DVDizzy Forum

As far as movies go, I really could care less about The Jungle Book. But for bonus features, The Lion King was definitely the worst. The Aladdin cover is the ugliest though.

Least favorite release: The Lion King

1. The alterations to the film - "Morning Report" is as useful as a solar powered flashlight. The changed animation during Can't Wait to Be King and Can You Feel The Love Tonight were totally unnecessary.

2. The menus - the concept seems interesting enough. Choose a continent, view featurettes that pertain to that one. But they f'ed it up badly, made it too complicated to find anything at all.

3. The bonus material - a cheesy music video, followed by the making of cheasy music video. Games no one will play after one sitting. All-too-short featurettes that barely scratch the surface. More information about Africa, the broadway musical, and everything else, but not enough on the film. No cohesive making of that goes in a specific order (like Aladdin's). All in all, it's not a lot about one thing, but really just a little about everything else.

4. The movie - I just don't like it. Sure, I can acknowledge that it is a pretty damn good 90 minutes of animation, and that the music is so...*there*, but character wise, I just did not fall in love with them the way everyone else did. I can't see it as the animated masterpiece that everyone undeservedly calls it. It's just...well, it's like vegetables. Some people love vegetables. Some hate it. Some eat it because it's good for them, but they're indifferent to it. I'm indifferent to vegetables, as I am to The Lion King.

And the rest of the stuff...

Most disappointing film: The Lion King
(see beginning of post)

Most disappointing Video Quality: Beauty and the Beast
Fitting 3 versions of the film on one disc is not good. Plus, it's the all-too-detailed IMAX version as well, which I enjoy, but sometimes you want to see something less than perfect.

Most disappointing Audio Quality: -
I don't have that great an ear for audio.

Most disappointing Menus: The Lion King
(see beginning of post)

Most disappointing Bonus Material: Cinderella
As dismal as The Lion King's bonus material was, it really can't compare to the fluffiness of Cinderella.

Most disappointing Cover Art: Cinderella
Childish.

Most disappointing Disc Art: Cinderella
If the silver wasn't transparent, it would have worked.

Most disappointing use of Slipcover: Lady and the Tramp
I hate slipcovers. But I'll just throw this in there for the slipcover fanatics and say "DAMMIT, WHY DIDN'T THIS ONE OPEN LIKE A BOOK? I WANTED IT TO OPEN LIKE A BOOK!!!"

Most disappointing insert: Lady and the Tramp
Not nearly as elaborate as early Platinums, almost seems like an afterthought.

And even though this is least favorite, I'll do most favorite as well...

Favorite Film: *Tie* Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin

Best Video Quality: *Tie* Aladdin and Bambi

Best Audio Quality: -

Best Menus: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Most exhaustive Bonus Materials: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Best Bonus Materials: *Tie* Aladdin and Bambi

Best Cover Art: Lady and the Tramp

Best Disc Art: Aladdin

Best use of a slipcover: -

Best insert: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Escapay

Cinderella.

While I agree The Lion King was very disappointing and flawed, at least it had a commentary, plus a couple short informational stuff, and virtual safaris(:p).

Cinderella was just fluffy. No commentary, the the documentary was probably just as good, if not worse, than TLK, plus had the most miss-matched stuff on it like an ESPN feature and a documentary on the 9 old men. At least TLK's were related somewhere, even if they were stretches.

Happens to be my least favorite movie as well. Although 101 Dalmatians gives it a run for it's money.

Well, I don't actually have any of the Platinum Editions, but going off what people have said, I'll say that The Lion King is the overall worst, due to the whole design of the DVD. Cinderella comes second because of crappy and thoughtless bonus material, and The Lady and the Tramp comes third because of fluffy dog related bonus features. Couldn't Disney just save that for the Disney Dog Board Game?
The best is probably Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Extensive promotion, bonus materials and menus make this the best of the bunch. Beauty and the Beast and Bambi both tie for second with Beauty and the Beasts great bonus features & cover art and the thought that went into Bambi's bonus features, with it being so old and all. Aladdin is third, with nice cover art and informative bonus material.
Hopefully Disney can get it right with The Little Mermaid and The Jungle Book. I also have high hopes for 101 Dalmations. Hopefully Disney can release the TV series then. Luckily I have one ep on DVD, from Disney's Christmas Favourites, released in R2 and R4. It's the christmas episode.
Oops, I'm going off on a tangent.
-James

I actually haven't had a chance to check out all my Platinum Editions yet. I'm gradually watching them right now to review them on Amazon.com. I'm REALLY psyched about the upcoming Jungle Book one, as it's one of my top faves!

Anyway, if I was going to pick the worst, well, to me, it depends on something. I remember when the Beauty and the Beast one came out, I was hearing a lot that it had been cropped somewhat. If that is true, then there's your answer. I hate the idea that I am getting less picture here than on my old VHS (which I no longer have). Anyone know if this was just a false rumor? I know that the Back to the Future DVDs were supposed to be that way too, but I think they corrected it, which is good, because I still have to buy that set. Anyways, I hope it's not true about Beauty and the Beast, because I think that's Disney's best animated feature.

The Lion King I have NEVER seen a DVD filled to the brim with so much of nothing before.

slave2moonlight wrote:I remember when the Beauty and the Beast one came out, I was hearing a lot that it had been cropped somewhat. If that is true, then there's your answer.

It is true that BatB is cropped on the DVD. But bear in mind that the extra picture (on top and bottom) you got on VHS was not seen on the original theatrical release. The extra artwork on the top and bottom of the picture was seen only on VHS. Now for the DVD release, the film-makers decided that they preferred the film as it was seen theatrically, i.e. cropped slightly from the top and bottom.

Thanks for the info. Well, that does make me feel better, though it's still a shame that I sold the VHS (might as well have both versions). Oh well, one less VHS...

Julian Carter wrote:

slave2moonlight wrote:I remember when the Beauty and the Beast one came out, I was hearing a lot that it had been cropped somewhat. If that is true, then there's your answer.

It is true that BatB is cropped on the DVD. But bear in mind that the extra picture (on top and bottom) you got on VHS was not seen on the original theatrical release. The extra artwork on the top and bottom of the picture was seen only on VHS. Now for the DVD release, the film-makers decided that they preferred the film as it was seen theatrically, i.e. cropped slightly from the top and bottom.

I must have a defective VHS, because mine is a P&S of the 1.85:1 frame, not a P&S of the 1.66:1 frame...

I think the only known 1.66:1 release of BATB was one of the laserdisc versions.

Even so, the version on the DVD (1.85:1) is the theatrical aspect ratio, as the producers and directors preferred to present the film that way.

Escapay

Escapay wrote:Even so, the version on the DVD (1.85:1) is the theatrical aspect ratio, as the producers and directors preferred to present the film that way.

Escapay

And that's the important thing, right?

The worst one for me was TLK, lousy extra's, and virtually nothing about the film itself, and an audio commentary that was lifted from the laserdisc. Also the menus were boring, with a crappy made Zazu. The picture and sound quality were very good, except for the alterations.
Actually, none of the PEs were really exceptional in terms of extras, except for Aladdin, with the two-hour documentary. I also enjoyed the '9 Old Men' featurette on Cinderella.
Of course you have to bear in mind that most of these pictures are from the fifties and the forties, so there is not much of bonus material to put on a dvd, I guess. Either that, or Disney is lazy/saving it for Blue-Ray.

I didnt find a whole lot of bad in previous PE releases like Cinderella and Lady and the Tramp. There making up stuff makes up for it alot. I agree that it's the earlier PEs like Beauty and the Beast and especially The Lion King that were really poor in special features, quality, and the like (a poor selection of deleted scenes as well). The Lion King was flat out dissappointing.

I wasnt a big fan of the Aladdin setup but it had a lot of good stuff. I'd rather stick with the documentary format with PEs.

Wouldnt it be cool if these PEs had like catalogues were you can see all the merchadise and marketing from the film's release? That would be so nostalgic!

Movie wise, definitely Cinderella. I greatly prefer the movies about animals and I'm not a big fan of standard princess stories or this particular tale either.

DVD wise, Beauty and the Beast (compression artifacts galore! )

I think The Lion King was probably the worst, but I was the most disappointed with Beauty and the Beast simply because I was expecting so much out of it. Snow White was probably the best DVD (as far as extras are concerened) that I have ever seen, so I was expecting a lot when Beauty and the Beast came out. By the time they got to The Lion King, it was pretty much what I expected.

My least favorite Platinum is Bambi (I'm judging by how often I view the contents of the DVD, movie and/or bonus features).

The Platinum I was most disappointed by is Lady and the Tramp. I can't exactly pinpoint it...but first there was the slipcover not opening like a book, then the underwhelming insert, and so on and so forth. I mean - have some consistency and strength behind what you call "Platinum Edition" for goodness sake!

The Lion King / Cinderella - Both films are more than worthy of a great release, but for some odd reason don't actually get one. Lion King's DVD is one big promotional piece for everything Lion King. Theme parks, broadway show, you name it! Even the feature-related documentaries seem to promote the movie, instead of shedding some light on the production. Same with Cinderella's main documentary. It takes most of its time to mention how great Cinderlla is (which I agree with) but [most of the time] it seems to forget to mention why.

The Lion King has the advantage of having a commentary. I've yet to come across a commentary that is all fluff, and this one is no different! Interesting, informative and somewhat fun. Cinderella on the other hand, gets a promotional ESPN piece instead ( ), thus gaining a lower score.
The Lion King: PE - 7/10
Cinderella: PE - 6/10

KubrickFan wrote:and an audio commentary that was lifted from the laserdisc.

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

Lars Vermundsberget wrote:

KubrickFan wrote:and an audio commentary that was lifted from the laserdisc.

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

I'm guessing he wanted a newly recorded one? The commentary is one of the few redeeming qualities of TLK's shoddy release.

Escapay

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.

Lars Vermundsberget wrote: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.