The Lion King - Special Edition

It doesn't help that the feature-film disc opens with eight "sneak previews" and a live-action commercial for Disney World. What should be an event experience is cheapened before it begins: "The Lion King" -- a crown jewel of modern Disney animation -- unspools like any straight-to-video kiddie show.

It's a shame, because otherwise, "The Lion King" gets the royal treatment. Restored and remastered, "The Lion King" looks and sounds spectacular. Colors can be wildly saturated without loss in definition -- as in baby Simba's Busby Berkeley-inspired "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" -- or subtle and true to life.

The audio defaults to the theatrical surround mix, but anyone with decent gear should switch immediately to the so-called Enhanced Home Theatre Mix (both are Dolby Digital 5.1). "It will test your home system set-up," vows the proud rerecording engineer Terry Porter, who gets to explain his work in an unusual but quite welcome DVD extra. (It's on disc 2; dig deep to find it).

Most viewers will first view the new version of the film, which has an added song, by Elton John and Tim Rice, that's explained in a making-of featurette. Rice describes the music-hall-like "Morning Report" as "a lot of bad animal puns." The song, sung by Zazu, runs less than 90 seconds and comes early in the film. It's fun, but you'll probably prefer the original pacing.

Viewers not interested in chasing around the DVD set to get the lowdown on the film -- there's a swarm of quick-cut Disney docus -- will do just fine with the commentary by producer Don Hahn and directors Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff. It's recycled from the laserdisc but not the least bit dated.

One of the best extras has old footage of Elton John at the piano, tentatively unveiling "The Circle of Life" for the Disney team. Must to avoid: An unfortunate music video has the current stars of the Disney Channel romping through "Circle of Life."


Absolutely Extrodinary   April 3, 2003
Brad (Alabama)
50 out of 62 found this review helpful

Wow. I'm still getting over this wonderful and breathtaking journey that is the Lion King. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie's music, story, and spiffy characters. I recommened it to anyone who likes movies period. Charcaters such as Timon & Pumba bring in comedic relief, while more serious and awesome characters such as Mufasa help bring depth and feel to the story. I dont care if your 2, 16, 28, 50, or even 90 years of age, you'll simply fall in love with this movie. If you ask me what the best part of the entire movie was, i would have to say the blending of the music and picture that is presented in such a way that is captavating and breathtaking. Buy the soundtrack now....also try the Broadway soundtrack. This is Disney at it's finest. This is one of the greatest animated pictures of all time if not one of the greatest movies ever.


Perfect in every sense of the word...but a useless 2nd disc.   May 26, 2005
A.N. Roman (Hillsboro, OR)
37 out of 50 found this review helpful

Let's get something straight right now. The Lion King is a perfect movie. Be it live action or animated, there are few others I can list that reach its level of quality. Seeing it in theaters back in the mid-90s was a great experience. Even if I wasn't old enough to understand some of the darker issues in it back then, I enjoyed the movie, like the millions of other kids. Now, at almost 20, watching the movie really gets to me. This is one of Disney's more grown up movies. I'm not saying that to make it sound like it's too violent or there's any hinting at mature themes, but all the talk about death in the beginning, about the Circle of Life, that's some pretty powerful stuff to be talking about in a family movie. With this re-release of the movie, hopefully more parents or future parents will keep it around and show their kids this piece of movie history.

The movie opens up with possibly the most grand of Disney openings- a sunrise. An African song plays, and the animals look towards something that we can't see. Every type of animal in the area starts heading towards something. Birds, elephants, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, you name it. Soon, we see a great rock formation- Pride Rock. A lion stands atop, overlooking everything in his kingdom. Then, a mandrill makes his way through the crowd of animals that waits. He hugs the lion, and makes his way to the lioness behind him. They've had a baby. The mandrill takes the cub, and holds him high up for all the animals to see. They cheer in unison- they have a new prince. Some opening eh? After this, we're introduced to another lion- Scar. He's the king's brother, and obviously jealous of the whole deal. He didn't even show up to the ceremony. Mufasa, the king, makes a note of this, telling Scar that he should've shown up for his own nephew's birth. Scar walks away, as it's no big deal to him. Time passes, and Simba grows up a little. He's still a cub, but capable of doing things on his own now. Mufasa tells him about the Circle of Life. How all living things are connected. Lions eat the antelope, but when they die, their bodies become the grass, upon which the antelope eat. Simba is also shown his kingdom, which is everything that the light touches. Unfortunately, the light doesn't touch one spot, which sparks his interest...of which Scar helps him get even more curious about. It turns out to be an elephant graveyard. Simba heads toward it with his friend, Nala, and they almost get killed by heyenas. Mufasa saves them, is disappointed that his son disobeyed, but understands. Scar, who's working with the heyenas, is also disappointed, and takes matters into his own hands- since they failed in killing Simba, he's going to kill Mufasa. In doing so (in a very tragic scene), Simba goes into exile, and Scar takes over. Simba finds two new friends in Timon and Pumbaa, who teach him to take life easy. But with time, the true king realizes who he is through his friends, and there will be justice.

As you can see, this is a pretty big movie. It's not complicated by any means, but just the overall picture is a lot to take in. A dad telling his son about life and death, only to die in saving his son who hasn't reached adulthood yet, was always touching. The music playing during that scene adds even more dramatic touch to it. Scar, as I've mentioned, is an absolute treat. He's probably my favorite Disney villain, surpassing even Jafar and Gaston. Sure, some of his lines and movements make you question his orientation, but that doesn't matter. His voice, design and motives are too good. That's how it is with a lot of the other characters too. Disney did a great job with the designs. Zazu, a hornbill bird, is voiced by Rowan Atkinson of Mr. Bean fame. And you know what? Zazu looks freakin' identical to Rowan. I didn't notice it back then, but now, it's hilariously uncanny. Equally great is the soundtrack. When the movie came out, I had the soundtrack. About two years later, it was lost...but I can remember every single track perfectly. It leaves that much of an impact on you. How many animated movies can you say that about, and really mean every track- not just the songs?

The picture and audio quality on this disc are flawless. There's no grain, fuzz, or anything to hinder the viewing experience. If you have a nice sound system, by all means- crank this baby up and prepare to be blown away.

Now why does the rating for this movie that I keep stressing being perfect only come out at four stars? That's easy- the second disc is a joke. I'll get to that in a minute. The first disc includes a "never before heard song", like Disney keeps throwing in its Platinum Edition sets. Though "never before heard song" usually equals "direct to video animation quality and CG overkill" *cough Beauty & the Beast cough*, the song here is very short. It's Zazu giving his morning report to Mufasa during Simba's pouncing scene. While it's funnier to hear Zazu talk about the Pridelands gossip with more character, hearing it in song is still good. There are 3 deleted scenes under the "Elephant Graveyard" section of the first disc, thoug they're all in storyboard and animatic form. One's of Timon and Pumbaa singing Can You Feel The Love Tonight?, which was dropped because Elton John was horrified at how they sang it. It's understandable, but hearing them sing it is just hilarious. Another scene is of Timon's verse in Hakuna Matata. During the commentary, they say it didn't fit in that much, and Pumbaa's was funnier, and they're right. It's mostly about how he was lazy. As for that commentary track, it's with the directors and producer. They talk a lot, and point out some cool info aboud the production. Things like dialogue they wanted to add but didn't feel fit in, a slightly extended ending, and how huge some of the background paintings were. It's mostly geeky stuff, but I feel it's worth at least one listen. These guys had a lot of work to do. Most of the other features on the first disc are minor things, but still better than the second disc, which is aimed at 5 year olds. No joke- almost everything is about animals or what Africa's like. And all of these are in very short segments, usually 2-4 minutes. And, there's a lot of them. Why a "play all" feature wasn't included is beyond me. It made watching the features a chore, and felt rushed. There's also a virtual safari, which felt kinda creepy since it's at night, and a lot of animals attack Timon and Pumbaa's jeep. There are no real special features here: no documentary, no behind the scenes look, no glance at the voice actors during work (except like 4 seconds of Johnathan Taylor Thomas), just tons of the people that worked on the movie talking about going to Africa for inspiration. And that's all it is- talk. I was disappointed, and won't be watching the second disc again.

Overall, The Lion King remains one of Disney's crown jewels. Sure, it may have had a lot of help from the other animated classic: Jungle Emperor Leo, but they really did improve it. It's just sad to know that after this, they didn't put in as much effort into their other animated features. Not to bash the likes of Hunchback or Mulan, but their animation style really changed after this, and it's a shame. As far as I can see, there's not going to be another Lion King from them. Lilo and Stitch came close (in sales and tone), but it's hard to dethrone something this classic.


Not just a Bambi ripoff   August 7, 2000
Kellyannl (Bronx, NY USA)
27 out of 31 found this review helpful

Although it might be accused of plot similarities to "Bambi", The Lion King stands on it's own as the best animated film of Disney's silver age save for "Beauty and the Beast".

It starts off with the greatest opening sequence in animation history, which already must rank within the top ten moments in all animation, period. Disney has since tried to match it in "Dinosaurs", but it remains unequalled. The inimitable "Circle of Life" has no rival except "When you wish upon a star" as Disney mood-setting music.

The animals of the African plains pay homage to the new lion prince, Simba, at his birth. Already he has one strike against him in his father Mufasa's brother Scar, bitter because Simba is now the heir to the throne of the pridelands. While Simba and his friend Nala grow, Scar plots with hyena henchmen to dethrone Mufasa. Scar's moment comes in one devestating blow, managing to make the young cub stricken with guilt in the process.

Simba runs off and is saved from death by exposure to the elements by Pumbaa, a kind warthog, and Timon, his meerkat best friend. As an adult, he has forgotten his legacy until a now-grown Nala and Rafiki, his father's baboon best friend, remind him. He goes to face the hour of reckoning with Scar, his friends by his side.

The movie includes some of the best voicing work and dialogue in the Disney cannon, especially that of Scar - so evil as portrayed by Jeremy Irons that he actually drew a gasp from my jaded father - and Nathan Lane's Timon, who I feel will eventually take his place as Disney's greatest second banana (and no, I'm not forgeting the Seven Dwarves or Cinderella's mice). His now famous luau scene is Disney's supreme howler moment.


Yes, buy it.   September 29, 2003
Gaijin (Hilo, HI United States)
27 out of 30 found this review helpful

Disney's The Lion King is finally available on DVD. Considered the cream of the crop of all the Disney animated features by many, it is definitely worth owning. I don't think I'll go into the story, which I'm sure most of you know. Chances are you've already seen the movie and are just waiting to own it on a piece of media that won't rot like your VHS tape that probably fell apart by now. Even if Disney released a sub par release of this movie, you'd buy it.
Luckily, this is one of the best releases ever.

Video and Audio is supreme in this release. Especially vibrant is the 5.1 sound. Of all the older Disney releases, this one benefits the most I think, with the powerful music and sound effects present in this release. Hearing James Earl Jones as Mufasa blaring in thunderous 5.1 sound is quite amazing. Likewise the excellent music, such as the opening Circle of Life. Present in this release is the original theatrical version as well as a version with new music/song. I actually didn't care for the new song, but some may. The extras are quite numerous, contained on a second DVD and are mentioned in Amazon's product details...I haven't had the time to go through them yet, so I cannot comment on the extras. I just watched the movie again. To be honest, the movie would be worth it as a single disc release so I'm happy as it is.

Some interesting trivia for some of the people who are not aware of it is that The Lion King seemed to be heavily "influenced" by an old Japanese anime, Kimba The White Lion. Those wishing to see the "similarities" would do well to check out that series as it has also been released on DVD. Carbon copying aside, I do love the Lion King. It still manages to grab you whether you are 4 years old or 40. Two thumbs up!!