic of making the movie and not on extraneous or tangential topics. All the character galleries, trailers, etc that aren't on the new DVD are in this release. Disney could have easily saved themselves alot of money and just simply ported over the laserdisc exactly and resulted in a fantastic DVD release. But they didn't. They spent tons of money to make new extras that are not as good as the original nor covers information to the level that the originals did. Entire deleted scenes and sequences in the LD release were not included at all. It just bugs me that Disney had a great collector's edition already. But they chose to discard nearly all of it and spent valuable money that could be used to enhance the original collector's edition, and blew it on promo fluff supplementals that everyone whether the Disney buff or the casual movie viewer can tell is shallow and not-in-depth at all. Not what I expected from a company that once made some of the best collector's editions in both the LD and DVD days.
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MickeyMouseboy
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just to add on what tascar said The Special Editio of Oliver and Company been one disc was so much better than the Lion King one the 5 or so making of in that disc made me feel the fuzzy disney feel and it actually took me to the late 80s! Today I put disc 2 in and only watched the music videos, language reel and the audio sequel nothing else csught my eyes nor care to watch so I won't be putting disc 2 in anytime in the next century just like B&B I haven't watched since i bought it!
We're bashing it because it's crap. Does that spell things out for you? And I don't think it is better than most other special editions, as the stuff that is about the making of the film is very weak. Had we not had the excellent LD release, or the other wonderful Disney multiple disc sets we probably would be content, or even deliriously happy with the Lion King serving. But we know Disney can do better, and knowing that they can do better means we demand better.Jake Lipson wrote: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.)
The organisation is haphazard, most of the "featurettes" don't let people finish their train of thought, most of the stuff that is more visible is either promotions for other Disney money making products or kiddie centric (or worse both - see the "Circle of Stars") and there's no original film release publicity at all. Odd for the film that was Disney's highest grossing, and an unforgivable omission, wouldn't you agree?
In one interview, Disney claimed it took 2 years to develop the Lion King DVD. They couldn't even get a userfriendly menu designed in 2 years and had to resort to publishing a table of menus and contents in the booklet it was so bad.
The DVD companion <strike>advert</strike> book states "The result is the greatest filmmaker participatation of any Disney DVD yet produced", which is likely to be yet another Disney lie, being as the Directors are virtually AWOL throughout the DVD. Look at Atlantis for example - that's a DVD that has the influence of the filmmakers running all the way through it and it's superb. (And if it is true, then I'd say in an instant that these filmmakers better stick to making films and let DVD producers compile and produce the DVDs because this is a stinker of epic proportions.) What's further maddening is, as people have pointed out, they already had better versions of what they re-filmed on the LaserDisc release - Disney has re-invented the wheel and made it square.
I think, on reflection the only good thing on it is the Stage Journey. And I have a sneeking suspicion that thats because of Julie Taymor's own artistic integrity. And as others have pointed out, the musical has very little to do with the making of the film.
You only have to look at this disc to see everything wrong with Disney DVDs (and DVD in general) these days. The prorities are all wrong. How much did they spend animating the new "morning report"? How much did Disney spend on an unneeded new sound mix? How much did they spend on the Virtual Safari? How much did they spend on the Circle of Stars? How much did they spend on the elaborate, but useless menus?
Now ask yourself this. How much did they spend on the new interviews? Obviously not enough. And how much did they spend on simply porting the materials over from the LaserDisc? Again obviously not enough as features are still missing. How much did they spend on clearing the trailers? Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch.
Pathetic.
Most of my Blu-ray collection some of my UK discs aren't on their database
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RoyalNatalie
While the Lion King DVD is actually pretty bad, disorganized, and a map into confusion, I would actually put it one step above the Beauty and the Beast DVD. Still far below Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but slightly better than B&TB.
The Beauty and the Beast documentaries drove me crazy because it seemed that they cut off just when they had reached their height in interest. I didn't feel so tagged along with The Lion King DVD, just exploited in promotion which is nothing really new when you're a fan of Disney.
The story area is usually the area that I am most interested in and there, at least, I feel strongly that the difference between the DVDs can be sensed. Beauty and the Beast just named the origins of the tale, including naming Madame Le Prince de Beaumont (I can't remember if they mentioned Madame Gabrielle de Villeneuve who was the story's real literary author) like they thought you should be impressed that they could speak it with a french accent. They didn't bother to go into detail about the evolution of these stories and how Disney came to them and changed them. They just mentioned them, glossed it over and cut the documentary short.
On The Lion King at least they admited various influences from the Old Testament and Hamlet and used examples to relate the similarities of each tale to the movie. Of course the documentary was too short and I wished they had done more with that section, but I didn't throw things at the television like I remembered doing when I first watched the Beauty and the Beast story featurette.
I had forgotten how good the movie is, even with the noticable "adjustments" that have been made to this new release. "Morning Report" annoyed me. There was no need to add that other than for sparkle and flash for a new release. The broadway featurettes were very interesting and well done. And they got their job accomplished (I want to see The Lion King on broadway even more now). The music section was disorganized, though it made me want to give Lebo M a hug and I think I adore Elton John (who seemed to look lost while he was talking about the movie) even more now. I've learned to view these new pop make-over videos as a source of great stupid amusement (though the "Circle of Stars" depressed me as well). And I really got peeved at the confusing and repeating menu on the second disc. I took the personality test and it was good at keeping me occupied for about four minutes (I got Rafiki. Figures I would get the insane one of the group.) I haven't played any of the games yet and I'll probably save the audio commentary for a rainy day when I need a treat since I expect that to be the best part.
I heard a lot about this DVD before it came out and the buzz was absolutely horrible so I was expecting something that was worse than Beauty and the Beast. So, I'm pleased that it was at least on the same bar as Beauty and the Beast if not slightly better (not much better, but better).
Expect the worst and get the best maybe? I don't know, but I'm not at the point where I regret getting this set. I would give Disney a call and complain if I could find the number easily, though.
The Beauty and the Beast documentaries drove me crazy because it seemed that they cut off just when they had reached their height in interest. I didn't feel so tagged along with The Lion King DVD, just exploited in promotion which is nothing really new when you're a fan of Disney.
The story area is usually the area that I am most interested in and there, at least, I feel strongly that the difference between the DVDs can be sensed. Beauty and the Beast just named the origins of the tale, including naming Madame Le Prince de Beaumont (I can't remember if they mentioned Madame Gabrielle de Villeneuve who was the story's real literary author) like they thought you should be impressed that they could speak it with a french accent. They didn't bother to go into detail about the evolution of these stories and how Disney came to them and changed them. They just mentioned them, glossed it over and cut the documentary short.
On The Lion King at least they admited various influences from the Old Testament and Hamlet and used examples to relate the similarities of each tale to the movie. Of course the documentary was too short and I wished they had done more with that section, but I didn't throw things at the television like I remembered doing when I first watched the Beauty and the Beast story featurette.
I had forgotten how good the movie is, even with the noticable "adjustments" that have been made to this new release. "Morning Report" annoyed me. There was no need to add that other than for sparkle and flash for a new release. The broadway featurettes were very interesting and well done. And they got their job accomplished (I want to see The Lion King on broadway even more now). The music section was disorganized, though it made me want to give Lebo M a hug and I think I adore Elton John (who seemed to look lost while he was talking about the movie) even more now. I've learned to view these new pop make-over videos as a source of great stupid amusement (though the "Circle of Stars" depressed me as well). And I really got peeved at the confusing and repeating menu on the second disc. I took the personality test and it was good at keeping me occupied for about four minutes (I got Rafiki. Figures I would get the insane one of the group.) I haven't played any of the games yet and I'll probably save the audio commentary for a rainy day when I need a treat since I expect that to be the best part.
I heard a lot about this DVD before it came out and the buzz was absolutely horrible so I was expecting something that was worse than Beauty and the Beast. So, I'm pleased that it was at least on the same bar as Beauty and the Beast if not slightly better (not much better, but better).
Expect the worst and get the best maybe? I don't know, but I'm not at the point where I regret getting this set. I would give Disney a call and complain if I could find the number easily, though.
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XxSuRgEoxX
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The extras weren't horrible but after watching them It felt like I knew everything about the music and the stage show but hardly anything about the actual MOVIE. That's kind of odd.
The things that I noticed that were missing that shouldn't have been were: The voice actors, The original promotional material, and something that went over "Release and Reaction".
The things that I noticed that were missing that shouldn't have been were: The voice actors, The original promotional material, and something that went over "Release and Reaction".
To me, BATB was better than LK because:
A: The making of the movie, while not very in-depth, covered production from beginning to end - starting off with the origins of the tale and ending with the making of the S.E. It was linear, and I felt like I had a good grasp of the entire production process.
B: The menus are some of the coolest looking, and at the same time, fairly easy to navigate.
A: The making of the movie, while not very in-depth, covered production from beginning to end - starting off with the origins of the tale and ending with the making of the S.E. It was linear, and I felt like I had a good grasp of the entire production process.
B: The menus are some of the coolest looking, and at the same time, fairly easy to navigate.
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Tangela
Something that I really liked in Beauty and the Beast was the Story behind the Story thing. It was interesting...Jack wrote:To me, BATB was better than LK because:
A: The making of the movie, while not very in-depth, covered production from beginning to end - starting off with the origins of the tale and ending with the making of the S.E. It was linear, and I felt like I had a good grasp of the entire production process.
B: The menus are some of the coolest looking, and at the same time, fairly easy to navigate.
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disneyfella
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alright, i don't know if anyone else has watched the audio commentary yet, but this is perhaps the greatest feature on the set. after watching it you learn about the little things in the film and how they did them. definitely a must for any fan of the film or historic disney lover.....must listen to commentary......
on a side note, on the commentary Don Hahn and the directors mentioned that normally where the new morning report is (which isn't mentioned obviously because it's only on the theatrical release), there was a song that was supposed to be there called, "So I'm a King" or something like that.....don't you think disney should've put a song that was supposed to be there instead of a new song made after the movie hit theaters? supposedly they talked about how it was a father son song and mufasa was going to sing and all. now i don't think it would've worked, because i don't see mufasa breaking out into song, but at least that was meant to be there.......why, why did they put morning report in? i'm still asking myself.
on a side note, on the commentary Don Hahn and the directors mentioned that normally where the new morning report is (which isn't mentioned obviously because it's only on the theatrical release), there was a song that was supposed to be there called, "So I'm a King" or something like that.....don't you think disney should've put a song that was supposed to be there instead of a new song made after the movie hit theaters? supposedly they talked about how it was a father son song and mufasa was going to sing and all. now i don't think it would've worked, because i don't see mufasa breaking out into song, but at least that was meant to be there.......why, why did they put morning report in? i'm still asking myself.
"It's Kind Of Fun To Do The Impossible"
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MickeyMouseboy
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MickeyMouseboy
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Amen to that!2099net wrote:We're bashing it because it's crap. Does that spell things out for you? And I don't think it is better than most other special editions, as the stuff that is about the making of the film is very weak. Had we not had the excellent LD release, or the other wonderful Disney multiple disc sets we probably would be content, or even deliriously happy with the Lion King serving. But we know Disney can do better, and knowing that they can do better means we demand better.Jake Lipson wrote: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.)
The organisation is haphazard, most of the "featurettes" don't let people finish their train of thought, most of the stuff that is more visible is either promotions for other Disney money making products or kiddie centric (or worse both - see the "Circle of Stars") and there's no original film release publicity at all. Odd for the film that was Disney's highest grossing, and an unforgivable omission, wouldn't you agree?
In one interview, Disney claimed it took 2 years to develop the Lion King DVD. They couldn't even get a userfriendly menu designed in 2 years and had to resort to publishing a table of menus and contents in the booklet it was so bad.
The DVD companion <strike>advert</strike> book states "The result is the greatest filmmaker participatation of any Disney DVD yet produced", which is likely to be yet another Disney lie, being as the Directors are virtually AWOL throughout the DVD. Look at Atlantis for example - that's a DVD that has the influence of the filmmakers running all the way through it and it's superb. (And if it is true, then I'd say in an instant that these filmmakers better stick to making films and let DVD producers compile and produce the DVDs because this is a stinker of epic proportions.) What's further maddening is, as people have pointed out, they already had better versions of what they re-filmed on the LaserDisc release - Disney has re-invented the wheel and made it square.
I think, on reflection the only good thing on it is the Stage Journey. And I have a sneeking suspicion that thats because of Julie Taymor's own artistic integrity. And as others have pointed out, the musical has very little to do with the making of the film.
You only have to look at this disc to see everything wrong with Disney DVDs (and DVD in general) these days. The prorities are all wrong. How much did they spend animating the new "morning report"? How much did Disney spend on an unneeded new sound mix? How much did they spend on the Virtual Safari? How much did they spend on the Circle of Stars? How much did they spend on the elaborate, but useless menus?
Now ask yourself this. How much did they spend on the new interviews? Obviously not enough. And how much did they spend on simply porting the materials over from the LaserDisc? Again obviously not enough as features are still missing. How much did they spend on clearing the trailers? Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch.
Pathetic.
I guess because putting in a song that was supposed to be there would make sense. I'm definitely going to give the commentary a listen over the weekend. Funny that "all the work" that went into the DVD and the best extra is a 8-year-old commentary recorded for the laserdisc.disneyfella wrote:on a side note, on the commentary Don Hahn and the directors mentioned that normally where the new morning report is (which isn't mentioned obviously because it's only on the theatrical release), there was a song that was supposed to be there called, "So I'm a King" or something like that.....don't you think disney should've put a song that was supposed to be there instead of a new song made after the movie hit theaters? supposedly they talked about how it was a father son song and mufasa was going to sing and all. now i don't think it would've worked, because i don't see mufasa breaking out into song, but at least that was meant to be there.......why, why did they put morning report in? i'm still asking myself.
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MickeyMouseboy
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I don't doubt it back then the supplemental material was more in-depth and they actually cared about letting people know how they made their movies.Luke wrote:I guess because putting in a song that was supposed to be there would make sense. I'm definitely going to give the commentary a listen over the weekend. Funny that "all the work" that went into the DVD and the best extra is a 8-year-old commentary recorded for the laserdisc.disneyfella wrote:on a side note, on the commentary Don Hahn and the directors mentioned that normally where the new morning report is (which isn't mentioned obviously because it's only on the theatrical release), there was a song that was supposed to be there called, "So I'm a King" or something like that.....don't you think disney should've put a song that was supposed to be there instead of a new song made after the movie hit theaters? supposedly they talked about how it was a father son song and mufasa was going to sing and all. now i don't think it would've worked, because i don't see mufasa breaking out into song, but at least that was meant to be there.......why, why did they put morning report in? i'm still asking myself.
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Joe Carioca
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That was because laserdisc was meant for collector's only... now DVDs (at least the Platinum editions) are meant for everybody... collector's, average joes and soccer moms....MickeyMouseboy wrote:I don't doubt it back then the supplemental material was more in-depth and they actually cared about letting people know how they made their movies.
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disneyfella
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yay! i was finally able to find 'warthog rhapsody' on this stupid dvd....it took me long enough. i was beginning to think it was an easter egg! really enjoyed this song and wonder why it wasn't animated instead of the morning report? why, disney, why did you do it?
oh the night keeps getting better......I'm a special edition now!!!
(i think this means that i come with more special features than The Lion King)
oh the night keeps getting better......I'm a special edition now!!!
(i think this means that i come with more special features than The Lion King)
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MickeyMouseboy
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Maerj
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Yeah. there is just one big problem with that. Without them and the non-collector type of people the format would die out. Laserdisc was mainly all collector types and now its gone. For a format to take off, it has to be accepted by a majority of the population. Now other DVDs are brimming with in depth extras, even Disney ones. So, I don't think that it is these soccer moms who spoiled this release for you. This was someone at Disney DVD's idea. Most likely they did it to appeal to those groups more, sure, but I think that is a waste of time. Those type of people don't care about indepth extras, games or whatever. They want the movie, period.MickeyMouseboy wrote:It sucks that soccer moms, joes and kids have spoiled it for all of us real/serious collectors and disney fans! They should have stayed with they stupid VHS!
Disney should go back to the double releases. A nice 2 disc release with plenty of extras and no games for colelctors and a single disc, movie only version. Sell the movie only cheap enough so that families can enjoy it, I'd say $14.99, then release a decnet 2 discer for $19.99. It was done before and should be done again.
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RoyalNatalie
You know, I was thinking of that recently, too. The only problem is that I feel I have become so emotionally invested (or brain washed) in the Platinum Collections that I would have a tough time letting it go.Maerj wrote:Disney should go back to the double releases. A nice 2 disc release with plenty of extras and no games for colelctors and a single disc, movie only version. Sell the movie only cheap enough so that families can enjoy it, I'd say $14.99, then release a decnet 2 discer for $19.99. It was done before and should be done again.
I also wonder if the Disney company does not have some sadistic need to separate their movies into a kind of hierarchy to cause more confusion among consumers.
If they did what they did to The Lion King to Cinderella, I know I would loose faith in the company, though. Cinderella II was enough of an earthquake for my fandom. I don't think it could survive a re-animated number of "I'm in the Middle of a Muddle" with more colorful dancing mice and no original version included.
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TheBionicWoman
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Yes but....
Yes, but... and this is a big but. What exactly does (Platinum edition) mean to Disney? Does it mean bare bones material and fluff? If thats the case then WHY is it that when Snow White Platinum edition came out they had a treasure trove of info on that disc? the voice talent, trailers, the dvd restoration etc? I know Snow White is an old film, and that it was originally on laserdisc. If the LK was on laserdisc why didnt they transfer that info to this edition. There is no excuse for that. There is also no excuse for the disorganization of material on the second disc. Even I could not find where the art gallery was on the second disc, and I can find just about everything on my other dvds...Joe Carioca wrote:That was because laserdisc was meant for collector's only... now DVDs (at least the Platinum editions) are meant for everybody... collector's, average joes and soccer moms....MickeyMouseboy wrote:I don't doubt it back then the supplemental material was more in-depth and they actually cared about letting people know how they made their movies.
Return of the King is coming, are you ready?