DVDizzy Forum

DVD Toons has revealed their "Top Toons of 2003!" list:
1. Looney Tunes Golden Collection (WB)
2. The Lion King: Platinum Edition (Disney)
3. Finding Nemo (Disney)
4. Spirited Away (Disney)
5. Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Vista Series (Disney/Touchstone)
6. Frank and Ollie: Special Edition (Disney)
7. Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends: Complete Season One (Columbia)
8. Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie (Artisan)
9. Sleeping Beauty: Special Edition (Disney)
10. The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season (Fox)

Disney also gets their share of the "Honorable Mentions" too, including the re-issue of "A Bug's Life: Collector's Edition," "Treasure Planet," and a few others.

You can view the list with some small descriptions of the DVDs as well as the non-Disney Honorable Mentions here:
http://www.dvdtoons.com/features/61

Lion King DVD #2? Bah!

Jack wrote:Lion King DVD #2? Bah!

It should be Finding Nemo. Maybe Finding Nemo should be #1?

Grunches wrote:Maybe Finding Nemo should be #1?

Sure, Finding Nemo was a very popular and successful film. It had a great DVD (though not as good as Pixar's previous DVDs) and it was a good film pretty much all-around.

But Nemo the #1 animated DVD of 2003? That's laughable. 2003 has had so many great classic animation DVDs with content that has been neglected for many years now. In fact, I would have been surprised if the Looney Tunes Golden Collection didn't get #1. But you are right about The Lion King DVD... That DVD is not in the same league as Nemo, let alone The Looney Tunes Golden or Roger Rabbit.

As for my own list, I would put Nemo below no's #1, 5, 7, and 8, but that's just me.

Where's Castle in the Sky!

are they basing this on the actual movie, the extras on the dvd, or the sales? I don't see how the looney tunes beat out lion king and finding nemo

Well, obviously NOT sales. I'd guess it's based primarily on the DVD presentation - i.e. extra content, and not the movie.

Very weird. In USA (or on this forum only) people really don't like the Lion King DVD. In my country (Belgium) we think it's a great DVD and we're satisfied with what we got. It has great bonus material and the whole movie is great with the Enhanced Home Theater Mix. A lot of belgian reviewers have said that TLK DVD is the best DVD of the year! And I, I agree actually. Maybe you guys are more spoiled in the USA by dvd's and bonus material. But anyway, I love TLK dvd. It should have been #1 in my opinion!

It is an odd list.
I have to admit I only have 6 of the top 10 so I can't comment as effectively as if I had all 10 but...
I find it strange that something like the Simpsons wasn't rated higher. I mean, they did go to the effort of having a commentary on EVERY episode. How many series (especially ones as popular and long-running as that) would go to the trouble?
Good to see Looney Tunes on the top of the list. It is the next one on my list of big DVD purchases.
I personally found 'Nemo' a little disappointing, compared to the previous Pixar DVDs, but still a fine release to be sure. The local DVD of that should be good due to the DTS inclusion.
Good to see 'Frank & Ollie' get up, as I thought it was one of the highlights of the year. A fine film with a fine set of extras for animation fans...

Jens wrote: Maybe you guys are more spoiled in the USA by dvd's and bonus material. But anyway, I love TLK dvd. It should have been #1 in my opinion!

yeah that's probably true. It seems as though a company almost has to release a 2-disc set for movies before people will get really excited about it. A prime example in my opinion would be matrix reloaded. There were 2 discs, but actually the second "bonus" disk didn't have much on it at all. I think they just put it on a second disk to say that it was a 2 disk set.

Jens wrote:Very weird. In USA (or on this forum only) people really don't like the Lion King DVD. In my country (Belgium) we think it's a great DVD and we're satisfied with what we got. It has great bonus material and the whole movie is great with the Enhanced Home Theater Mix. A lot of belgian reviewers have said that TLK DVD is the best DVD of the year! And I, I agree actually. Maybe you guys are more spoiled in the USA by dvd's and bonus material. But anyway, I love TLK dvd. It should have been #1 in my opinion!

Well, I'm not trying to speak for everyone in the U.S. (although I know many share my opinion), but I found the Lion King DVD to be overall dissapointing because two reasons:

1. The original version of the movie is absent. Instead, they present the re-vamped IMAX version as the "Original Theatrical Version". Petty.

2. The Extras: Pretty much everything only lasted a couple minutes and didn't really provide any in-depth info - just skimming over the production of the film and other stuff related to it. I think a lot of the dissapointment has to do with the fact that its a "Platinum Edition" and compared to Snow White's in-depth, numerous extras on it's "Platinum Edition", Lion King just sucks, IMO.

However, I agree that the transfer & audio is wonderful.

Yeah but isn't DVD supposed to be VHS with better video and audio quality? Okay you get Bonus Material with it, which is nice, but is it all about that? I bought my DVD's for the movies I so much liked. I'm already satisfied if it only has a Making of. If only the audio and video is good, I'm satisfied More Bonus Material = great! But I'm not going to nag about it when they don't included it or don't include it well.

You're right - extras are secondary. But as I said, half the reason I was dissapointed was because of there not even being a true original theatrical version.

Besides, even if extras ARE secondary, there are other animation DVDs that has everything Lion King has + much more. That's the main reason I'm saying it shouldn't be at #2.

"Sleeping Beauty" #9?! How come?!

Well, I really liked the "Finding Nemo" DVD. I though the extras were lots of fun... I only wish they could make the galleries bigger!

"The Lion King"... well, I agree the DVD is not "the king of all DVDs" and it even doesn't come close to that statement... Still, I am quite happy to have the movie looking and sounding this great. As for the extras, it did NOT suck... Really. I like the bonuses, but what makes me angry is that they couldn't include such simple things as the trailers and the original theatrical cut of the movie. Anyway, I like what was included... If only we had a better navigation sistem!

I have high hopes for the Masterpiece Collections... I think "Pocahontas" and "Lilo & Stitch" will be REAL collector's editions, and "Alice" will be stuffed with material for us as well!

Aside from the oft-mentioned, obvious disappointment over the lack of the theatrical cut, what disappointed me with The Lion King DVD was that it COULD have been so much more than it was. The talent is still alive and well which means new retrospective interviews can be conducted, and they were, but everybody seemed to be content to sit around and be self-congratulatory instead of going into any real depth. Also, the laserdisc was reportedly exaustive and considering how easy it is to just port that over, it's especially annoying that most of it got dumped during the translation from laser to DVD. And at the very least the menus should have been easy to navigate and sensible. Instead, the menu system is a confusing and jumbled mess with no logic as to where anythimg is. And, 99% of the time, if a movie is released on DVD with just one extra it's the theatrical trailer, and those are missing here. Don't you think Disney would be eager to show off the marketing campign that helped The Lion King become their top-grossing animated classic ever? Compare that to sets like Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Finding Nemo and there's really no doubt which one wins.

And NO, DVD is not VHS with better audio/video. DVD is in a league of its own and has no comparison to VHS, a format which it is leaps and bounds ahead of. DVD isn't just an upgraded format, it's a replacement format.

Well, I have to say, thaqt frankly I liked the TLK dvd, alot more than I liked the Finding Nemo one. I just thought the extras on Nemo were very dissapointing, and I don't have any other Pixar DVD's to compare it to...

I do think Sleeping Beauty should be higher on the list as well, if not higher than The Lion King, atleast between it and Finding Nemo...

That's all I have to say about that...