There's a small number of a films that I admire too much to attempt to review them. My writing certainly won't do justice to the greatness of them, so rather than struggle with superlatives and words that won't satisfy me in the way the film does, I'll pass almost altogether on reviewing The Lion King. Nonetheless, the status of the film and the nature of this site both call for me to review this Platinum DVD release.

Suffice it to say that The Lion King is the best Disney film that I've seen, and I've seen a bunch. The numerous highlights include a riveting score which blends Hans Zimmer and African choruses featuring Lebo M, some of the most wonderful and catchy songs to ever be recorded on film, energetic performances all around from a talented voice cast, vibrant and colorful animated scenery, and incredibly effective and cinematic direction and style.

On the off chance that you're one of the few people who haven't seen this wonderful film, it is about a young lion cub named Simba, whose father Mufasa happens to be the king of Pride Rock. Throw into the mix his jealous uncle Scar, best friend Nala, free-spirited roamers Timon and Pumbaa, and the tale of Simba's development is filled with adventure, comedy, music, and a variety of life lessons.

THE DVD: Introduction Long-awaited, The Lion King, both the all-time top-selling videocassette and Disney's highest-grossing animated classic, finally arrives on DVD over six and half years after the launch of the format. It is third in the studio's Platinum Collection, a series which features a new 2-disc set of one of their ten best-selling video titles each fall. (Starting in March 2005, the rate will be increased to bi-yearly releases.) The distinction between their Platinum Edition DVDs and other multi-disc sets seem to mean less and less, though, as they issue apt sets for Sleeping Beauty and next January's Alice in Wonderland with similar design but no "Platinum" moniker. Both follow-ups to the premiere Platinum Edition, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (released October 2001) have lowered the bar on in-depth and insightful making-of supplements and raised the bar on inconsequential fare that is somehow supposed to appeal to today's youth. In that regard, this 2-disc Lion King set is the most disappointing Platinum release. Rather than produce some new features that enhance one's understanding and appreciation of both the film and its creation, Disney has spent money on remixed song music videos, childish set-top games, and a new musical number (an addition they foolishly feel is necessary to get people to repurchase the movie on a new format). Of course, the brunt of spending was assigned to marketing the DVD release, something that Disney has heavily done in the past several months. A NOTE about the film's "ORIGINAL THEATRICAL CUT" When The Lion King was released to IMAX theaters last December, changes were made. None of these changes were really necessary or affect the movie significantly by themselves. Since IMAX theaters use such a large screen, and Lion King was animated for regular theatrical release (and well, it was fine for 70 mm showings as well), Disney decided to add detail to the film's existing animation. In theory this is a cross between harmless formatting and George Lucas revisionism, but it would seem to be a non-issue when Disney announced that The Lion King DVD would contain both "the original theatrical cut" and a new Special Edition featuring newly-added musical number "The Morning Report." Those of us who follow Disney closely had our suspicions that the DVD wouldn't really have the original 1994 theatrical cut. After all, Beauty and the Beast's "Theatrical Cut" had a number of changes made. Now we know for certain that Disney's dubious marketing of The Lion King can be labeled as "false advertising." Because the original theatrical cut of The Lion King is now relegated to the bootlegged "Asian imports" that will likely fall into the background at the second-hand online marketplaces, with a legitimate studio DVD released. While the individual changes are small enough to go unnoticed by some, there's a number of things that are troubling about this practice, which I and others have pointed out on our site forum. To paraphrase things I have stated on the forum, here's why the lack of the original theatrical release is disappointing, in spite of the nature of the changes: 1) It's wrong to screw around with the theatrical cut of a film, if you're not going to provide the original theatrical cut. I felt this way about E.T., which in spite of all expectations, Universal properly presented on DVD in its original form. I feel this way about the Star Wars movies. Essentially, the original theatrical release of a film IS the film. I have no problems with filmmakers revising their works if they want to. They made the film, and authors are free to add onto or revise their books. Under no circumstances, though, should an original form be allowed to disappear or go unreleased. Think ahead, 41 years from now, when a 50th Anniversary of The Lion King arrives on some kind of format. Are people going to want the film that was re-edited 8 years after theatrical release, or the original theatrical presentation? 2) It's wrong to advertise something as containing an original theatrical cut, when it plainly does not. There's no misinterpretation here - Disney's original press release clearly stated it. In a September 4 USA Today article, the film's producer Don Hahn insisted that the original 1994 theatrical cut would be included: How far back into its library will Disney go to make "improvements"? Would the studio do this to The Jungle Book? Snow White? When should a movie be left alone? Disney's answer: Not to worry. It's all about options. The original version of The Lion King, with no remixing, no tinkering and no new song, will also be included in the DVD. "The purists out there can see the movie exactly as it was in 1994," Hahn says. "Those who enjoy seeing new innovations can sing a new song." False advertising is wrong, and often illegal - so I'm not sure why this is permitted, particularly from a studio that has sued other studios (Columbia Pictures) for using the phrase "from the creator of Scream." (DVDs of the film with the offending line in the trailer - I Know What You Did Last Summer - had to be recalled, in spite of the fact that Kevin Williamson indeed wrote the screenplays for both horror films.) 3) It sets a terrible precedent. If arguably their most popular film isn't available in its original form (maybe ever again), who's to say that it won't happen for other animated classics that are due to be released on DVD later this decade - films like Aladdin, The Jungle Book, and others. They CAN improve the dinosaur sequences in Fantasia with animation like Dinosaur - but what's the point? Before you counter with the intuitive "it doesn't make a difference, it's just little changes" argument, think about it. By the very same argument, if it doesn't make a difference, why do it? Wouldn't the time, effort, and money be better placed making a half-way decent documentary or some supplements with substance for their biggest animated films? VIDEO and AUDIO Last year's Platinum Edition Beauty and the Beast was unfortunately matted to 1.85:1 for DVD presentation. Disney's animated films have been animated in the 1.66:1 aspect ratio for well over a decade now, and DVD has become the only medium to see the entire animated frame; both matting to 1.85:1 for theaters (or DVD, as in the case of Beauty and the Beast) and cropping to 1.33:1 for video offer small but noticeable compromises in composition. The good news is that The Lion King is presented in its original widescreen aspect ratio of 1.66:1...almost. The actual ratio is 1.71:1, but it's close enough and undoubtedly favorable to both matting or cropping. The film has always looked great, but the digital transfer makes that visual greatness shine through with nary a distraction. This is a most impressive video presentation that displays the array of nature's colors flawlessly. Think of any term used negatively in DVD reviews and throw it out the window, because it doesn't apply here. Undoubtedly, the film was in terrific shape to begin with, and as it is less than a decade old and surely kept in optimal condition. Not to mention the fact that it comes from computer files, and quality was overseen for last December's IMAX re-release. There are two primary choices for audio - the film's original 5.1 Dolby Digital mix, and a new "Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix" intended to raise potency and widen the soundfield of the film's sounds. The EHT track attempts to duplicate the audio format the film was converted to for exhibition in the high-tech IMAX speaker system. It's not DTS, and that may disappoint the devoted followers of the format, but the remix serves its purpose, and the original 5.1 mix is sufficient for its purposes, and wisely provides the film's original audio (well, mostly)...certainly more so than the video of the "original theatrical cut." There really is nothing but praise for the audio presentation. The EHT remix makes full use of directionality and soundfield to create a more interactive sound experience. The musical sequences burst with life, which makes the dialogue and calmer scenes stick out with their quietness - but while there are noticeable differences in volume, it's not to the point where you have to adjust the volume from scene-to-scene. EXTRAS Onto supplements, the area where a studio really decides to sink or swim with a DVD release. Unfortunately, as stated earlier, the supplements on The Lion King DVD are disappointing both for their lack of depth ("immersive" - the word to describe Snow White's extras is rightfully nowhere to be found here) and their terrible method of presentation - through repetitive, unorganized menus, and split into segments that never run beyond 6 minutes. DISC 1 As can be deduced from the praise I've given to the audio and video quality, there were no compression issues as with the content-heavy first disc of Beauty and the Beast. Surely, both cuts of The Lion King could have been included and interweaved, with applicable, running under 3 hours between them and maintaining a high level of quality as seen from the first disc of A Bug's Life: Collector's Edition, which mixes an incredible digital presentation with a number of supplements and offers two viewing formats. Alas, it wasn't meant to be - but Disc 1 is still pretty skimpy on the supplemental features. The menus open with a shot of Rafiki's outline of the lion and proceed with an incredibly pointless 3-dimensional flyaround tour of the film's locations with an awkward-looking computer-animated Zazu. There's about a minute of this, which can fortunately be skipped. Once we get to the actual menus, which are quite plain and free of recognizable characters or images from the movie, you can either access the enigmatically-titled various sections or skip it all and go to the "Index" which lists all the features on Disc 1 over a couple of screens. First and foremost, though given only passing, non-specific mention on the Press Release, buried placement in the menus, and nary a listing on the back of the DVD case is the Audio Commentary ported over from the 1995 laserdisc. This commentary features producer Don Hahn and directors Rob Minkoff and Roger Allers. The trio of filmmakers are inspired and easy-to-listen to as they discuss the film's design, its influences, the cast, and various changes made over the course of production. Even if it is not a new feature, it is an excellent commentary and one of the highlights of the set. There is a truly insidious remix of "Circle of Life" performed by what Disney has shamelessly called the "Circle of Stars" - a bunch of rich teenagers who star in a Disney Channel original series - or in the case of Tahj Mowry, starred on a WB show that has been syndicated on Disney. I don't know what is going through the minds of these kids as they perform - none of them save for Christy Romano and Hilary Duff have really anything like a singing career. The real reason it's here is that airing bits of this on the Disney Channel encourages its audience to buy the DVD. Likewise, those who bought the DVD are subliminally encouraged to watch the Disney Channel. It's a terrible pop rendition of a song put to excellent use in the opening of the film. But Hilary Duff seems to share the Disney exec mode of thinking, "We're pretty much staying true to the original song but just adding a little bit of flavor of each of our voices to it." Incredibly, the 4-minute music video is accompanied by a 4-minute "making-of the music video" featurette - at this point, a supplement is constituted as a behind-the-scenes look at a thing that has little to do with The Lion King. The Sing-Along Track provides subtitles for the film's musical numbers. Then there are the games. You won't find "Rafiki's Three-Gourd Monty" here; although it was in retailer's material for some time, it was ditched, surely because Disney maintains a high level of quality in their games. Actually, there are three set-top games here: - Timon's Grab-a-Grub, in which you use the direction arrows to grab grubs (it's a poor man's version of the fun bonus rounds from the old Genesis video game and you have to wait a few seconds after every grab) - Pumbaa's Sound Sensations, an animal sound identification game, which is moderately fun - The Lion King Personality Profile Game, which is short and interesting. You answer questions based on your behavior and they tell you what character from the movie you're most like. The Making of "The Morning Report" is a 3-minute featurette which explains and attempts to justify the addition of a new musical number as something other than a blatant effort to increase revenue on DVD sales. The number adds nothing to the film, but producer Don Hahn and others, including the president of the home video division, throw acclaim onto it, and we see the falsetto-voiced young boy who replaces Jason Weaver as the singing voice of Simba for this new sequence. There is actually something besides the Commentary (and the movie) of substance on Disc 1 - the section of deleted scenes & abandoned concepts. "Bug Football" is 20 seconds of Timon and Pumaa plays football with a bug, and 20 seconds of Don Hahn explaining it. "Hakuna Matata" has a 25-second introduction from Hahn, then provides some of the beginning of the film's Hakuna Matata sequence in storyboard film and progresses to a verse by Timon (in the style of Pumbaa's "When I was a young warthog" verse that tells the meerkat's story; the scene itself runs for 2 minutes and is a neat addition. Finally, there is an alternate rendition of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" in which Timon and Pumbaa sing most of the song, in addition to the parts they take in the actual movie. It runs 1 minute and 44 seconds, 40 seconds of which is archive footage of Tim Rice and Elton John explaining the number's progression. A number of sneak previews play at the start of the disc - The Lion King 1 1/2, Brother Bear, George of the Jungle 2, Finding Nemo, The Santa Clause 2, and a nauseating spot for Walt Disney World. In addition, previews for Sleeping Beauty: Special Edition, and Mary Poppins: Special Edition (coming next August) are accessible from the Sneaks menu. Finally, there is a 54-second preview of Disc 2's contents, which emphasizes the Virtual Safari feature, which underlines the priorities this DVD has. DISC 2 We move to the second disc, whose basic menus deceptively house the same extras again and again in various sections. What's worse is that not a single feature runs longer than six minutes, so the closest thing to documentary is playing the "Journeys" which include some but not all of the features from a specific section. Speaking of the sections, I shall now break them down. Story covers the film's inspirations, from Shakespeare's Hamlet (plot) to religious epics like Ben-Hur (style and direction). There are three brief featurettes, which run 11 minutes 50 seconds in total and mix a heavy amount of fullscreen film clips with new interviews with the writers and other filmmakers, and some on-set footage. These segments are among the more insightful bonus features on the DVD, analyzing the film as allegory for humans and fitting the archetype of timeless myths. It also describes the progression the film made from being referred to as "Bambi in Africa" to its changing level of Hamlet awareness. The second journey would appear to be the most important one - Film. It is here in the "Origins" featurette that the film's place at the studio is discussed - labeled as a B-picture to their overlapping project Pocahontas. The "Production Research Trip" which runs just under 2 and a half minutes, is one of the nicest features on the disc - it shows animators and designers (including production designer Chris Sanders, who has since gone on to direct Lilo & Stitch) traveling to Africa to observe the scenery and culture. There's photographs and some taped footage, but what comes across here (and not in just about any other feature) is an enthusiasm and passion for what they do. There's no hook to this featurette, no encouragement to buy a direct-to-video sequel or to go to a park or play. This brief section is probably the most human of all included and it's so short. "Art & African Influence" details the look of the film, and its influence from African landscapes, wildlife, and culture. "Reflections" is kind of a general lookback at the film - something that you might hope to have more of. The two problems are it's short-sighted (most of the comments are from Disney execs) and it's short (running 5:10). Overall, the Film journey runs 17 minutes and 25 seconds. But there's more... Not played as part of the journey but also listed under Film are some more content pulled from the laserdisc. In general, this is all noticeably superior to the newly-produced content. "Storyboard Process" is a 1994 feature which is dominated by directors Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, something you wish to happen more often, but it only runs 1 minute and 55 seconds. "Computer Animation" (4:20) is pretty similar to what was covered in the 1994 half-hour documentary, it might even be pulled directly from there. It's an interesting little piece about how the wildebeest stampede scene was done. Art Director Andy Gaskill is enlightening and a very good speaker and in the 2-minute "Production Design" featurette from the laserdisc, he discusses the different stylistic paths the filmmakers considered, cartoonish, National Geographic-like, and something more in line with David Lean's epic films. Also from the laserdisc are the Character Design clips, which run a minute or two on each of the following characters: Mufasa, Simba, Scar, Rafiki, Timon & Pumbaa, Zazu, and the Hyenas. The effects of casting and the actual animals are both noted in the development of the characters. "Film Character Design Galleries" provides between 15 and 40 drawings for each of the previous characters plus Sarabi, Nala, and Miscellaneous Characters. At the start of each gallery, the narrator gives a short introduction of what to notice in the development of the characters, and who worked on each one. Stage is a collection of well-presented features on the popular Broadway musical that spun off from Disney's film. Ultimately, very little of this section has anything to do with the movie. The five featurettes run 16 minutes and 14 seconds, and detail the jump from animated film to lavish and overdone Broadway production. We learn that Lion King filmmakers essentially laughed off Disney CEO Michael Eisner's suggestion that it be made into a musical. Eisner explains that he told them, "If you don't figure out what to do, then I'm just gonna go do it." Much time is spent singing the praises of Julie Taymor, who served as the play's director, costumer designer and a variety of other tasks and whose 2002 film Frida won Oscars for Disney's Miramax branch. The other topics include how to transform animal characters and vast African landscapes to fit a human cast and a New York stage and how the 'audio sequel' Rhythm of the Pridelands by Lebo M and Mark Mancina was incorporated into the musical score by Tim Rice and Elton John. In spite of all the praise and awards it's received, watching this, I'm glad I've eschewed seeing the musical. There is also a Stage Musical Publicity Gallery that contains 11 posters and documents that advertise the play in various languages and countries. All of the features in this section conclude with a note about where to see Disney's Lion King and Beauty and the Beast on stage. With all that's gone into promoting the Virtual Safari feature, which is given its own section and is highlighted on Disc 1's preview of Disc 2, you'd expect a lot more. Essentially, it's a computer-animated first-person tour by land or water, with "witty" comments provided by Timon & Pumbaa. The "Virtual" part isn't that you're not really travelling around in Africa seeing the animals - it's that the animals are virtual too, which makes this feature virtually pointless, but addictive enough to continue through. You choose which way to go, and you'll encounter a stampede, snakes, monkeys, and occassionally a big drop to what seems to be death, but apparently poses no real harm to the meerkat and warthog, who end up just fine and show you the out-of-focus virtual "photographs" of your virtual safari. Each tour lasts about 10 minutes or so, I'd guess, and although you make a number of choices throughout, each one takes you to the same place after the instant alteration. So, it's not like it's different every time you play or anything. In addition to the jeep and boat tours, there's an "Under Construction" section, which of course promotes something, in this case it's promoting more Virtual Safaris on next year's DVD releases of The Lion King 1 1/2 (the trailer is again provided here) and The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (due for a re-release August 2004, though it doesn't say that here). The Music Journey contains 7 featurettes and runs 24 minutes and 15 seconds total. Music is one of many areas where the film excels, with input from lyricist Tim Rice, writer/composer/vocalist Elton John, composer Hans Zimmer and African choirs led by Lebo M. Much of the good stuff presented here is taken from the laserdisc - Hans Zimmer talks about his collaboration with Lebo M, of his original plan to use just percussions (as he did when he first worked with Lebo M on 1992's The Power of One), his personal influences that helped him make the music, and scoring the stampede scene. The "audio sequel", Rhythm of the Pride Lands, a 1995 popular CD follow-up compiled by Lebo M and Mark Mancina, is covered in one of the vignettes. Elton John talks about the thrill of winning an Oscar for "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" The second page contains three music videos from the laserdisc - "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" (4:00) and "Circle of Life" (4:50) performed by Elton John, and the Rhythm of the Pridelands version of "Hakuna Matata" (3:56) by Jimmy Cliff and Lebo M. These are a nice inclusion. Animals, as you can guess, covers the real wild animals that inspire characters in the film. This journey begins with an Introduction by Roy Disney (1:30), which weaves in thinly-veiled promotion for Disney's Animal Kingdom before setting up the relevant nature content to follow. Brief vignettes on Lions (2:50), Meerkats (2:40), Warthogs (2:50), and Hyenas (2:20) compare and contrast the characters in the movie and the real life animals who inspire them. In spite of a narrator who sounds like he's presenting for children, these have pretty wide appeal and provide some interesting facts for those who aren't already an authority on African animals. The journey wraps up with "Disney & Animals" (5:45) which appears repeatedly throughout Disc 2. Naturally, the featurette is too short to go into detail, but it briefly discusses projects that Walt worked on that showcased animals. It eventually begins to just roll off movie titles and degrades into a promotional featurette that again pushes Brother Bear and the Animal Kingdom park. Altogether, Animals runs 18 minutes and 15 seconds. In addition to the aforementioned six 'journey' categories, there are six continents listed which repeat nearly everything that's been covered in the other categories. All six continents include galleries of 16 International Soundtrack Covers and 11 International Large Format Release artwork (though this includes some International posters from the 1994 release, as well). The six continents also include a Multi-Language Reel which after a 40-second introduction from Senior VP of Creative Disney Character Voices (whose human name is Rick Dempsey) plays the 4-minute "Hakuna Matata" sequence in a variety of languages, including Italian, German, Dutch, French, Korean, Finnish, Mandarin, Swedish, Hebrew, and Zulu. When the language name and accompanying logo are displayed you can press pretty much any button to see a "country's favorite scene" in that language - though I'm not sure how official any of the rankings are, most of them seem to focus Timon and Pumbaa. In case you're wondering, Antarctica is given short shrift and is the one continent not listed in the menus. The menus are surprisingly low-key and don't really show off anything specifically Lion King (something that can be said for many, if not most, of the extras, too), except for instrumentals of songs from the film. Of course, in spite of the simple nature of the menus, the layout and design is excessively complex and the booklet's information (which is supposed to be like a Zoo Guide of some sort) is little help. What's as important as what's included here is what is NOT. The deluxe laserdisc and videocassette sets both included the fantastic 25-minute documentary, "The Making of The Lion King" which is noticeably missing here. Hosted by Robert Guillaume (the voice of Rafiki), the 1994 documentary covered a variety of aspects of the film's production (some only briefly touched on this DVD), including voice casting, African inspirations, using computers to aid the wildebeest stampede, and the animation and style of the film. Some clips that were used in this are scattered here and there, but it's most effective in documentary form. It makes absolutely no sense why Disney chose not to include this terrific piece - surely disc space was not an issue, as the bonus disc contains less than two hours of content. Rights would also appear not to be an issue, as it was released on two home video formats already, and most of what was on the laserdisc was directly ported over. Had Disney created a new documentary for the DVD, this feature's absence might have made the slightest bit of sense. But they didn't, and it's most disappointing that they opted to give us a Disney Channel stars music video, and lots of content that was either promotional or not directly related to the movie and NOT the existing "Making Of." Another disappointing exclusion is one of the most basic and readily found supplements for a movie. Nine times out of 10, if a movie is released to DVD with just one feature, it's the original theatrical trailer. Within these two discs, there isn't a single trailer for The Lion King. Now surely a trailer is promotional in nature, and I've complained about the promotional element of the supplements that were included here. But there's a distinction - the thing that trailers are advertising, you already have. It isn't Disney telling you to go out and see this or buy this; a trailer is more of a historical document, a time capsule that shows you what moviegoers and TV viewers saw 9 years ago as their first impressions of the film. While the entire "Circle of Life" sequence was used as a preview in some places, there also existed a number of theatrical trailers for the film, in addition to the Fall 1994 re-release, trailers from its record-shattering 1995 home video release, countless TV spots, and even last year's IMAX previews and TV ads. While Disney has shown a befuddling resistance to including a film's theatrical trailers on its DVD, the exclusion here is most absurd. The closest thing to a Publicity gallery doesn't contain most of the theatrical posters or print ads. For a film that reigned as the highest-grossing animated film for 9 years, you'd think they'd care to show us. Instead, we get less than the single trailer we got on Lion King II: Simba's Pride. Missed opportunities abound on this set. None of the talented voice cast, many of whom have reprised their roles in direct-to-video sequels, were approached to lend insight. There are no Oscar speeches. No new feature that runs longer than a few minutes by itself. Had Disney not broken down all of their featurettes into smaller, more focused segments (of which they actually padded the running times for the booklet listings), they might have been able to put together a decent 1-hour documentary or so, but instead they chose small fragmented pieces to make it look like there's more here than there really is, to support Joel Siegel's half-baked quote that "the king of animated films is now the king of all DVDs." There is some worthwhile material included on the bonus disc, but it's just not nearly as insightful, in-depth, or well-organized as one would hope, especially considering the amount of time that could have gone into producing this DVD, and the two years that Disney claims did. Much of the bonus material seems to be designed to sell Disney - its parks, plays, and other movies. It's really disappointing that they made this DVD a loosely-related marketing vehicle rather than a collection that documents the making and impact of the film. CLOSING THOUGHTS The Lion King is an outstanding film and illustrates how effective an animated production can be when all the elements come together just right. It truly sets standards for other Disney films to hope to reach: visual impact, a malicious villain, presenting drama, making musical magic that stays with you, perfectly-realized comic sidekicks, a likeable protagonist with a reasonable arc and human challenges. In fact, The Lion King sets a standard that all film can hope to achieve - it shows you just how much fun and entertainment movies can be. The 2-disc DVD release presents the IMAX cut of the film with remarkable audio and video quality. Unfortunately, in terms of bonus features, substance is lacking, as is a sensible layout and design. It's just disappointing that some material wasn't carried over from the laserdisc. Nonetheless, there are a number of positives to this presentation (most notably the laserdisc supplements that WERE ported over), and the film is certainly not one to miss. Ultimatedisney.com