What Platinum Edition is Your Least Favorite?

[Tascar]

I'm going to agree with The Lion King as the worst Platinum Edition.

I don't mind the reuse of the commentary from the LD considering that it was a pretty good commentary. What bothered me was that they reglected to include the documentary on the film's making from the LD, tons of bonus material on the story development, the technical aspects of animation, and more, and an additional 5+ deleted concepts that were featured on the commentary.

The Lion King laserdisc set was pretty much considered to be one of the best laserdisc sets ever constructed. It's disappointing that the DVD set, which really should have and could have been more, fell so far from the mark, especially as other studios were beginning to really put time and effort into churning out excellent DVD packages themselves.

[2099net]

The Lion King laserdisc set was pretty much considered to be one of the best laserdisc sets ever constructed. It's disappointing that the DVD set, which really should have and could have been more, fell so far from the mark, especially as other studios were beginning to really put time and effort into churning out excellent DVD packages themselves.

I think its wrong to say Disney didn't put any time or effort into making the Lion King DVD. They obviously did. It's just that the spectacularly mis-judged what people wanted. Or perhaps they didn't. Perhaps they just mis-judged what fans wanted? It still sold pretty well and (one the whole) go amazing DVD reviews in the general press.

But it was a huge mis-step on Disney's part. On paper, all-new documentaries do sound better. After all, if the truth be told, it would be cheaper and easier for Disney to just pull the old TV "Making Of" out of the archive. Shame the new stuff wasn't up to standard.

I'm happy that since "the Lion King" Disney do seem to have learned their lesson, and the other Platinum Titles seem to have a better mix of mainstream and Disney collector content. For every ESPN Tales on Cinderella, there's the feature on The Nine Old Men or Mary Blair.

[Tascar]

I think its wrong to say Disney didn't put any time or effort into making the Lion King DVD. They obviously did. It's just that the spectacularly mis-judged what people wanted. Or perhaps they didn't. Perhaps they just mis-judged what fans wanted? It still sold pretty well and (one the whole) go amazing DVD reviews in the general press.

You are definitely right about this. I guess it just surprises me that after looking at the laserdisc market and also the DVD market for the time they did, they hadn't figured out that their DVD games really weren't interesting to the Ps2/XBox/GameCube kids of these times.

[Lars Vermundsberget]

Would that really be one of the problems in this case?

Well, it's not a big problem, but I think it's cheap to just reuse a commentary track. The Lion King is one of the best Disney pictures, so they could put in more effort than they did, and that does not only show in the commentary, but in the bonus material on disc 2 as well.

Cheap solution, undoubtedly, but that doesn't necessarily equal bad - at least not when reusing something that was quite good in the first place. They could have done more of that on the Lion King DVD!

[Lars Vermundsberget]

The Lion King for sure. It's my least favorite movie out of all the Platinums so far and the bonus features really were just ok. I think I've only watched it once the day I got it and it's been sitting on my shelf ever since. I mainly just got it to continue my Platinum collection.

I ended up putting this on the shelf without watching most of the extras. What I did watch was too fragmented and not adequately organized. What finally did it was the fact that I could not figure out how to watch everything without a lot of "overlap".

[Mermaid Kelly]

In my opinion, Aladdin

[Disneykid]

I ended up putting this on the shelf without watching most of the extras. What I did watch was too fragmented and not adequately organized. What finally did it was the fact that I could not figure out how to watch everything without a lot of "overlap".

I figured out the trick to that, actually. Check out all the stuff in the journeys first (the "Play All" featurettes and isolated features like music videos and galleries). Then head to the Glendale section of North America which will you take you to more isolated features such as an early presentation reel and storyboard-to-film comparison. Once you you've gone through all that, you've pretty much checked out all of disc two's contents except a multi-language reel and a featurette on the Sound Design (I forget where these two are located). The Lion King is actually a very good DVD. What it needed, though, was better organization, a featurette on the cast, and trailers.

[Lars Vermundsberget]

I ended up putting this on the shelf without watching most of the extras. What I did watch was too fragmented and not adequately organized. What finally did it was the fact that I could not figure out how to watch everything without a lot of "overlap".

I figured out the trick to that, actually.

Yeah - I think I also heard (read) a while ago that it could be "figured out".

I figured out that the extras section of this DVD was ONE good reason to keep the old laserdisc box set.

[BATBfan1]

In my opinion, Aladdin

How come?
That was one of the better Disney DVD's IMO.


So we all agree the lion king right?
Now are we mad with the changes in the movie or the lack of bonus features? I thought it was pretty good with features but just missing a few. I was mad about the movie edit in the ORIGINAL FILM. I could care less about morning report stupid song lol.

[KubrickFan]

Now are we mad with the changes in the movie or the lack of bonus features? I thought it was pretty good with features but just missing a few. I was mad about the movie edit in the ORIGINAL FILM.

One thing I noticed, was that the crocodiles and the waterfall weren't changed in scenes in the bonus material. So, were they just last-minute changes?

[Disney's Divinity]

I guess they just use the older format for the bonus material until the restoration is completely finished. I remember sitting through B&tB's music videos, where the animation was from before it was restored (and didn't look as bright), wondering the same thing.

[Disneykid]

Yeah, back then Disney's restorations weren't completed by the time the features were being edited. Bambi, Lady and the Tramp, and The Little Mermaid (look at the bonus material clip for this on the official site) all use the new DVD restorations for editing clips into their bonus materials. Cinderella's DVD supplements are interesting because it seems they actually used a sort of work-in-progress version of the restoration as they were editing the features. The clips shown in the documentary are brighter and sharper than the laserdisc, but not as clean or vivid as the DVD presentation. Since Jungle Book and 101 Dalmatians' restorations are already complete, I'd expect them to use that footage in their DVD supplements, too.

[MickeyMouseboy]

The Lion King was a worthless put together DVD! I was very pissed when i bought it and there was completely nothing about the film and just stupid sneek peeks and worthless menus........... then Cinderella who cares about espn??? is not like a 30 yr old male that likes sport will buy cinderella??? unless he was here in UD.com lol and the disc are getting cheaper and cheaper looking I don't like the figures on the disc i want the whole disc covered...... at least chapter listings and covers have still remained so i give Disney props for keeping this!

[darth_deetoo]

I actually quite like the disc art on Little Mermaid and Cinderella. I think it's a very distinctive style. I can imagine bootleggers not liking it, because it's very difficult to scan a shiny disc to print off onto a blank DVD or label, so it makes their job harder.

I don't think The Lion King is a bad DVD either. Yeah, it suffers from being a bit disorganised, but there is quite a lot of good stuff on there, and I certainly don't think it's the worst platinum.

My least favourite is Lady and the Tramp, but it's really because it's a Disney film that really doesn't capture my imagination that much, and I don't even recall ever bothering to look at the extra's.

Didn't care too much for the ESPN stuff on Cinderella, but there was some nice stuff about the making of the movie.

While Snow White is far from my favourite Disney movie, I said this in another thread, that people will probably think it heresy, but I just think Snow White is very dated. I absolutely hate the voice of Snow White, and I think the singing is abysmal, but, I can appreciate the film for what it is. And for what it achieved, I think it's amazing for it's time. But I love the Disney Through the Decades feature on this disc. Similarly like the Story Behind the Story section on BATB, and I was pleased to see a Little Mermaid segment on the new 2 disc Little Mermaid.

My favourites are always going to be BATB, Little Mermaid, Aladdin and The Lion King though, purely because these are my favourite Disney movies. I think what you have to appreciate with these films, is that Disney is trying to get a balance between material which will appeal to the collectors, and also kid friendly material, and it must be very difficult to satisfy both camps. At the end of the day though, I love all my 2 disc Disney discs.

[271286]

Sadly it's probably The Little Mermaid... Even though It's my favorite Disney Movie...

[darth_deetoo]

Really don't see what everyone's problem is with The Little Mermaid. It has a nice transfer, a good solid documentary, the new Little Matchgirl short, deleted scenes, the excellent Imagineering feature. Only thing I'd really say is missing are potentially a couple more music video's and a gallery, but what there is is great.

[Jordan]

Worse PE: A tie between"The Lion King" and "Lady and the Tramp"

Best PE: I'm sure everyone will agree on Snow White Beauty and the Beast was also well furnished; in short: the first two PE releases.

[Jordan]

Really don't see what everyone's problem is with The Little Mermaid. It has a nice transfer, a good solid documentary, the new Little Matchgirl short, deleted scenes, the excellent Imagineering feature. Only thing I'd really say is missing are potentially a couple more music video's and a gallery, but what there is is great.

I agree, except for the music video part; I don't give a s*** about those And , there are several picture galleries on Disc 2..

[darth_deetoo]

Oh, I missed the galleries. Haven't looked at the deleted scenes yet either. I'll have a browse of disc 2 again tonight after watching the movie.

I've heard people referring to a Jodi Benson music video which I would have liked to seen. The Ashley Tisdale one is okay, but she's a bit of a teeny bopper. I know there was a Peter André one for Kiss The Girl some time back, and although I don't particularly like him, and didn't like his version of the song, I'm surprised they didn't include it.

[MMackenzie]

I'm going to agree with the majority and say The Lion King. The changed animation, credits, etc., really bugged me, and the bonus features have a really dumbed-down feel to them. In second place is probably either Bambi or The Little Mermaid for the problematic transfers, although they both have decent extras. The best so far is probably Aladdin - great transfer and decent extras.