SP Blu-Ray -- Time for a Closer Look!

[Akril]

TLKFAA artist SniperLioness posted a link to a site which has screenshots from the Simba's Pride Blu-Ray. As you might expect, the screenshots' quality is a vast improvement over the normal DVD ones, and they reveal a lot of details in the designs of the various background characters. I thought I'd post a few that jumped out at me:

Look at the lionesses in the background. I know that most of the Outsiders are supposed to have crooked smiles like Scar, but not this crooked...

Purple eyes, tan eyes...makes you wonder what color they are in the daylight. (Although I admit that the thing that really made me add this picture was the way Nuka seems to be staring at that lioness in the lower right corner -- "Hey! Stop looking at my butt, would ya!?")

I actually didn't spot this one until I was creating this thread. Look in the lower right corner -- It's Dotty! (Or one of her sisters, anyway. There are actually several lionesses with unique designs that have spots under one eye, but I think I'll just stick to the "Dotty=spots under left eye" "Spotty=Spots under right eye" convention here.)

That grayish lioness on the right looked normal at a lower resolution, but up close she has a strange kink in the line going from her nose to her eye -- and her irises have a strange green cast (this is one of the screenshots first noticed by SniperLioness)

Here's Dotty again (only with an Outsider nose) and Spotty -- but take a closer look at Spotty. For years, we've thought that she had Spots under her eye like Dotty, but this screenshot reveals that it's not a row of spots, but a squiggly line. What's that supposed to be? It could still be a marking, but it almost looks like an old wound that didn't heal cleanly and made the fur grow back oddly when it did.

Look at the lioness just to the right of Kovu -- looks like Dotty again, this time with a Pridelander nose as well as the best lighting we've yet to see her in! (Oh yeah -- see that coloring error around Kovu's eye? The artists managed not to make the same mistake in another shot from the same scene, but...)

A good look at the rarely noticed "Reverse Sly-Eye" (on the right). Also, look at the lioness between Vitani and Zira. I don't think I've ever seen a lioness with a concave chin before...

YIKES! That Outsider in the background is giving that Pridelander the evil eye...LITERALLY!

These poor lionesses look pretty deformed close up, but look at the Outsider on the far right. She looks a bit like Spotty (even though her cheeks aren't pointy and she only has two dots under her eye). Don't know what happened with the bridge of her nose, though.

And now, because I've saved the best for last, check out the lioness in the center. She has one red eye and one tan eye. This has to be a coloring mistake, but it is probably the only official odd-eyed TLK lioness! This is downright mind-blowing (and it was also discovered by SniperLioness, so she gets all the credit for finding it).


Note: The site may not load the first time you try visiting it. Try reloading the page if this happens -- this always works for me.

[Noah]

Nice find!

I think it's great that this movie has been remastered. Though I suppose its a double edged sword, as now the whole world can clearly see the mistakes and errors made by the lackluster animation team. There's no denying it, I've come a long way in how I rank this movie, but I still have trouble overlooking the production values. You did a good job of pointing those out BTW. Personally, I never liked the outlanders design; it just seems too pointy.

What makes me really mad is the fact that Disney went over this movie frame by frame with a microscope. Michael Eisner wanted to make sure there weren't any S-F-X/S-E-X incidents. You think they would have caught a few of these.

I can't wait to get the Bluray of Simba's Pride. I decided against buying the trilogy due to the price, the packaging, and the potential for new bonus features (I can dream, can't I?). So in 2012, I'll be sure to pick up the standalone packages.

[TheLionPrince]

Thanks, Akril, for sharing this with us, and thank SniperLioness for me!

As for the screenshots of the movie, well, nobody's perfect. The Lion King itself and other animated movies have tons of little goofs and errors similiar to those. It is very common for those things to occur in animated films regardless whether it's theatrically released or not, but noticing most of them while watching the movie makes for an interesting pasttime.

However, I find it understandable that there would be so many goofs like that since an article about the movie states the production team had only had 16 months to make this movie, while a theatrical animated film would take 2-3 years to produce uin time. So, with a television animation team trying to finish this movie on time, it would be likely that so many animation errors occur every now and them within a frame of the movie.

[FlipMode]

Ya know when I watched the Blu Ray in 1080P, I didnt notice any of that. You only see it by playing back frame by frame and looking for them. Well spotted I guess.

[FuzzySimba]

This is from two simple outcomes:

1) This is a film that was made at half the budget and in half the time in the production process they had spent on the first TLK

2) Most importantly, When its a Blu-ray conversion, your going to get the odd defect here and there but I have to admit. You did
a splendid job finding these little imperfections. It just makes you think about how difficult it is to animate hand drawn films.

Thanks for the inside view on the second TLK, you just made me want to watch it again haha!

[Akril]

It's true -- the higher quality does show a lot more imperfections, but I was much more interested in the various unique lionesses that we can finally get a good look at.

The only mistakes that I was genuinely annoyed about were the scene where Kiara hops onto the log bridging the river next to the Outlands and the scene when she's perched on the ledge in the gorge, reaching out to Zira. There's nothing wrong with these scenes in the VHS version (and possibly the standard DVD), but in the Special Edition DVD, Kiara is drawn on top of the log instead of behind it, and her paw is in front of the ledge when it should be hidden by it. For some reason, those two scenes remained that way in the Blu-Ray release.

[Noah]

I rewatched the DVD this afternoon and noticed two things:

1. The quality of the BluRay shots you provided is indeed better than the DVD.

2. This movie was not as bad as I remember it. I need to be nicer to it.

[Akril]

The site hosting those screenshots was down for a while, but it's back up now.

I also found this somewhat surprising screenshot from near the end of the movie.

You may have been welcomed into the pride, Kovu, but if you value your life, stay out of Simba's personal mane dyeing supplies!!!

[Noah]

[quote="Akril"]The site hosting those screenshots was down for a while, but it's back up now.

I also found this somewhat surprising screenshot from near the end of the movie.

You may have been welcomed into the pride, Kovu, but if you value your life, stay out of Simba's personal mane dyeing supplies!!![/quote]

That is a weird shot indeed. I just realized this site has other Disney movies as well.

[CrazyNuka]

Nuka's mane uncolored xD