Perhaps the finest piece of this DVD is the hour long documentary, "The Beginning." This has got to be the best making of I have ever seen for me a movie, merely because of its scope. I for one was sorely disappointed when The Matrix one the award for best effects in '99...sure they were neat...but they could not possibly compare to scope of this picture. The documentary highlights the effort put into it by ILM...it is a shame they weren't recognized. There is also a nice five minutes with the master himself, John Williams. No interviews here...merely some candid behind the scenes machinations.

All in all...the epitome of what a great DVD should be. Worth the wait--absolutely...but painful.

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Originally posted by SEBULBA:
And the deleted scenes are GREAT!! None of this workprint stuff. Full motion picture quality.

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Yup! Of course it's not gonna be a workprint; nearly every shot is a visual effect, and took six months to complete. (That's RUSHING it, considering 20-minutes of visual effects takes a while.....)

A great disc indeed!

Between THE GODFATHER, SNOW WHITE, PHANTOM MENACE, and FINAL FANTASY, it's been a busy week!

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Originally posted by Quill:
How'd you get your paws on Final Fantasy Dan...you bastard !!

I've heard that it is a truly fanastic disc, especially in terms of the supplemental material...first thoughts?

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Note the byline.
First thoughts are at the link as well.

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All in all...the epitome of what a great DVD should be.

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That's true, but to an extent. The DVD is flawed in various areas (sound and image, the latter for the most part) but it'll remain the overal finest way to watch the movie in the home I agree.

The DVDs of Shrek and Burton's Planet of the Apes walk all over the TPM disc in my opinion.

Dan (UK)

Now... Citizen Kane a few weeks ago. That's what I call a DVD. And Snow White. And the soon-to-be-released Monty Python & The Holy Grail. And Shrek. And Star Trek:TMP.

And you can't forget the Criterion edition of Notorious. They all blow TPM away.

I've got the thing now and it's good.
certainly a LOT better than any VHS presentation.

gotta get Snow White.

anyone else notice that Disney's doing their usual thing of selling them "for a limited time only," like they did with all their VHS tapes?

I don't see how you can claim the audio is flawed in anyway--I think the DVD highlights how fine a job the sound team did at mixing this movie. I watched the pod race twice last night--I have yet to hear anything (even DTS discs) that can top it.

But heh, that's just me. I don't see Planet of the Apes or Shrek surpassing the sound quality (Shrek certainly will in the picture arena) simply because the source sound mix cannot compare to TPM.

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Episode One DVD? Who cares?

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Look at the first day sales figures and ask that question again.

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I don't see how you can claim the audio is flawed in anyway--I think the DVD highlights how fine a job the sound team did at mixing this movie. I watched the pod race twice last night--I have yet to hear anything (even DTS discs) that can top it.

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Grab a hold of the Japanese laserdisc. While that release suffered from extremely high volume level issues (oddly the DVD suffers from extremely low ones) which on a good set up could be adjusted for, in terms of LFE performance the LD gives the DVD a run for its money in terms of bass presentation. Don't get me wrong, I think the DVD sounds great.....just lacking.

Since the (still flawed) anamorphic image is obviously better than the LD the DVD and at the end of the day delivers the goods hence my saying it'll remain the best way to watch the movie in the home despite the Laser's superior sound performance.

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But heh, that's just me. I don't see Planet of the Apes or Shrek surpassing the sound quality (Shrek certainly will in the picture arena) simply because the source sound mix cannot compare to TPM.

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Sound mix? No, neither do, Rydstrom's TPM mix is superb wether you hear it theatrically, on LD or DVD.

That said, in terms of pushing the DVD format to the limits in terms of overal presentation of the movie and supplements, a lot of us from the Home Theatre Forum who were at Fox in LA last month for presentations of both TPM and Apes DVDs left the screening room praising the Apes discs (and the Shrek DVD which we'd gone over at dreamworks earlier that same week) more than TPM on all counts.

I really do love the TPM disc, but it's up there as one of the discs to use if you want to draw attention to the fact that THX mastering aint all that, and that's sad being Star Wars and all.

If you're oblivious to mastering issues like edge enhancement and don't have your TV calibrated it's fine (although in fairness, an un-calibrated set is often more prone to highlighting such problems). TPMs DVD presentation is one of those things where it's better you don't know about various mastering issues because you'll otherwise end up a nutcase like me seing them all the time.

Dan (UK)

[Message edited by Dan Brecher on 10-18-2001]

On the plus side of this conversation you've got me looking forward to Shrek and Planet of Apes more than ever!

We watched the DVD up on a 30ft+ screen projected via DLP projector (3 chip) and a progressive scan DVD player. Whilst TPM on the very same screen earlier in the day showed off its flaws and contrast issues, Apes just looked FLAWLESS, it should not have looked so good blown up so big. I didn't like apes as a movie, but I am seriously considering breaking my rules and buying a disc for its presentation and supplements alone.

Shrek is just going to be wonderful, I have a good feeling it'll be this years biggest seller on DVD. The innovation and design put into the discs are just sensational. I should have my copy tomorrow to go over it all personally and more in depth.

Incredible year for DVD releases, really is.

Dan (UK)

The other commentaries are a Burton one and a third, an easter egg commentary which apparently only runs for about 10 mins which I suppose is long enough before the joke wares thin. Think of a spin on the Galaxy Quest DVD's thermian language track.

The sound is great though. Hearing the pod race once again convinced me that I wouldn't need to go to the cinema if I had a projector...

And did anyone notice that the music part (part 12) of the web documentary includes music NOT heard in the film and on the CDs? First, Lucas and Williams are shown spotting exactly the part of the movie which Lucas later mixed up, butchering the score. And then, Williams is conducting the LSO in what is obviously the music for that sequence. Sure, it's Duel of the Fates, but it's slower than the familiar version, it has different orchestration, and there obviously is a dramatic progression. Damn, how long will we have to wait until we finally get a decent score release!?

Oh, and why the hell is the end credits music so low in the movie? It should be about the same volume like the celebration music. The way it is, it looses a lot of it's impact.
NP: Edvard Grieg: Peer Gynt (Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Järvi)

Marian, I have got a projector and I dont go to the Cinema much these days The last movie I went to see was "The Mummy Returns" and it was so darn loud I left the cinema after an hour just to save myself from deafness!!
Gae