Customer Reviews

The Lion King

5 star:		(186)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

The Lion King is a beautiful history.
It' s the essential draw for life and for love for the next generations.
And it was the model for the following Disney movies made later.
I think I could have felt the same for Pinnochio if I was born five decades before.
Both have brillant moments and wonderful draws.
But most of all, they have tears from the beginnning than on the end.
How can be that possible?

what can i say.this movie is wonderful.i wish you had 6 stars i would rate it.thanks.

I must say that I just love THE LION KING...it is my favorite animated Disney classic. To me, THE LION KING is better than BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and perhaps even SNOW WHITE. To make it all clear: Disney is planning to release THE LION KING in IMAX theaters sometime in January of 2003, and the Platinum DVD is supposed to come out sometime in 2004 (which I will definitely purchase a copy of). You all know the story of Simba...the young African cub who just can't wait to be king. The music to this movie is absolutely wonderful and magical--Elton John and Tim Rice at their best! The voices for each character are perfect--you couldn't have asked for better actors! And the animation is just superb! I can't wait for the DVD and the release in IMAX theaters. I didn't see BEAUTY AND THE BEAST in the IMAX theaters, but if THE LION KING is released in IMAX theaters, then I will definitely see it. I'll be first in line in the Disney store to purchase my very own copy of the DVD when it hits shelves in 2004!

I loved the Lion King it is definitely one of my favoritest Disney movies (and I have almost all of the animated ones) In my opinion this is one of the best in the past ten years if not 100 years. Just a comment to "A viewer from Oklahoma United States " Just to let that person know that Disney is putting Beauty and the Beast out on DVD October 8, 2002 with three different versions of the film (original, special edition, and one other i can't remember). Then later this year they are supposed to rerelease the Lion King (probably in a special ed.) and will most likely be released on dvd next year in October (like how Snow White was released this year). Thanks for your time!

Why is Disney now only releasing the digital copies only with the 3D blu-ray combo packs? First Tangled, now the Lion King. Do they not realize that not everyone has a 3D system, but would maybe still like to have the digital copy without spending the extra for the 3D disc that will be useless in my possession?

...and confusion.

On first glance, The Lion King has everything. Good animation, sweeping soundtrack, strong voice acting, and drama, drama, drama. Its number one problem is still plot.

This really isn't anything we haven't seen a million times before...both in children's and adult films. Rewatching the special edition however I'm mostly shocked at how thin the plot really is.

For some reason, I remembered more to Simba taking back pride rock, but it is over so fast after Simba has his vision that one would think Disney was terrified of its audience getting bored. Maybe if my attention span was shorter, this would be great! There's lot's of fire, the orchestra lays on swells of emotion and the film suddenly ends. It's more a visual, visceral experience than a film. I suspect if you pulled the musicals out, the film might be less than an hour.

Man, I sound down on this film. It's still probably one of the best things Disney did in the 90's (though I strangely prefer Tarzan and Mulan...although I can understand all who'd differ with me on this one.) What Lion King is is a paradox--at times it treats its themes and characters so seriously you could almost cheer or weep, then quickly sinks back into standard Disney fare...and oh, there must be fart jokes...

It also suffers from a bit of the Lucas syndrome. What's that? Remember back when you saw your first Kurosawa film and realized how much Lucas had freely borrowed? Or perhaps when reading your favorite books on Eastern philosophy or Joseph Campbell and you'd come across something that Lucas plugged into Star Wars. In fact, pretty soon it started becoming evident how many ideas had just been slammed together to make a new synthesis--and that can be a great thing, or sometimes it can just be weird.

I lean more toward weird with the Lion King. Disney tries to elicit every emotion and play on every theme, and instead of being effective the whole business just feels rather strange to me. Maybe I've just seen a lot of films where the son is exiled, grows, becomes mighty and returns for revenge. In my most recent viewing I could only think of Conan (it doesn't help that James Earl Jones is in both movies.) Stuck with all these associations (many I like more than Lion King), I can't call this more than an average film.

And perhaps that statement needs some rectification. Like everything else by Disney, the right time and the right place can make their films great. Since I was in college when this first came out, perhaps there never was a best time. I know Disney put their heart into this, and I think young people will continue to love it as they grow up--but I also think its sad that Disney treats this like their very best film. Bambi still hasn't been reissued while Dumbo got a rather shoddy release. I guess it doesn't matter since Disney has now apparently discarded 2D animation altogether, but I've always hoped for the best from Disney as I know they're capable of it.

I thought "Read Along" meant a book - Not. It is a DVD "book" with subtitles on the screen, the characters don't talk or move, it only has a narator's voice and the pages "flip" on the screen. The whole story is over in 5 minutes. Most of the DVD is taken up with ads for other movies, and 3 music videos (Elton John, etc) which children aren't interested in anyway. Should be rated "fast reading adults only" who want a summary of the story at best.

THE LION KING is an updated version on the story line from Walt Disney's BAMBI. However, thematically THE LION KING lacks the warmth and sincerity of its predecessor. Our hero Simba, in THE LION KING does not seem to grow from his hard lessons learned in his upbringing, as was the case in BAMBI. He just seems to stumble onto them. When confrontation comes, Simba rises to the occasion not out of wisdom but out of happenstance. This film lacks inspiration because there is really no idealism presented in the drama. Only, Hans Zimmer's score helps the viewer get the film's would-be message across. I am glad this disc retained the original theatrical version of the film because the new edition included here is just a protracted version of what has already been presented. The audio remastering is just average, as are the extras.

OK...Disney could have done a lot better here. For one, the layout of the DVD is a total disgrace. I had to sit for hours trying to find the "real" version of the film (without that silly Morning Report song) and finally found it under "Languages". Of course, I should have looked there first. How silly of me.
The animation has been completely changed - if you have the old VHS version you should compare them. The crocodiles with the birds in their mouths are completely different in I Just Cant Wait to be King, and the colors in the film have been changed to brighter, more bolder colors which make the scenery look totally unrealistic compared to the VHS. Seriously, is this some sort of joke? I grew up with this movie, and now that Im older I was excited to see it again after all those years, but I was just disappointed. I am hoping that disney are trying to trick us and will release something much better than this. This DVD was the biggest waste of money. EVER.

Yes, I admit, the new age "circle of life" stuff is horribly predictible and trite. But if the music were shorter, more enjoyable, and the story paced faster, the new age junk wouldn't matter.

But in this movie, the circle-of-life stuff just keeps... circling right back to us, the audience, over and over and it gets old fast.

I know I'm in the minority here. I don't rate this as a classic. I typically give the benefit of the doubt to movies and I typically rate them higher than they deserve. Actually, I'm doing that here too by not giving it ONE star. But the animation is good enough to warrant the second star on its own, the story is worth 0.