Cycle of 'Lion King' life continues

By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service

Rafiki holds the future lion king in the animated film that has been released as a special-edition DVD. Mufasa and Sarabi, right, are the cub's parents. Disney

As someone who once owned bootleg videos of "Fantasia" and "Pinocchio," I'm able to appreciate the irony in the marketing of titles like "The Lion King: Special Platinum Edition" (Disney), which replaces the old, what was it, Copper Penny Edition? Regardless, this is yet another sterling Disney upgrade, a two-disc affair that takes advantage of the digital remastering that was done for last year's IMAX re-release. It makes the point by including a side-by-side comparison of the new and old editions in "The Film Journey," one of five journey areas on the second disc.

Just as there are "Phantom" freaks and "Rent" collectors, there are "Lion" lovers who obsess about the Broadway production, and they will be thrilled to learn that the original film has been re-animated and extended to include one of the show's most popular songs, "Morning Report." For those of us who think the 1994 movie was something close to animated perfection, that version is here as well, and the new section can be accessed independently.

Both versions have been given a new Disney Home Theater 5.1 surround mix that does in fact brighten the soundtrack. Extras run the gamut of uncompleted deleted scenes, the making-of features noted above, music videos, and a couple of hours of games and activities for the kids, including a virtual re-creation of the Timon and Pumba Safari ride at the theme parks. If your wee ones have never seen the film, be sure to watch it with them the first time: The death of Simba's dad is still one of the most violent scenes in Disney animation.

Roman's legion

"Here's why I love my job," said my friend Philip Hallman last week, when he opened a box of DVDs to be added to the University of Michigan Film & Video Department's library, which he runs, and found three new Criterion Collection titles.

The first was a digitally remastered and restored "Knife in the Water," Roman Polanski's first feature-length film, a spare psychological thriller from 1962 about an unhappily married couple who make the mistake of inviting a handsome hitchhiker to join them for a sail — with harrowing consequences.

"Knife" announced the arrival of a major new filmmaker to those who had never seen the short films he began making at Poland's state-run Lodz film school. His 1958 exercise in absurdity, "Two Men and a Wardrobe," won awards at a number of major film festivals, and is included here along with seven other pre-"Knife" pieces, including his fine senior thesis, "When Angels Fall," his only examination of war-torn Poland until the Oscar-winning "The Pianist." The two-disc set

includes an interview with Polanski and co-writer Jerzy Skolimowski, a new subtitle translation by Polanski himself (he oversaw nearly every aspect of the release) and production stills from his private collection.

Criterion has also issued a single-disc edition of 1941's "The Devil and Daniel Webster," which was directed by William Dieterle and endorsed by Stephen Vincent Benet. Benet was the author of the celebrated short story about a farmer (played in the film by Walter Huston) who makes a deal with the devil to save his farm, and then hires famed orator-lawyer Daniel Webster to get him out of it. Benet had good reason to exhort the film; edited by Robert Wise, with an Oscar-winning score by the great Bernard Herrmann, it's better than the short story in every way, acquiring an ending that erases the sentimentality that betrayed Benet's allegory.

Commentary is provided by historian Bruce Eder and Herrmann biographer Steven C. Smith. Alec Baldwin, who attempted a litigation-plagued remake — still unreleased — a couple of years ago, reads the original story. And per previous Criterion editions, this one includes the radio dramatization of "Devil" as well as Benet's sequel "Daniel Webster and the Sea Serpent," both featuring music by Herrmann.

My friend also received a new four-disc Criterion box set titled "Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy," the three films of German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "Bundesrepublik Deutschland" cycle, looking at post-war Germany through the eyes of three women: 1978's "The Marriage of Maria Braun," 1981's "Lola" and 1982's "Veronika Voss." The fourth DVD contains "I Just Don't Want You to Love Me," a feature-length documentary about the gifted, self-destructive director, a German TV interview with Fassbinder and contributions from co-workers and scholars.

A gun for the holidays

When I first saw "A Christmas Story" 20 years ago, it never occurred to me it would become a holiday classic; nor did it apparently occur to anyone else, because it disappeared from theaters before the trees were down. But Bob Clark's loving adaptation of the sly Jean Shepherd story about a kid in the 1940s (Peter Billingsley) who will do anything to get a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas won millions of fans when it was seen on TV. It's now a beloved perennial, earning it a deluxe two-DVD special edition (Warner).

The new transfer is certainly nothing special, but the set has commentary from director Clark and a grown-up Billingsley, retrospective interviews, and two episodes of Shepherd's old radio show in which he embellishes the two stories from "In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash" that inspired the film's anecdotes about Ralphie's obsession with the BB gun and how Flick got his tongue stuck on that pole.

Also out this week are:

"National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" (Warner) a way-better-than-it-ought-to-be sequel to "Summer Vacation," from the days when Chevy Chase was funny.

"The Italian Job" (Paramount) a way-better-than-it-ought-to-be remake of the 1969 Michael Caine crime caper, which can be purchased as a set with the new Mark Wahlberg version or separately.

"Star Trek Deep Space Nine — The Complete Fifth Season" (Paramount) contains all 26 episodes of the 1997-98 season, including the comedic "Trials and Tribble-ations," which brought back everybody's favorite furballs along with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.