Just got this one in the mail today from Buy.com. (I think it's released tomorrow) A review:
Let's cut to the chase: Overall rating, :5: This is one of the better loved Disney movies with a solid, engaging plot and a wonderful soundtrack. This DVD does the movie justice and is a great addition to any collection. THX certified for the discriminating buyer. Details? Read on:
Picture: :4: for picture quality, :45: for the digital transfer. Remember, this movie was made just before the digital age in 1994. The picture lacks some of the crisp, sharp, objects and vivid colors of some of the latest reference children's animated or CGI movies, such as A Bug's Life or the Toy Stories. But given what the movie was released with, Disney has made a very nice restoration and digital transfer to DVD. Some of the colors do stand out, and overall the picture is clean. Very good. Strangely enough, the DVD is listed as presenting the original movie aspect ratio of 1.66/1, enhanced for 16:9 televisions, but on my 16:9 screen, there were thin black bars on the SIDES of the picture. The bars were much thinner than those for a 4:3 image, suggesting that the movie is actually an aspect ratio somewhere inbetween 16:9 and 4:3, which doesn't really exist. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else sees this also.
Sound: :4: for the movie sound, and again :45: for the digital transfer. My comments are very similar to the picture, in that the movie does lack some of the crystal clear creation of the same movies of A Bugs Life and the Toy Stories. But sound effects and background music are well placed and appropriate for the visuals. Interestingly enough, Disney is debuting a "new" sound mixing process in creating an available soundtrack, called "5.1 Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix". This is available in ADDITION to a standard 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack. The new soundtrack is supposed to be optimized in levels and mix for home theater use, as opposed to movie theater release. Flipping back and forth using my DVD audio button between the two 5.1 tracks, I found the new "Disney Enhanced" soundtrack to be much fuller and enveloping, and the standard 5.1 seemed thin in comparison. However, you can fix a 5.1 soundtrack any way you want, so I wonder if Disney specifically created the "standard" 5.1 sountrack to be a little weak, thin, and at a slightly lower output level to make their "enhanced" soundtrack appear better by comparison.
Story: :5: Very compelling and engaging story. It draws from the guaranteed-to-appeal topics of family ties, the death of a parent, and of course, the tried-and-true idea of laughable sidekick characters. But the movie doesn't attack any of the plot ideas in a trite or cliche manner, (yes, this is BEFORE the Pocahontas blunder) and the resulting plot line is very good and emotionally appealing.
Music: :5: , :5: , :5: ...what else could be said. This is one of the Disney music greats. The odd collaboration of Sir Elton John, a musical genius and flamboyant entertainer, with lyricist Tim Rice, set over the undercurrent African chanting themes of Lebo M (sp) and the wonderful soundtrack composer Hans Zimmer for some reason works, and works FABULOUSLY. Who would have thought? This team won 3 Grammys for the songs from this movie, producing not only a very good movie soundtrack album, but a second album of very solid songs "inspired" by the movie. The opening scene jumps right into song with Zulu warrior singer/chanters laying down a smooth African-sounding background as the sun rises over the African pridelands, then adds (not transitions) the Elton John and Tim Rice song of "Circle of Life" right on top, fitting perfectly. Disney spent their time remastering this opening sequence, and it shows. The visuals are beautiful, and the multichannel sound mix of the song and sound effects is the perfect opening for the movie. Other spots in the movie also had obvious attention paid to them with good sound mixing, but the opening scene takes the cake.
DVD Features and Extras: :3: Okay, this one is very subjective. Disney is widely touting that the DVD release includes "an all-new song", called "Morning Report". It comes in as the first song of the movie after the opening title, as Mufasa (Ooooooh, say it again...) shows Simba his future kingdom he will rule. I found the song to be fairly weak, throwing off the feel and excitement of the movie, especially right at the beginning. Disney was right to cut this one out, along with the other "added" scenes to the movie. Thankfully, you can choose to watch either the original theatrical release, or the new "special edition". I recommend the former. The DVD extras, while nice, didn't seem to add all that much to the disc. There are several games for kids, if they like that sort of thing, which weren't of any appeal to me personally. And the 2nd disc has a strange grouping of special features by geographical region that I couldn't quite understand. The additional features I found most appealing were the discussions about the music creation. To be fair, I didn't watch each and every feature, (yet) just watching the first few items of each category.
Again, I highly recommend this disc. As they say, Hakuna Matata...
CHRIS
Luke: "Hey, I'm not such a bad pilot myself, you know"
Let's cut to the chase: Overall rating, :5: This is one of the better loved Disney movies with a solid, engaging plot and a wonderful soundtrack. This DVD does the movie justice and is a great addition to any collection. THX certified for the discriminating buyer. Details? Read on:
Picture: :4: for picture quality, :45: for the digital transfer. Remember, this movie was made just before the digital age in 1994. The picture lacks some of the crisp, sharp, objects and vivid colors of some of the latest reference children's animated or CGI movies, such as A Bug's Life or the Toy Stories. But given what the movie was released with, Disney has made a very nice restoration and digital transfer to DVD. Some of the colors do stand out, and overall the picture is clean. Very good. Strangely enough, the DVD is listed as presenting the original movie aspect ratio of 1.66/1, enhanced for 16:9 televisions, but on my 16:9 screen, there were thin black bars on the SIDES of the picture. The bars were much thinner than those for a 4:3 image, suggesting that the movie is actually an aspect ratio somewhere inbetween 16:9 and 4:3, which doesn't really exist. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else sees this also.
Sound: :4: for the movie sound, and again :45: for the digital transfer. My comments are very similar to the picture, in that the movie does lack some of the crystal clear creation of the same movies of A Bugs Life and the Toy Stories. But sound effects and background music are well placed and appropriate for the visuals. Interestingly enough, Disney is debuting a "new" sound mixing process in creating an available soundtrack, called "5.1 Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix". This is available in ADDITION to a standard 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack. The new soundtrack is supposed to be optimized in levels and mix for home theater use, as opposed to movie theater release. Flipping back and forth using my DVD audio button between the two 5.1 tracks, I found the new "Disney Enhanced" soundtrack to be much fuller and enveloping, and the standard 5.1 seemed thin in comparison. However, you can fix a 5.1 soundtrack any way you want, so I wonder if Disney specifically created the "standard" 5.1 sountrack to be a little weak, thin, and at a slightly lower output level to make their "enhanced" soundtrack appear better by comparison.
Story: :5: Very compelling and engaging story. It draws from the guaranteed-to-appeal topics of family ties, the death of a parent, and of course, the tried-and-true idea of laughable sidekick characters. But the movie doesn't attack any of the plot ideas in a trite or cliche manner, (yes, this is BEFORE the Pocahontas blunder) and the resulting plot line is very good and emotionally appealing.
Music: :5: , :5: , :5: ...what else could be said. This is one of the Disney music greats. The odd collaboration of Sir Elton John, a musical genius and flamboyant entertainer, with lyricist Tim Rice, set over the undercurrent African chanting themes of Lebo M (sp) and the wonderful soundtrack composer Hans Zimmer for some reason works, and works FABULOUSLY. Who would have thought? This team won 3 Grammys for the songs from this movie, producing not only a very good movie soundtrack album, but a second album of very solid songs "inspired" by the movie. The opening scene jumps right into song with Zulu warrior singer/chanters laying down a smooth African-sounding background as the sun rises over the African pridelands, then adds (not transitions) the Elton John and Tim Rice song of "Circle of Life" right on top, fitting perfectly. Disney spent their time remastering this opening sequence, and it shows. The visuals are beautiful, and the multichannel sound mix of the song and sound effects is the perfect opening for the movie. Other spots in the movie also had obvious attention paid to them with good sound mixing, but the opening scene takes the cake.
DVD Features and Extras: :3: Okay, this one is very subjective. Disney is widely touting that the DVD release includes "an all-new song", called "Morning Report". It comes in as the first song of the movie after the opening title, as Mufasa (Ooooooh, say it again...) shows Simba his future kingdom he will rule. I found the song to be fairly weak, throwing off the feel and excitement of the movie, especially right at the beginning. Disney was right to cut this one out, along with the other "added" scenes to the movie. Thankfully, you can choose to watch either the original theatrical release, or the new "special edition". I recommend the former. The DVD extras, while nice, didn't seem to add all that much to the disc. There are several games for kids, if they like that sort of thing, which weren't of any appeal to me personally. And the 2nd disc has a strange grouping of special features by geographical region that I couldn't quite understand. The additional features I found most appealing were the discussions about the music creation. To be fair, I didn't watch each and every feature, (yet) just watching the first few items of each category.
Again, I highly recommend this disc. As they say, Hakuna Matata...
CHRIS
Luke: "Hey, I'm not such a bad pilot myself, you know"
ops: :cry: 
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