The Lion King (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD Combo)

Blu-Ray Reviews | Aug 31st, 2017

The Lion King: Circle of Life Edition
Image used with permission for review purposes.

Starring: Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Matthew Broderick, James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, Moira Kelly, Niketa Calame, Ernie Sabella, Nathan Lane, Robert Guillaume, Rowan Atkinson, Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin
Written By: Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, Linda Woolverton
Directed By: Rob Minkoff, Roger Allers
Studio: Walt Disney

One of Disney’s best animated movies, The Lion King, is re-released on Blu-Ray and other formats. The movie was released on Blu-Ray back in 2011 but now it’s apart of the Walt Disney Signature Collection, whatever that means.

Since I already reviewed the movie in the past, I’ll just talk briefly about it and then get into the Blu-Ray itself. After all these years, the movie still holds up and still one of my favorites. I remember seeing the movie in the theaters when I was in high school. Then, re-watching it over and over on a bootleg VHS that my Uncle scored in NYC. It was a classic coming of age story, mixed in with beautiful animation, (some) great songs and voice-acting that was top notch. The duo of Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella were great together, and add a lot of the comic relief.

The movie looks excellent on Blu-Ray, and since it’s already a colorful movie, it excels on Blu-Ray because the colors are so vibrant. Of course what makes the movie so great is the songs and the score by Hans Zimmer. I recently had the chance to hearing the original singer, Lebo M. perform with Zimmer in NYC and it actually brought a tear to my face. It’s simply amazing to hearing him sing the opening track and others live.

The Blu-Ray offers up a few different featurettes like recording sessions, inside the storyboard room, some weird visualizing a villain thing with an artist, and some song selections. The recording sessions were interesting since it’s obviously from old film, so not all of it is shown. I’ve definitely seen some of this, not sure if it was on another home video release or back when the movie actually came out. The inside the story room was my favorite because it was great to see the directors discussing the storyboards and acting them out. You get to see some of the decision making in progress. Just try to hold back the vomit for the 90s-looking clothes. The Villain thing was a fluff piece and weird, since I’m not into performance artists and probably should have been left out of this. There was a gag reel but I believe that was on the old Blu-Ray release. Still kind of funny to see the outtakes and the animation together.

If you already own The Lion King on Blu-Ray but you want to own it on Digital HD as well, this might be something to get. I guess this is aimed at people who missed out on getting the Lion King the last time on Blu-Ray and DVD. Definitely a movie to own if you haven’t gotten it already.

Features

The Recording Sessions – Enter the Recording Booth and Watch Never-Before-Seen Voice Recording Sessions
Inside The Story Room – Rare Archival Footage Shows the Origins of Five Iconic Scenes
Visualizing A Villain – Performance Artist David Garibaldi Creates his own Unique Interpretation of the Iconic Villain, Scar
The Lion King: Song Selection – All-new Sing-Along Version of the Movie.

“Circle of Life”
“I Just Can’t Wait To Be King”
“Be Prepared”
“Hakuna Matata”
“Can You Feel The Love Tonight”

Audio
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
English DTS-HD MA 5.1

Video
Widescreen 1.78:1 Color

Bottom Line: One of my favorites from Disney
Running Time: 88 mins
Rating: PG
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:

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