One of the longest-running Broadway shows in history, "The Lion King" started another long Sacramento run Friday night at the Community Center Theatre. This is the touring production's second run here, a five-week stay that is already nearly sold-out. Friday night's show made it clear why this is an all-time favorite.

From the very start, "The Lion King" captivates, the proverbial for-kids-of-all-ages show. Director Julie Taymor's dazzling backgrounds of the African savannah translate beautifully from the source material - Disney's animated feature film - and the costumes of various animals are breathtaking in their resourcefulness and versatility. Particularly amazing are the two giraffes and one panther, their movements brilliantly evocative of their wild cousins.

All of the show's characters are animals, and it is this blend of animal and human that artfully utilizes the audience's suspension of disbelief and is the show's chief delight. Particularly able was Timothy Carter, who played the antagonist Scar, brilliantly moving back and forth between using his human face and smoothly lowering the animal mask that rested above his face when his character grew particularly threatening. Rarely has an animated film character been brought to the live stage with movements so precisely intact.

Other wonderful visuals were the incorporation of Indonesian wayang kulit shadow puppetry, which gave the stage a mysterious ambience at points, and the brilliant use of a line of lithe, muscular male dancers dressed with headpieces and skirts that mimicked savanah grasses.

Designed to dazzle, the show is less interesting for its timeless fairy tale story, which seemed a bit shopworn. Part classic hero's journey, part Shakespearean tragedy, "The Lion King" is all Disney, with heartwarming lessons for everyone. When the visuals and music start to feel repetitive in the second act - this is a long show - the predictability of the plot becomes painfully apparent.

But along the way, there are a number of moments - nearly all of them comic - that enliven the show, especially those delivered by the comic relief of three hyenas and a bird, Zazu (an energetic Tony Freeman), who get off some of the show's best one-liners. There is also some creative breaking of the "fourth wall" ("This wasn't in the cartoon!" remarked one character to the audience.)

Also diverting was a number sung by Rafiki (Shelloane A. Nkhela) in what sounded to be the kung! language of southern Africa, surely the first (and only) time those familiar-yet-alien tongue clicks and gutteral stops have worked their way into a Broadway musical.

Less interesting were the songs of Elton John and Tim Rice, which tended to the prototypical Disney movie "power ballad" and lack the elasticity and invention of the best Broadway show tunes. When they're not power ballads, the songs devolve into post-Peter Gabriel quasi-Africana pop, enjoyable enough but hardly compelling. One exception: The resurrection of the old folk tune "Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)," which was as enjoyable as it was predictable.

The positioning of a black-clad percussionist on either side of the stage, the only visible members of the pit orchestra, was encouraging at first, but neither percussionist did much of interest, particularly considering how prominently they were positioned. Together, they seemed to be doing the work of one musician, and doing it with the energy of half. On the one hand, this is understandable; pit orchestras are about the overall sound; no one is meant to stand out. And above all, such ensembles concerned with doing things deliberately and in perfect time, to sync with the stage show.

But in a show about animals, Africa and adventure, just a bit of fire in the percussion would have been welcome. Two percussionists with one eye on the time clock did not serve the show visually, energetically or musically.

In the end, the entire show felt to this viewer like an event that has perhaps lived its life as fully as it is likely to. But there is clearly still an audience for the show, which remains a visual treat, a landmark of theatrical design and nearly impossible to dislike. The near-capacity crowd leapt to its feet at the show's end, giving the show Sacramento's traditional standing ovation. The show will play at the Community Center Theatre through June 28. Tickets are available at www.broadwaysacramento.com.