Click Communications

Do you know how to rekindle the magic? Disney does! I have fallen in love with Lion King all over again with The Lion King 3D coming to theaters for a limited two week engagement starting September 16. I was on the edge of my seat watching in wonderment as my favorite characters came to life again, after 17 years in the Disney vault.

We own The Lion King on DVD but there is something so nostalgic, loved and magical about the theater. This release of The Lion King 3D had me with goose bumps, sighing, gasping, and yes, crying in all the right places. As if this was my first time ever seeing Simba’s coming of age story, as a lion cub framed for the murder of his father.

It is amazing the megapixel technology the Walt Disney Animation Studio used to make The Lion King’s best loved and hated characters pop off the screen. Robert Neuman is the Stereoscopic Supervisor who determined the mark-ups from the original Lion King to create The Lion King 3D.

If you’re like me, you want to know how they did it. The truth is I don’t fully understand it, but the simplest explanation is there are three components to a hand drawn cartoon — the background, the scenery, and the characters. To create a 3D version the Stereo Artists shifted each component’s view separately to the right or left before joining the film together again making what was 2D into 3D Cinematography; that’s what the pluses and minuses you see above on the mark-up of Scar are all about. They do all of this while maintaining maximum viewing comfort and preserving the quality of the original film.

Here is the team you have to applaud for the new look of The Lion King:

You simply have to see The Lion King 3D in the theaters (maybe even more than once). Your children will ask and you’ll want to anyway, I promise! But there is a LIMITED TWO WEEK time frame to catch The Lion King 3D in the theaters starting September 16; check your local listings for availability.

However, when The Lion King 3D out of the theaters you’re not completely out of luck. Disney is letting you take home this vaulted classic on October 4, 2011 with a 4-disc Diamond Edition DVD combo pack – 3D, BluRay, DVD, and digital copy – rumor has it there is a 5^th disc included with bonus features too. You can preorder from Amazon for only $30 with delivery on the day of release with two-day shipping. To view The Lion King in 3D in your own home you must have a 3D player, 3D television, and 3D glasses for all viewers; to view the BluRay version you must own a BluRay player.

Enjoy both releases because as you know The Lion King will return to the Disney vault again before you know it.

About Summer:

Summer is very active in our Local MOMS Club chapter, she is the mother of two adorable active boys, and is always thinking of ways to help others. She is a friend, a wife, and always busy as all mommies are. She is very active on Facebook, addicted to Geocaching and very interested in organic and green living while cooking up a storm.

Thanks to Click Communications I had the opportunity to discover Beauty and The Beast with Belle herself, Paige O’Hara. Paige is just as spunky as Belle and listening to her sing in real life just amazes me. In fact, I would say she’s improved her singing skills since making the movie Beauty and The Beast. She was quite easy going and down to earth. As we all had dinner and enjoyed great conversation, we explored the Beauty and the Beast Diamond Edition Blu-Ray special features! And Let me tell you Beauty and the Beast Diamond Edition is all about the Blu-Ray features.

You know the story of Beauty and the Beast right? Belle is a beautiful young lady stuck in a small provincial town and practically bored to tears. The most adventure she has at any given time comes from her unpredictable inventor of a father. She is coveted by Gaston, and disguts him in return. Her father goes off to the fair and gets lost on his way. He looks for shelter in the castle that he finds but the Beast is not happy at all to have company. He locks him in the dungeon and when Belle comes looking for her father, her adventure begins.

Paige was interviewed and here are a few questions and answers:

How excited were you to be part of such a legendary Disney title?

You know, Mary Poppins is my favorite film and I loved Bambi and all the other Disney animated films. I was always an artist as well so I appreciated the animation too. Playing Belle was a dream come true.

What else do you remember about the experience?

It was fun being a part of the parties. Honestly, the worst part about the Oscars was that I didn’t like my dress—the one I performed in. They told the designer to put me in blue and it was this blue and white dress that looked more like Bo Peep or Dorothy. It was way too frilly and not very “Belle-y.” It was a checkerboard pattern. I had to perform in that dress, but afterwards I got to change into a beautiful Bob Mackie teal green gown. I even made one magazine’s Top 3 Best Dressed list!

You won a Grammy for a song from “Beauty and the Beast’s Children Singalong” too. What was that like?

It was incredible. Of course it won Best Children’s Album, which is the Grammy I have on my wall. The whole ride has been phenomenal. I am still recording as Belle all the time…CD ROMs and toys. I was just in the studio recording Belle the other day. 99% of the time I record in a studio here in Vegas. They patch me in over the phone.

Zoe has quite a hard time deciding between watching this new Princess and Tinker Bell and The Great Fairy Rescue. She likes Belle, Belle was the very first Princess dress that we found on sale and that was her first Halloween costume. Zoe said she likes Beauty and The Beast more than The Princess and The Frog because it wasn’t scary. She likes the Beast as a Beast and not when he turns into a Prince. Even though she enjoys watching Belle in Beauty in the Beast, her favorite princess is still Sleeping Beauty and we don’t even have a copy of that movie.

To me, Beauty and The Beast Diamond Edition blows my mind away. The color looks like it was pumped up and the details are quite amazing. It seems that cartoons were meant for Blu-Ray. The special features are quite amazing too, even though all of the insert disc one, insert disc two is a little frustrating. The way our system is set up whenever I try to go back it exits the DVD all together, but that’s just our system. I think if you have a normal DVD player it’s probably not as bad. Most of the special features are on disc 2.

The Special Features are hours and hours of content. One of the features, I think it was Beyond Beauty was the story of the making of Beauty and the Beast. The story included the evolution of the story and one of the previous story lines was pretty bad. We’re very glad Disney went the direction they went. Wow, I just can’t imagine a better story line.

3-Disc BD Bonus Features as listed on Amazon:

• Restored film
• Three versions of the film
• Original theatrical release
• Special extended edition
• Original storyboard version (BD-exclusive)
• Original theatrical version with a PIP of the storyboard
• Disney sing along mode
• Audio commentary
• Beyond Beauty: The Untold Stories Behind Making Beauty And The Beast (interactive)
• Broadway Beginnings – Up close and personal celebrity interviews with Nick Jonas, Donny Osmond, Toni Braxton, and others who have starred in the Broadway production
• Composing a Classic: A Musical Conversation With Alan Menken, Don Hahn, and Richard Kraft
• Deleted scenes
o Alternate opening (boards)
o Belle in the library – never-before-seen moment where Belle meets three new characters in the library
• Art galleries – Only available inside the “Beyond Beauty Experience”
• Family play games
o Enchanted Challenge: help Belle and the Beast fall in love in order to break the spell before the last petal falls (Disney Quest)
o Bon Jour, Who Is This? A Disney TelePlay Game – Powered by BD-Live. Using your cell phone, guess the identity of the other players before they guess yours
• Music & more
o All-new music video featuring Disney Channel star TBD
• Classic DVD bonus features