Timon (left) and Pumbaa are the main characters in Disney's straight-ta-vldeo "The lion King 11/2." "THE LION KING 11f2" This straight-to-DV D piffle explains why Pixar and Disney, iIT the end, were not a good match.</p><p> The cre ators behind some of the most successful recent ani mated films ("Toy Story," "Finding Nemo"), Pixar has made only one sequel to their blockbusters, while Disney churns out dreck, like this spinoff from "The Lion King" that shows what Timon and the flatulent Pumbaa were up to before the original began ($29.99, Disney).</p><p> Sure. it makes Disney a pretty penny, but it also cheapens the aura of their classics and trains its animators in how to settle for second-best -which is exactly what Pixar and Uncle Walt would never do. "IN TKE CUT" "SYLVIA" How many times can people be surprised by Meg Ryan playing against type? She's done it every third or fourth movie -from the brilliant. overlooked "Flesh and Bone" in 1993. to the less successful "\Vhen a Man Loves a Woman" in '94, then "Courage Under Fire" in '96. "Hudyburly" in '98, and now with rhe dour crime drama "In the Cut" ($26.96, Columbia TriStar) for director Jane Campion.</p><p> The movie never cuts deep, but the mess::;d¥up Ryan an.d a com pellingly base Mark Ruffalo as a cop do their best.</p><p> Gwyneth Paltrow also strives to make sense out of the unhappy life of poet Sylvia Plath, but to little ef· feet in "Sylvia" ($26.98.</p><p> Universal) .</p><p> Read her work and the work of her oft-demonized husband Ted Hughes -instead. ''lENA, WARRIOR PRINCESS": SEASON THREE "ANGEL": SEASON TiiREE For a while. "Xena." the Sapphic spinoff to "Her cules," was even more popular thanks to the stalwart Lucy Lawless and a general air of silliness.</p><p> Season Three ($69.98.</p><p> Anchor Bay) has one of their best cliff hangers, "Sacrifice I and II," and loads of extras. "Angel" never came close to outshining "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," but its third season ($59.98, Fox) fi nally established the show's own identiry.</p><p> It's time to revel in overlooked genre flicks from overseas, like the Japanese Nikkatsu action movies of Seijnn Suzuki, who turned out 1965's "Tattooed Life." about two brothers on the lam after one of ,hem kills a yakuza.</p><p> Also out is "Underworld Beauty" (1958). and 1963's "Kanto Wanderer " ($19.95 each.</p><p> HVE).</p><p> Also out: George Clooney shows comic aplomb in the Coen brothers' intriguing "Intolerable Cruelty" ($26.98, Universal); Gerard Depardieu's grand performance in the romantic heartbreal,er, "Cyrano De Bergerac" ($19.98, MGM), from 1990; Val Kilmer plays porn star John Holmes in "Wonderland" ($26.99, Lions Gate), with extras including actual crime scene footage; "Higher Ground: Voices of Contemporary Gospel Music" ($19.99, Image) details how gospel legends iike Mahalia Jackson and Kirk Franklin were consid ered rebels for setting religious music [0 secular rhythms, while sporlighting the current rrend-setters like Mary Mary and Out of Eden; Paul Bettany pla)'s a man who cheats on his wife (Olivia Williams) with her sister (Helena Bonham Carter) in "The Heart of Me" ($26.99; Sundance).</p><p> Out next week: Michelangelo Antonioni's mod classic "Blow-Up," starring Vanessa Redgrav e; "Stone Reader," the dOCUlnentary about a man's obsession wilh an ob scure novel; and Sid and Marty Kroft's trippy kiddie show "H.R.</p><p> Pufustuf."
