The Lion King Disney Read-Along

The Lion King Disney Read-Along
Anybody who struts around with Simba's hard-won authority deserves this royal DVD read-along from Disney. Kids can recoil at Uncle Scar's dastardly deeds en español and discover that "hakuna matata" sounds pretty much the same in Spanish, French, Italian, or German. And should the dynamic storytelling fail to thrill your 4- to 12-year-old fan, a flurry of other interactive options await. Toggle to "Songs" for sing-along renditions of movie hits, including "I Just Can't Wait to Be King," and on to "Music Videos," where Elton John roars soundtrack favorites "Circle of Life" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" and Jimmy Cliff and Lebo M groove to "Hakuna Matata." The "Vocabulary" feature allows for see-and-say mastery of a list of wildlife, while the "Game" section allows players to match paw and hoof prints to the proper beast and reassemble the scattered skeletal remains of an elephant. Original cast voices are featured, and grownups will be pleased by the package's reading component. --Tammy La Gorce
Customer Review: Widely Considered the King of 2D Animated Features!
Born to be a king, little Prince Simba finds himself a guilt-plagued outcast when his uncle Scar puts his plot to overthrow King Mufasa into action. With Simba believing his father's death is his own fault, he lets his family think he is dead too and grows up in the jungle with new, carefree guardians Timon the meerkat and Pumbaa the warthog. Meanwhile, selfish and heartless Scar proves himself to be a terrible and cruel ruler. Luckily, childhood friend Nala discovers Simba's secret, and now that he is grown, Simba will have to decide whether or not to take back his birthright by challenging his murderous uncle at Pride Rock. Released in 1994 at the peak of the "Disney Renaissance", "The Lion King" was a tremendous success in every way. It featured Disney 2D animation at its finest, with stunning African visuals and beautifully blended CGI used only when necessary, glorious music from the likes of Sir Elton John, Tim Rice, Hans Zimmer, and Lebo M, perfectly designed imagery to balance the fantasy aspects with the harsh realities of life, a star-studded cast that was chosen for the right reasons rather than name alone, and a story that proved animation didn't have to be entertaining only to kids (why you have to beat that into some people's heads I'll never know; MANY still don't get it and never will). Masterfully directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, "The Lion King" won 2 Academy Awards and 3 Golden Globes, and has often been declared the high-point that marked the end of Disney's Renaissance period. Personally, I don't agree with that. Disney created many masterpieces since then, both small and large scale, such as Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan, Pocahontas, Lilo and Stitch, Treasure Planet, Tarzan, the Emperor's New Groove..., but the Lion King IS a tough act to follow. Myself, I certainly consider it among the best Disney features ever made, and I think the most powerful aspect is the phenomenal soundtrack, though voice talent like Jeremy Irons as Scar, Nathan Lane as Timon, and James Earl Jones as Mufasa, to name a few, doesn't hurt either. I still gotta give overall best animated feature to "Beauty and the Beast" though, but maybe I'm partial to pretty girls and fairytales. Yes, the Hamlet-inspired "Lion King" is a complete masterpiece in every sense, and it deserves nothing less than this 2-disc Platinum Edition DVD release from Disney. Too bad the follow-up Platinums have never matched the first release, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", in quality and seem to aim more and more supplemental features towards Disney Channel-watching kids, but despite the many complaints about this particular Platinum release being one of the weakest, it remains a decent 2-disc set. Disc One features the film itself, of course, and there are two versions to watch (naturally, in glorious enhanced widescreen). You receive the original version of the film and the headliner of this DVD, the special edition. That means the version with the newly animated song, "Morning Report", which is sung by the hornbill Zazu in one of the early scenes and is seamlessly added into the film, though I kinda don't care much for it myself (unlike the addition put into "Pocahontas" when it came to DVD which pretty much FIXED that film for me and made me see it in a whole new and better light). Still, it's interesting to see this new musical moment inspired by the Broadway show. The downside is that the "original version" of the film included is not 100% legit. According to websites online that post comparisons as proof, a few scenes did get reanimated for the IMAX presentations allegedly to show more detail (and in the case of one crocodile shot, inexplicably), and this IMAX version is actually what we have received as the "original" version on the Platinum DVD. However, if you're not the type to really notice quick and tiny details, you probably won't even notice these alterations. But that don't make it right. A third way to view the film, besides with the new 5.1 enhanced home theater mix audio, is with the audio commentary from the 2 directors and producer Don Hahn. Yes, there IS an audio commentary, but you may not know if you don't look for it among the audio setup. It's a great commentary too. Highly informative and enjoyable. Also among the meager and confusingly organized (but not as confusing as disc 2) extras of Disc One is a Disney Channel "Circle of Stars" music video and "making of the music video" featurette for a new version of the Lion King song "Circle of Life". Mature Disney fans always complain about these videos, this one featuring cast members of Lizzie McGuire, That's So Raven, Even Stevens, Proud Family, and Kim Possible (hope I didn't forget anyone). Sometimes these aren't unwatchable though, and thankfully this one features Hilary Duff prominently, even if she keeps doing those annoying hand motions some singers do way too much (That's alright Hil, you can do annoying things around me all you want). She looks amazing here too, because it's before she got so skinny. More Bonus Features on Disc One are a Sing Along Track, which I think just means you can have the lyrics come up while you watch the film whenever it's time for a song if you activate this extra, and some set top games. There are three games, a fun personality profiler (see which Lion King character you are), a boring grub grab game (worked much better on the old Sega Lion King game), and a pretty fun animal sound identification game. I usually don't care too much for these set-top games, but once in a while there are good ones. In this case, 2 out of 3, that's not bad. Also on Disc One is a behind the scenes look at "Morning Report" and three deleted scenes in storyboard form. The deleted scenes are pretty neat to check out! Disc Two is where the bulk of the extra features are supposed to be, and they are, though they are fewer than they look. There is some annoying repeating done by the organization format. You can view bonus features labeled under continent headings or down at the bottom under titles like Film, Music, etc... and sometimes you'll find stuff in the continent headers that is not in the bottom headers, and visa versa, but even among the same group of headings things get repeated! So, you get the idea when exploring them that there are a lot of bonus features, but you eventually catch on that a lot come up more than once as they are bundled into "journeys". I know that all sounds confusing, but believe me, it IS confusing trying to navigate this stuff. I've actually seen worse though. So, basically there are a bunch of pieces of documentary-type material (filmmaker interviews and so on) that combined would add up to one pretty good documentary. It's a shame these DVD makers feel they have to chop everything up and spread it around to look like there is more. A nice, long documentary that is easy to find and plays everything in succession would be much more appreciated. Still, point is, you do get your behind the scenes featurette type material here on disc two, spread all over the place, covering the story, music, art, the artists' trip to Africa, live-action referencing, effects, and everything else, EVEN the Broadway show! I wish I'd gotten to see that show! Disc Two also has video lessons on the real animals from the film, alternate scenes, a fun pair of "virtual tours" with Timon and Pubaa, 2 music videos from Elton John, and one from Jimmy Cliff and Lebo M, multi-language reels, and, of course, galleries. I always love the character design ones myself. So, all those extras are well and good, though badly organized to obviously make us think we are getting much more, but it is sad that there are no interviews with the voice cast, no trailers for the featured film itself (what is up with that, Disney?), and as I often say, why don't you include those great Disney Channel "Making-Of" specials? They would be better than most of the new stuff that is included on these DVD releases. All in all, while this set is not ideal, it still has a lot to see and the movie is unquestionably a must-own. Full of drama, beauty, comedy, love, action, adventure, inspiration, and magic, "The Lion King" spawned two pretty good direct-to-DVD sequels, a fun animated series, a hit Broadway Show, a spin-off soundtrack (Rhythm of the Pridelands), and a lot of stuff at the wonderful "Disney's Animal Kingdom" theme park (which is promoted a lot on this DVD set too). It is a true piece of cinematic and artistic history, and music history, and probably other kinds of history. It is just a Masterpiece and everyone should have it in their DVD collection. Truly a beautiful thing!
Customer Review: Best Animated Film Ever
I loved this film and named a cat that I had after King Mufasa. It was brilliantly acted and filmed.