The Lion King Disney Read-Along

Starring:Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Matthew Broderick, James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, Moira Kelly, Niketa Calame, Ernie Sabella, Nathan Lane, Robert Guillaume, Rowan Atkinson, Madge Sinclair, Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin, Jim Cummings, Zoe Leader, Frank Welker, Cathy Cavadini, Judi M. Durand, Daamen J. Krall, David McCharen
Director: Rob Minkoff, Roger Allers
Studio: Disney
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Anybody who struts around with Simba's hard-won authority deserves this royal DVD read-along from Disney. Kids can recoil at Uncle Scar's dastardly deeds en español and discover that "hakuna matata" sounds pretty much the same in Spanish, French, Italian, or German. And should the dynamic storytelling fail to thrill your 4- to 12-year-old fan, a flurry of other interactive options await. Toggle to "Songs" for sing-along renditions of movie hits, including "I Just Can't Wait to Be King," and on to "Music Videos," where Elton John roars soundtrack favorites "Circle of Life" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" and Jimmy Cliff and Lebo M groove to "Hakuna Matata." The "Vocabulary" feature allows for see-and-say mastery of a list of wildlife, while the "Game" section allows players to match paw and hoof prints to the proper beast and reassemble the scattered skeletal remains of an elephant. Original cast voices are featured, and grownups will be pleased by the package's reading component. --Tammy La Gorce

Customer Reviews:

A badly done read along DVD .......2005-04-29

This DVD was a real disappointment. It seems like it was thrown together at the last minute. The story, and even the songs, are nothing but a montage of still pictures. The only good thing about this DVD might have been that you can learn foreign languages from it. The story and a couple songs in German, Italian, Castilian Spanish, and French are included. However, even that isn't perfect. I can speak German, and I noticed that a lot of words in the German story and songs were spelled wrong, or even in some cases, words were stuck together because someone forgot to hit the spacebar. For a $14.00 DVD, they didn't even bother to spell-check. Which is a real shame, because this DVD could've been a great tool to practice a foreign language.

Read along in five languages - great idea.......2003-08-11

I bought this DVD because it is formatted like a book with words on the screen in five languages. A group of words are shown in bold as they are read. My only complaint is that the words should be highlighted or change colors as they are read. Also, I had some trouble with the speed of the DVD. Initially it was reading fast but when I slowed it down, the words being highlighted did not match when the words are being read.
If the words are in synch and the each word highlighted as it is read, I think it will do a much better of job teaching young children reading.

Anyway, my four year old loved the DVD. He already knows how to speak French and English and the vocabulary section got him interested in other languages too.

The games are also pretty nice...only problem is that you can't choose which game to play. You always have to start from the beginning.

Hakuna Matata!! Wonderful!.......2003-08-08

Finally, A Lion King DVD from Disney that has all the songs with the words and some fun games as well. My two year old has learned the words to I Just Cant Wait to Be King, Circle of Life and Hakuna Matata. He has also learned to distinguish various animal tracks from one of the games included. If you are looking for the movie wait for the Special Edition in October, but if your child loves the Lion King and plays the audio tape over and over this is the DVD for you!!

Not worth a penny.......2003-07-23

I thought "Read Along" meant a book - Not. It is a DVD "book" with subtitles on the screen, the characters don't talk or move, it only has a narator's voice and the pages "flip" on the screen. The whole story is over in 5 minutes. Most of the DVD is taken up with ads for other movies, and 3 music videos (Elton John, etc) which children aren't interested in anyway. Should be rated "fast reading adults only" who want a summary of the story at best.

Not what was expected.......2003-03-08

I expected the DVD to carry the original Lion King movie/story. Instead, it is a modified story book edition with little if any animation, although the cartoons are all faithful to the originals. However, it really fails in achieving anywhere near the entertainment value, emotion and wonder of the movie or theatre performance. All in all - a big letdown. The only saving grace was that the price fell dramatically by shipment time and there are a couple of neat little inter-active games that keep young children interested for about 15 to 20 minutes. My suggestion - save your money; wait and see if they ever release the actual movie on DVD.

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