DVD Only Review:King and I(1999)

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The DVD:

Movie:
I'm not going to talk too much about "The King and I", simply because it's not worth writing about. This is simply the dullest animated tale that I've ever seen- it baffles me that Warner Brothers actually thought this was worth releasing in theaters. I've seen quite a few animated films that were released for television or straight to video that are of far better quality than this one.

Of course, it's a remake of the famed story, only this time it's severely stupider, made simplistic for today's audiences. If I was a child watching this I would be incredibly insulted. Not only is the story amazingly boring and very slowly paced, but the animation itself is simply awful. The vocal performances are poor throughout. There's really nothing to like about this film, and I hope that Warner Brothers isn't wondering why their last two animated films, "King and I" and "Quest For Camelot" have lost them enormous amounts of money. There's simply nothing to like here- 88 minutes seem like 88 hours. It's pure torture. Definitely not for the kids- they'll likely be as bored as I was, if not worse.

VIDEO: An enjoyable transfer of strikingly poor animation. Colors are enjoyable, vibrant and well saturated, but the animation itself is so dull- bland, without much detail and not terribly sharp. Images are clear, but not crisp or sharp and I think that's more a sign of poor animation than disc quality..

SOUND: The majority is made up of the score/songs; the score doesn't sound that wonderful- it tends to sound slightly compressed. It simply doesn't have a grand air about it; the score from a tale like "King and I" should have a wonderful range and should feel enveloping and sweep through the room. Here, it sounds as uninteresting as the movie looks- just not dynamic or exciting at all. The songs as well as dialogue sound fine, although both are dully performed.

MENUS: Cute animated menus and sub-menus. The menu for trailers other than this film's as well as scene selection are both animated.

EXTRAS: Some decent extras on this disc: there is a fairly bland and boring featurette that details the making of the film with some interviews with cast and crew. I could hardly believe that the cast who's interviewed here could honestly say anything positive about this film with a smile on their face. There's also a shorter promotional reel that was used to well...promote this film. It's just as uninteresting as the featurette. Both are a few minutes long. There's also a karaoke feature using the subtitles where the kids can sing along with the film. 4 trailers for the film and 4 other trailers(Ace Ventura 1/2, Wild America and Robin Hood:Prince Of Thieves) are included.

GRADES:
The Film: 40/F = (200/500 possible points)
Video: 84/B = (336/400 possible points)
Audio: 83/B = (332/400 possible points)
Extras: 84/B = (252/300 possible points)
Menus: 88/B = (176/200 possible points)
Value: 75/C = (225/300 possible points)
Presentation:84.75/B = (84.75/100 possible points)

TOTAL POINTS:1605.75/2200
Overall:72.98%/C
Final Thoughts: Decent quality disc with some cute little extra features, but the movie is 88 minutes of pure torture- a truly terrible remake of a classic tale. The disc gets a B in terms of quality but the movie gets a solid F.

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DVD Information

King and I
Warner Home Video
1.85:1/ Dolby Digital 5.1(+French&Spanish 2.0)
Subtitles:English, French, Spanish, Sing-Along
88 Minutes
Dual Layer:Yes
Rated:PG
Release Date:7/6/99
Anamorphic:No
Region:1