The Movie: The Lion King is in my opinion the pinnacle of Disney animation. In my opinion, it's been all downhill since then, though I don't count Pixar's films as "Disney animation". The sheer beauty of the animation, the depth and breadth of the story, and the quality of the songs add up to one of the greatest animated motion pictures of all time.

This "Platinum Edition" DVD includes two versions of the film -- the original theatrical version, and a "special edition" version which includes a new song and animation, seamlessly integrated into the film. This new "song" is really more of a marketing ploy (which they didn't really need, in my opinion), as it is less than a minute in length and it doesn't even really seem to fit in the film very well. The reason why i say it was unnecessary is the fact that anyone who really loves this film would want to get the DVD.

If somehow you have never seen this film or do not know what it is about, I guess I can say that it's Hamlet with lions instead of people. It's about a prince whose uncle kills the prince's father (the king) and takes the queen as his wife. The prince leaves town but after some time, he sees the ghost of his father and is inspired to return to avenge his father's death.

This film is a real masterpiece, one that can be easily appreciated by children and adults alike. If you haven't seen it already (and I don't see how it could be possible that you haven't) you must!

The DVD: This two disc set, as we've come to expect from Disney's Platinum Editions, is just loaded. Not only are there two versions of the film, but there are two separate versions of the audio too! One is the original theatrical mix, remixed into Dolby Digital 5.1, while the other is a special "home theater" 5.1 mix. As far as I can tell, the special home theater audio pretty much was just a little bit louder, had a lot more rumbling from the subwoofer, and expanded the soundstage by using the surround speakers to play (with a delay and some added reverb) the sound coming from the main speakers. Basically the subwoofer and surround speakers get used more often, but the original theatrical mix proved to be the more natural sounding of the two, even if it did lack some of the "gee-whiz" factor.

The video transfer was absolutely stunning! Probably the sharpest, cleanest video, with the boldest color I have ever seen on any DVD whose content didn't originally come from a digital source. Simply amazing. The 1.66:1 aspect ratio is such that on most TV's it actually won't look any different than a 1.85:1 transfer due to overscanning, but you'd definitely see the black borders (on the sides) if you watch on a computer.

And as far as special features go, well, there's tons and tons of them. Featurettes. Games. Trailers. You name it, you got it. The second disc which has most of the special features is laid out in a "safari" metaphor where you visit different locations on the planet. Maybe it's not really the most intuitive way to navigate, but the information in the enclosed booklet will help you find the way to exactly what you're looking for.

My only real gripes about this DVD release are the fact that there is way too much intro video before you actually get to the real main menu (sort of a pet peeve of mine. I wanna get straight to the movie!), and the abundance of advertising you have to go through when you first put this disc in (though this has been pretty typical of most Disney home video releases in the last 10 years).

All in all, I don't see how one could be dissatisfied with this DVD release, especially considering that I'm pretty sure that it's retailing for less than the original VHS release did... how can you lose?