Lion King DVD: all that bad?

[Jayden]

oh and one other thing...
TM2-Megatron : You say that the features are so bad that you didnt buy the DVD. I suggest getting or renting it and watching it for yourself before you come to your own conclusions.

I did rent it. I can wait for a better release on Blu-Ray or HVD a few years down the road.

Just a quick question for you here, do you buy DVDs for the movies or the extras? Avoiding a great looking DVD because of some fluffy extras seems to be a little silly to me (The video and audio quality is top notch). How much are you going to the extras as compared to the movies anyways?

I have high doubts that an HD-DVD release of it is going to contain anything significantly new, so I don't really see the point of holding out. The days of the Amazing Collector's Edition sets is past, and now the best are what we're given. Don't expect a massive enhancement for the next re-release is what I'm saying, so if you want the movie, I would suggest getting it. It's not exactly expensive anymore as stores start to clear it out.

All I'm saying is that it seems rather silly to avoid a movie that you want just because it's extras don't exactly measure up to what you're used to, when there's not exactly a huge chance that it'll be improved on the next run through.

[TM2-Megatron]

Just a quick question for you here, do you buy DVDs for the movies or the extras? Avoiding a great looking DVD because of some fluffy extras seems to be a little silly to me (The video and audio quality is top notch). How much are you going to the extras as compared to the movies anyways?

I have high doubts that an HD-DVD release of it is going to contain anything significantly new, so I don't really see the point of holding out. The days of the Amazing Collector's Edition sets is past, and now the best are what we're given. Don't expect a massive enhancement for the next re-release is what I'm saying, so if you want the movie, I would suggest getting it. It's not exactly expensive anymore as stores start to clear it out.

I buy DVDs for both the movie and extras, and I rarely buy a single-disc version of a movie unless I'm 90% sure there's no chance of the release ever being improved. If Disney decides not to update their questionable DVD releases when issued on Blu-Ray or HVD, then that's their loss; I won't be buying them that time around either.

As far as the Lion King goes, I have it on VHS, so I've got the actual movie part. Since the DVD has nothing of any particular value (to me), I chose not to get it. I'm not really interested in any new, cheasy songs.

The days for "amazing collectors editions" may be past (at least for Disney), but I'm willing to wait until they come to their senses to buy the movies they've released with sub-par extras.

All I'm saying is that it seems rather silly to avoid a movie that you want just because it's extras don't exactly measure up to what you're used to, when there's not exactly a huge chance that it'll be improved on the next run through.

It makes alot sense for many of the movies I've wanted. I waited for several years on buying one of several rather expensive (at the time) single-disc versions of Dawn of the Dead, and now have the 4-disc Ultimate Edition. I've held out buying Spaceballs for a hell of a long time, and a 2-disc Special Edition is being released a bit later this year. I didn't touch any of the $25 CDN single-disc Star Trek movies, and was rewarded for my patience when they started releasing the 2-disc Collectors Editions for $15 CDN each. I didn't buy Lilo & Stitch when it came out (despite the fact it's in my top 10 of Disney favourites), and now a 2-disc Special Edition is coming out this year. It may not be up to the standards of the Atlantis, Dinosaur, etc. releases; but it's unlikely to be improved in the future, so I'm buying it.

[lolopimp]

I don't have this DVD, nor did I like the movie either. But to counter the people who said the movie is more important than the special features- in a way, to a certain extent, the movie with the extras as an equally important pair, is the whole justification for the 2-disc Platinum Edition. But hey, I can't pass up the chance to say... Crappy movie = shabby DVD treatment.

Oh really????......... whatever.

Miss Jo you shouldn't miss the chance to own this masterpiece on DVD. Yes, the extras are corny but hey, you'll get over it (trust me!) The video quality is top-notch and it has an incredible Home theater mix which will give your Home Theater a real workout. i personally don't waste my time watching the extras, unless I'm really depressed, but just having the movie is all that matters. This is not a crappy movie, so don't miss your chance to get it while it lasts!

[Alcazam]

Yes, I did not like the Lion King 2-disc. On amazon.com, I posted the following "review":


THE CLOWN OF DVDs

Disney had an great opportunity to provide an in-depth look at one of the company's most beloved animated features. With its top notch animation, good plot, excellent characters, memorable songs and an evocative musicial score, The Lion King is amongst Disney finest. The 2-disc edition, however, are far from memorable.
There are some good features on the disc -the audio commentary, a couple of deleted scenes and a extremely brief look on the computer animation are the highlights of this DVD release.

The first disc opens with a flat computer animated sequence with Zazu flying towards Pride Rock. At least it's a slight improvement to the sequences on the two prior releases in the "platinum" series, Snow White and Beauty and the Beast.

The second disc serve some really nice menus with black silhouettes of animals towards warm backrounds. The content is shallow however, even though surprisingly few seem to notice. Many of the features have good potential. But just when they are starting to become interesting, they end. No features are longer than a few minutes, which naturally limits how informative they get. They creators have even decided to leave out the original 25 minute featurette. None of the trailers or TV spots are included. Many of the features easily serves as promotions of other Lion King related products.

It is hard to take this "platinum" edition seriously. Buy this to get the great animated feature (note that the "Original Theatrical Version" is a slightly different version than the actual 1994 theatrical release (some of the animation is altered prior to the IMAX release)). The picture is clear, the sound is good and the atmosphere is as captivating as ever. Just don't expect much from the supplemental features.
----

Nothing really new and surprising in this text, but today I still think the release was uneven. In the US it was actually called "Special Platinum Edition". Well, I think it is an overwhelming title in the first place, and the contents do not hold up. I see no reason to forgive the release.

It seems to me that the it is often the early Disney movies that get the best dvd contents. Often the documentaries seem a lot more thorough and informative, and not as promotional as those documentaries of the newer movies. Just look at Snow White, Bambi, and Fantasia. It might have something to do with the footage available, the persons involved and the time prespective(?). That said, I think the recent Aladdin dvd is good.

This is not just about what you want, but what is promised as opposed to what is actually offered.

[Miss Jo]

Wow, thanks for all the help everyone. I've decided to buy the DVD. Hope I'll be able to figure out the menus. . .

[Jake Lipson]

The Lion King is -- sadly -- far and away the most disappointing of the Platinum line. However, there was enough solid stuff on there if you dug deep enough to find it, and even the doccumentaries managed to be somewhat informative, even if the endless back-patting of the Disney executives gets bland. But, yeah, it's still a solid set. So good is the commentary (ported from the laserdisc) that that alone would have made a truly exellent disc, to say nothing of the rest.

And -- to give Disney credit -- some of the games on all three of the TLK releases are among the best interactive activities ever produced for the format.

All that said, if you truly love the movie and have a deep affection for it, why even allow extras to determine a purchase? Extras are great, but they're still EXTRA; it's the movie that we buy DVDs for, after all, and, forgiving the (not too bad) IMAX modifications, TLK is certianly presented in very fine form on disc.

What are you waiting for? Go get it NOW, especially since it's OOP and will soon become increasingly difficult to find.

[Disneykid]

My thoughts on this release have already been summed up by several members: it's a solid DVD in its own right, but not up to par with what we would expect from a Platinum Edition. Yes, the menu system is needlessly confusing, though there's a trick around that. Simply view all of the content in each journey, then head straight towards the Glendale section of North America. Once you do that, you've checked out all of disc two's features minus the multi-language reel and the featurette on the Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix (I think these are both in South America). In terms of actual content, The Lion King suffers from too broad a perspective. Even though each Journey mini-documentary covers a specific topic, they never really dig that deep. I blame the editors for this since I'm sure the filmmakers must've had oodles of things to share that ended up on the cutting room floor. Then there's the fact that the Journey documentaries are the only substantial things created for the DVD. The non-Journey features are either ported over from the laserdisc (and help make this set be as solid as it is, though a lot is left out), or is shamelessly promotional in nature (Animal Kingdom, Broadway, The Lion King 1 1/2). If the DVD producers had replaced the promotional fluff with the missing LD features (a couple of more deleted scenes, galleries, trailers, and various featurettes), and re-designed the menu system, The Lion King would've been an excellent DVD. As it is, it's just great, but we all expect more than just great from Disney.

[Jayden]

Just a quick question for you here, do you buy DVDs for the movies or the extras? Avoiding a great looking DVD because of some fluffy extras seems to be a little silly to me (The video and audio quality is top notch). How much are you going to the extras as compared to the movies anyways?

I have high doubts that an HD-DVD release of it is going to contain anything significantly new, so I don't really see the point of holding out. The days of the Amazing Collector's Edition sets is past, and now the best are what we're given. Don't expect a massive enhancement for the next re-release is what I'm saying, so if you want the movie, I would suggest getting it. It's not exactly expensive anymore as stores start to clear it out.

I buy DVDs for both the movie and extras, and I rarely buy a single-disc version of a movie unless I'm 90% sure there's no chance of the release ever being improved. If Disney decides not to update their questionable DVD releases when issued on Blu-Ray or HVD, then that's their loss; I won't be buying them that time around either.

As far as the Lion King goes, I have it on VHS, so I've got the actual movie part. Since the DVD has nothing of any particular value (to me), I chose not to get it. I'm not really interested in any new, cheasy songs.

The days for "amazing collectors editions" may be past (at least for Disney), but I'm willing to wait until they come to their senses to buy the movies they've released with sub-par extras.

All I'm saying is that it seems rather silly to avoid a movie that you want just because it's extras don't exactly measure up to what you're used to, when there's not exactly a huge chance that it'll be improved on the next run through.

It makes alot sense for many of the movies I've wanted. I waited for several years on buying one of several rather expensive (at the time) single-disc versions of Dawn of the Dead, and now have the 4-disc Ultimate Edition. I've held out buying Spaceballs for a hell of a long time, and a 2-disc Special Edition is being released a bit later this year. I didn't touch any of the $25 CDN single-disc Star Trek movies, and was rewarded for my patience when they started releasing the 2-disc Collectors Editions for $15 CDN each. I didn't buy Lilo & Stitch when it came out (despite the fact it's in my top 10 of Disney favourites), and now a 2-disc Special Edition is coming out this year. It may not be up to the standards of the Atlantis, Dinosaur, etc. releases; but it's unlikely to be improved in the future, so I'm buying it.

Excellent reasons. As long as you have the movie in some way shape or form, if you wanted it. I've been burned as well buying single-discs (The Star Treks), but you know, I really don't care about it because I upgrade and sell my old ones. I just wanted the movie at the time, but now I'm upgrading them because they are better quality, if there wasn't the quality difference, I probably wouldn't have upgraded them.

[Noriel]

Welcome to the club!!!
there´s no charge for being member

Woohoo!

[Wonderlicious]

Bad enough that I didn't bother buying it. I much preferred Disney's "2-disc Collector Edition" line from a few years ago that produced such DVDs as Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Dinosaur, Tarzan, etc. Those were much better than most of the Platinum Line, which is already starting to go downhill in the area of kiddified crap-content and god-awful music videos.

Are you saying that because a DVD has a bit if fluff on, it makes it a bad DVD? If you are, I must admit that you're being a bit silly. Aladdin had amazing bonus features that may even top those of Snow White despite the games and the evil that is the Jessica and Nick "A Whole New World" rendition.

But yeah, I must admit that some of the non-Platinum DVDs have been as good as, if not better. Like I said, Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, Pocahontas, Sleeping Beauty and Mulan are some of the best DVDs produced by Disney, in my opinion, and they most certainly were not in the platinum line.

[Timon/Pumbaa fan]

I think Lion King was a pretty good DVD. Okay so it was a bit poorly organized, and no wear near as good as Bambi, Snow White or Aladdin's DVD, but it wasn't the worst DVD!

[ThiagoPE]

In my opinion, the lion king dvd is the worst of the platinum editions when we are talking about extra features (the movie itself and the disney enhanced audio track are wonderfull). they (the extras) most of time doesn´t show interesting things (the most that we already know) and, the "really good" extra feature that was the 30" making of the movie was not included.

[Lars Vermundsberget]

I've got a nice collection of Disney laserdiscs - so much so that I really don't need that many of Disney's DVDs.

I did buy the Lion King DVD, though, but to me the value of it lies in the fact that I get the whole film on one disc. And it isn't even the original version.

I watched quite a bit of the extras, but gave up and put it on the shelf. It's too fragmented (for people with short attention spans...?) and the menu setup was pretty much a mess. That's how it seemed to me.

So I have two reasons to prefer the LD box set: Extras and the original version of the film.

Some day I'll probably get a higher-quality display device than what I have now and then I'm sure picture quality will speak for the DVD.

[yankees]

The Lion King Movie Itself IMO is a classic. It is my favorite Disney Film. I remember when i was five and i saw the movie... I saw it 2 more times i think in theaters and Asked My parents everyday to check if it was out on video

The DVD itself. Im not really into all that special features stuff.. i really just buy the movie because I liked It.

But what i can tell u is IMO the picture never looked newer and it sounded great.

The Only thing I dont like about the movie is that i cant watch the original 94 version

It just gives me the version with the morning report

But IMO many people should buy this film
Its a family classic
has adventure
many memorable chracters
and great animation and music

Overall The Lion King Is Great But The DVD is only alright

11/10
would have been 12 but the DVD features are not good
________
Mercedes-benz w251 specifications

[Nala]

The PE of The Lion King has two versions on the DVD. It has the SE version with the all-new song Morning Report and the theatrical version.

[Lars Vermundsberget]

Yankees, something wrong with your DVD or your player? You definitely should be able to see the version without the Morning Report".

The PE of The Lion King has two versions on the DVD. It has the SE version with the all-new song Morning Report and the theatrical version.

...but the so called theatrical version on the PE is still not the original.