Studio and Year: Disney – 1994
MPAA Rating: G
Feature running time: 88 minutes
Genre: Family/Animation
Disc Format: BD-50
Encoding: AVC (MPEG-4)
Video Aspect: 1.78:1
Resolution: 1080p/24
Audio Format(s): DTS-HD 7.1 Master Audio, French/Spanish 5.1 (Disney Enhanced) Home Theater Mix
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Starring: James Earl Jones, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Rowan Atkinson, Madge Sinclair, Jeremy Irons, Moira Kelly, Jonathon Taylor Thomas, Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin, Ernie Sabella, Robert Gullaume
Directed by: Roger Allers & Rob Minkoff
Music by: Hans Zimmer
Written by: Irene Mecchi, Jonathon Roberts, Linda Woolverton
Region Code: A,B,C
_kingBlu-ray Disc release Date: October 4, 2011
Synopsis (courtesy of imdb.com):
A young lion prince is born in Africa, thus making his uncle Scar the second in line to the throne. Scar plots with the hyenas to kill King Mufasa and Prince Simba, thus making himself King. The King is killed and Simba is led to believe by Scar that it was his fault, and so flees the kingdom in shame. After years of exile he is persuaded to return home to overthrow the usurper and claim the kingdom as his own thus completing the “Circle of Life”.
[singlepic id=25 w=216 h=320 float=left]My Take:
First, let me start by saying that I’m an opponent against 2D to 3D conversion. To me it’s akin to watching Citizen Kane in colour, or watching a 21:9 panoramic presentation being butchered to 16:9. Fortunately, there are exceptions to that. Some movies actually look better after being re-colourized such as Superman The Movie (the blu-ray presentation is actually better than the theatrical presentation) or Narnia The Dawn Treader looks better in 16:9 than in its original 21:9. The Lion King 3D is the first exception to my rule against 2D to 3D conversion. Disney didn’t try to make it look “more natural” but making it look multi-layered as a tribute to the multi-plane camera they used to use to create animation features such as Sleeping Beauty and Snow White.
As far as sound quality goes, its sonic quality have been much improved from both the LaserDisc and DVD iteration of this movie and it is among the more natural surround sound experiences I have had in my theatre room. The spatial movement of every single sound elements have been mixed in a wide 360-degree plane sounding wider than the listening area. The deep, clean, powerful bass at the end of the opening song still gives me the chill just like the first time I heard it in the movie theatre. Low frequency rumblings are substantial especially in the stampede scene and will test the tightness of any subwoofer. For a Disney fan, why are you still reading this review? Just buy it. For 3D fan, this disc is also highly recommended in all aspects. And for 2D to 3D conversion haters like me. This disc shut me up about 2D to 3D conversion. It shows that when the conversion is done right, it can be as an improvement of the 2D original.
Audio: 9/10
Video (2D and 3D): 9/10
Storyline: 9/10 (It’s based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, what do you expect?)
