Animated News’ Christian just got back from the Buena Vista Home Entertainment DVD Presentation held in Hollywood and can say that it was a fun, eye-opening experience. The primary purpose of the meeting was to celebrate the wonderful DVD format and showcase how three upcoming Buena Vista releases (Spy Kids 3D: Game Over, The Haunted Mansion, and The Lion King 1½) highlight advances in DVD technology and capabilities. Follow the “Link” for the full report.

The main thrust of the presentation was emphasizing how nowadays the DVD format is being taken very seriously and more effort is being put into creating quality DVD experiences than ever before. Someone connected with each of the three movies presented materials from and lectured on their respective upcoming titles.

First up was Robert Rodriguez of the Spy Kids and El Mariachi movie series. He came across as the very down-to-earth, unassuming person I had always perceived him to be from everything I’d read about him. This is a guy who pretty much has fun making home movies that just happen to be of major motion picture quality and his enthusiasm for the craft shone through. He discussed how Spy Kids 3D: Game Over was made rather quickly and that not all of the effects work had been completed to his satisfaction when the movie hit theaters, but that he was able to refine and correct everything he wanted to for the DVD release so that home viewers of the movie will be getting even a better experience than when having seen it in a theater. Rodriguez also mixed the sound at his own home theater so that he could hear the sound just as home viewers would be hearing it.

Next up was Don Hahn, producer of The Haunted Mansion. He started out by joking, “At the end of my lecture Justin Timberlake is going to ‘accidentally’ remove some of my clothing.” That got a big, prolonged laugh. He then went on to highlight some of the very many cool features of the Haunted Mansion DVD, many of which are unlike anything seen on DVD before. Two especially neat features were the virtual reality, self-guided tour through the mansion and the “Holographic Ghost Host Morphing” feature that allows you to take a picture of you or a friend and turn it into a ghostly image which will then appear in various phantasmic permutations throughout Gracey Manor. Of interest to Mac users (listen up, Steve Jobs) is that the DVD-ROM features on The Haunted Mansion are the first ever to be Mac-compatible.

The final presenter was Sharon Morrill, executive producer of The Lion King 1½. When the emcee for the evening introduced her he said that Disney’s official website is flooded with requests for more Lion King movies, more by far than any other movie. Sharon discussed how hard of an act it is to follow the original Lion King movie and is well aware of the level of quality that would need to be reached in making a sequel to a movie with such a heritage. She played several clips from the movie and the audience (a fully adult audience, not a one of them who could be called a “kid”) was absolutely roaring with laughter at every one of them. The DVD features are the most elaborate ever of any direct-to-video release and it seems to be in part because there was some discussion that the quality of the movie rivals that of any animated theatrical release. (I’m about to watch my DVD of this movie that was included in the goodie bag given out last night and give my full review tomorrow.)

Regarding the exceptional quality of the “interquel,” Ernie Sabella, voice of Pumbaa, was in the audience and was given the mike to relate a humorous anecdote. He said he saw the movie a couple weeks ago and was impressed with its high quality. In his excitement he phoned Nathan Lane, voice of Timon, and exclaimed, “Nathan, this movie is great! You were great. You were really funny in it, funnier than in the first movie. And the animation was so great as well that I think this could have been released to theaters!” Nathan replied with, “Who is this??”