Archive from 06.20.03 to 08.09.2003
 

Arild Berg provides the following interesting observation:

I couldn't find anything about this on www.lionking.org, so I just figured I'd alert you to this just in case nobody else has bothered to do so. I was just watching the recently released Scandinavian DVD version of The Jungle Book 2, and to my great surprise, among the "previews" (you know, the ones Disney always make you watch before the menu comes up) was an actual trailer for "The Lion King 3 - Hakuna Matata" (I guess this is the official title then, not TLK 1.5). New animation and everything. It consisted of footage from TLK (the _real_ TLK that is) with the silhouettes of Timon and Pumbaa popping up in front of it, talking about the movie. Then Timon picks up a remote control and fast-forwards to the part where they come in, and they get into a discussion (Pumbaa insists they have to watch the film from the beginning). Eventually Timon rewinds it and promises that they'll go all the way back to _before_ the beginning.

So it's TLK3 again, is it? Interesting.

Jess Walzak forwards this article from IGN :

The Lion King looks and sounds incredible. This could very well be the animated equivalent of FotR EE. There will be multiple audio mixes, something Disney is calling the "enhanced home theater mix," which I'm betting is Dolby Digital EX. The extras will be great, particularly the new scene, called Morning Report, and a great outtake.

Apparently Disney was going to give Elton John's Can You Feel The Love Tonight to Timon and Pumbaa, until John saw an early cut of the movie and said to the producers "I can't imagine what were you thinking having Timon and Pumbaa sing that song." They quickly agreed and shifted the song to the two lions. The outtake will show the original pencil drawings and have the audio of the two singing the song, very badly, I might add.

It was bound to happen; TLK's box-office record has finally been beaten, by Finding Nemo .

This past weekend, domestic box office receipts for Disney/Pixar's Finding Nemo rose up another US$4.4 million, with totals now passing US$313 million. That makes Finding Nemo the highest-grossing animated feature film ever by about $200,000. The previous record has been held for almost a decade by another Disney feature -- The Lion King .

It's great news for Pixar Animation Studios, which also saw Finding Nemo open with the strongest weekend receipts ever for an animated movie -- $70.6 million. The $313 mark also puts the movie in the number one spot for the year.

Thanks to Leon Matt Thomsson for the tip.

According to amazon.com, the French edition of the TLK DVD will be somewhat different from the one we get in the States:

The package on the right, using a red version of the excellent original movie poster , is the Exclusive Edition, which contains the Special Edition 2-disc set as well as a soundtrack CD.

Tip: Simba B

Sent by Simba B.: a review at UltimateDisney.com of The Lizzie McGuire Movie DVD, which reportedly includes a sneak preview of the TLK Special Edition.

"We get a new trailer behind-the-scenes with Disney Channel's cast recording a new music video for "Circle of Life", plus some scenes of the DVD's features," says the reviewer, Gus Frank. He also includes two pages of screenshots , which are eyebrow-raising.
 

Jess Walzak forwards this piece of info from animated-movies.net:

Major Marketing Push Behind Lion King DVD

A full page ad in this week's Hollywood Reporter (p. 28 of the July 29-Aug.4 issue) gives us a glimpse at the Timon & Pumbaa's Virtual Safari feature and reveals that the Mouse House is backing up the October 7 release of "Disney's most requested DVD title" with a $150 million marketing campaign. That's more than the production budget for Treasure Planet or Pirates of the Caribbean! Simba is likely to keep roaring at the top of the all-time video sales chart for a long, long time...

The covers for the Golden Books " The Good Life " and " The Lion King 1 1/2 " are on display at the Random House website.

Thanks to Simba B. and animated-movies.com.

Simba B. and Tanabi have both notified me of this:

Ultimate Disney has put together a 2-page set of captures previewing more Lion King DVD extra features, specifically the new "Circle of Life" music video performed by "The Disney Channel's Circle of Stars"--Hilary Duff, Christy Romano, A.J. Trauth, Orlando Brown, Tahj Mowry, Kyla Pratt, and Anneliese Van Der Pol.

Via Simba B. - Amazon.co.uk is reporting the release date for the Platinum Edition of TLK as 30 September, 2003.
 

Jake Lipson writes with the following:

Pixar's "Finding Nemo" (distributed by Disney) surpassed the $300 million mark this weekend at the US box office. The only other animated feature in history to do that was Lion King. The total domestic gross thus far for Nemo is an estimated $303,796,000m vs. Lion King's $312,855,561m.* (The Lion King figure is the total gross from its two theatrical releases here in the U.S. in June and September of 1994 and does not include its IMAX re-release gross.) This makes Nemo the fastest animated feature to pass the $300m mark as it took Lion King the two releases combined to reach the mark whereas Nemo has accomplished this in just 52 days. It also seems increasingly likely that Nemo will surpass Lion King's total gross before the end of its run making it the #1 animated movie of all time.

(I figure a really angry Lion King fanatic - I am one but I'm not angry because I love Nemo too - might argue tthat ajusted for ticket price inflation Lion King would still win so this means nothing; however, if inflated, the #1 animated feature of all time is not Lion King nor Finding Nemo: rather, still Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. And you know as well as I do that when they look at how successful films are most Average Joe Six Packs will look at the list uninflated rather than inflated.)

Just thought it might be worth mentioning on your site that after 9 years Simba has found a true challenger for the throne in Nemo

Simba B. has learned the following:

MickeyMouseboy from UltimateDisney.com's forum told me that The local Disney Stores have started taking preorders for The Lion King since the 15.

Luke from UltimateDisney.com says:

"Disney will be running a Buy 3 Get 1 Free Promotion from September 9 through the end of December, similar to last year's. No word yet on what will be offered as a free selection, but shipping is $1.99 like last year."

He also has found a large image of the collector's DVD gift box.
 

For the 20th anniversary of the Dodge Caravan, Dodge and Disney will be doing a joint promotion centered on the TLK DVD release.

"Dodge and Disney are all about establishing an emotional connection to families, so this partnership was a natural for us," said Julie Roehm, Director, Dodge Communications. "The Caravan and 'The Lion King' are also the originals in their respective categories and have set the benchmarks that others now follow. It's the king of the minivans celebrating the king of the DVDs."

As with the "Monsters, Inc." advertising campaign, Dodge will integrate Lion King characters into unique broadcast, print and online creative in support of the Dodge Caravan and the release of "The Lion King: Special Edition" DVD. Advertising will break in late September. In addition, Lion King characters will also appear on the No. 9 and No. 19 Dodge Intrepid race cars of NASCAR drivers Bill Elliott and Jeremy Mayfield at Kansas Speedway, Oct. 3-5.

More on the TLK NASCAR designs, which feature Adult Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa on the hoods of the two cars can be found here . There are also die-cast toys of the cars, and a custom banner for the press release at action-performance.com.

Thanks to Simba B. for the heads-up!

For anyone who's interested in keeping tabs, the Chinese site disney.jbug.net has a page full of screenshots from the upcoming Disney film Brother Bear , due for release in November.

Thanks to Trish Heise for the link.

Eight new screengrabs from the DVD menus are at UltimateDisney.com .
 

Whoever doesn't want to spoil the surprise should skip this link [REMOVED]: a 2.7MB Windows Media video of the new "Morning Report" sequence. It's in French, but the gist of the scene is very clear; we now have an idea of its length, the staging, the style, and so on.

The animation quality looks extremely good, as does the directing-- though the art is "played straight", the style of humor is quite close to the playful "Just Can't Wait to be King" sequence. It's unclear how this will feel once it's woven into the pacing of the overall movie. Some of the staging and even a few animation frames appear taken directly from the original movie's corresponding scene.

Myself, I'm still lukewarm as to the scene's appropriateness for a song; it seems a little bit out of character for Zazu-- it plays up his role as a prima donna of the royal court, but it loses the easy, offhand, backgrounded nature of the stream of puns that makes up the content of the song. Yes, now we get to hear them more clearly, and we get to see more of Zazu's character (to say nothing of Simba's and even the gopher's); but it feels as though something has been lost from Mufasa's bored reaction to the news (finding his son's pouncing more important). On the other hand, maybe it's even more effective, having the thing Mufasa's getting bored with be a song rather than just a string of tedious one-liners. It makes it all the more embarrassing for Zazu.

Anyway-- thanks to all who sent me the link.

Walt Disney Television Animation (TVA) has split off a new animation unit, the same unit that produced Simba's Pride ; the new studio will carry the name "DisneyToon Studios", reports AWN .

Thanks to Tanabi for the tip!