The Lion King holds a special place in my heart. It’s the first story I ever remember loving. It’s the first story I ever remember crying over, squealing at and obsessing over. I still remember having to go to another room and cover my ears every time Mufasa died. If you find a recording of me at age three, it’s just an endless refrain of “Simba and Nala! Simba and Nala! SIMBANDNALAaaa!” The Lion King is probably the root of my love for cartoons.
So I’m not the most objective source here, but I still maintain The Lion King is one of the greatest movies out there. I know a lot of it probably riffed on Kimba the White Lion, I know all the flaws and whatnot, but still. The soundtrack is breathtaking, the visuals are mesmerizing, the animation is incredibly innovative for it's day and the story of grief, responsibility and growing up is one that’s painfully relatableand powerful. Also, the setting and use of lions is bound to please any cat-lover.
The Lion King: Circle of Life Edition is the latest entry in the Walt Disney Signature Collection. It’s a combination Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD release. The basic verdict as far as extras and quality goes is that if you’ve gotten all the previous releases of The Lion King, there’s not much new here, but if you’re like me and haven’t bought an edition of The Lion King since it was first released on DVD, this is a good investment.
The sound quality and image quality of this release is of the highest caliber, identical to the previously released Diamond Edition of the movie. The Diamond Edition is now out of print, so if you missed out on that but want that image quality, this package is your best bet.
As far as never-before-seen features not included in previous editions, there are only a few of them. “The Recording Sessions” is a fantastic feature if you’re a fan of voice-acting, as it features a look at just about every member of the cast in the recording booth. We’ve get a glimpse at the workings of few of the greats, including top-notch performers like Whoopi Goldberg and James Earl Jones.
“Visualizing a Villain” is a visually interesting featurette, though a bit of an odd choice. It’s a video of speed painter David Garibaldi doing a portrait of Scar while surrounded by dance.
“Nathan and Matthew- The Extended Lion King Conversation” features Matthew Broderick (Simba’s voice actor) and Nathan Lane (Timon’s voice actor) sitting down and talking about their experiences with the movie. There’s a lot of interesting trivia here about their auditions, experiences at the recording booth and voice-acting influences. There’s even some funny stories! It’s a good feature, though much of it was included in a documentary featured on a previous release of The Lion King ("The Pride of The Lion King"). However, as the “extended” implies, there is some never-before-seen material here, so it’s worth checking out.
“Inside the Story Room” is a great look at the animation process, as it shows the directors presenting and explaining scenes and storyboards to their collaborators. For anyone interested in the process of making a movie, they’re a must-see.
There’s a new Sing-Along version of the film included that lovers of the soundtrack will appreciate. There’s even a song-selection menu so viewers can jump straight to their favorite songs!
But that’s it as far as new features. The others are carried over from previous releases. They’re very good features, however. One of my favorite was the bloopers reel, since Disney took the time to fully animate scenes to go alongside the voice actors mistakes and that’s super exciting and fun to see. The commentary track featuring insight from the directors and a producer is also a stand-out as it’s chock-full of great information and banter. It discusses the animation, the story and even the voice actors in great detail.
A nice little extra included in the whole package is a limited edition 35-millimeter film strip in a cardstock envelope. It’s three frames long and features the moment where “high atop Pride Rock, Rafiki presents the young Prince Simba to the animals of the Pride Lands”. According to the envelope “each frame has been sourced from the film’s original digital files and was developed and printed in a laboratory by master technicians for you to add to your Disney collection”.
It’s not the most amazing bonus in the world, but it’s definitely a nice little thing to lean against your lamp if you’re a Lion King nerd.
All in all, this is definitely a good choice for your first edition of The Lion King. It’s a less good choice if you’ve bought a bunch of other editions of this movie. But whatever your circumstances, you definitely can’t go wrong when it comes to the visual and emotional power of this animated classic.
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