DVD Review #12
The Lord Of The Rings Extended Cut Trilogy Box Set
Box Contents: 3 separate cardboard DVD cases styled to look like individual
The Lord Of The Rings novels:
The Fellowship Of The Ring,
The Two Towers and
The Return Of The King
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The Fellowship Of The Ring Case Contents:
4 discs and a booklet presented in a Middle Earth map style showing the Special Features disc contents.
Leaflet with a contents list of all 4 discs.
Disc 1 Contents: First half of main movie, presented in Widescreen and with Dolby Digital Surround, DTS Surround, Stereo Sound and English Subtitles.
Also contains 4 Commentary Tracks with Directors, Writers, Cast, Special Effects Crew and Design Team members.
Disc 2 Contents: Second half of main movie, presented in Widescreen and with Dolby Digital Surround, DTS Surround, Stereo Sound and English Subtitles.
Also contains 4 Commentary Tracks with Directors, Writers, Cast, Special Effects Crew and Design Team members.
Disc 3 Contents: 6 Documentaries covering JRR Tolkien and the adaption of book-film processes, WETA Workshop's efforts to design and build Middle Earth, weapons and costumes.
Interactive Map that follows the journey of the Fellowship.
Art Galleries with 2,000+ images and slideshows with Artist commentary with optional Subtitles.
Storyboards and Pre-vis sequences with actual film footage alongside for comparison.
Disc 4 Contents: 11 Documentaries covering cast, photography,
"A Day In The Life Of A Hobbit", visual effects, post production, editing, music and sounds created for the movie and a look at the reaction at the time of cinematic release.
Also another Gallery with behind the scenes and production photos.
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The Two Towers Case Contents:
4 discs and a booklet presented in a Middle Earth map style showing the Special Features disc contents.
Leaflet with a contents list of all 4 discs.
Disc 1 Contents: First half of main movie, presented in Widescreen and with Dolby Digital Surround, DTS Surround, Stereo Sound and English Subtitles.
Also contains 4 Commentary Tracks with Directors, Writers, Cast, Special Effects Crew and Design Team members.
Disc 2 Contents: Second half of main movie, presented in Widescreen and with Dolby Digital Surround, DTS Surround, Stereo Sound and English Subtitles.
Also contains 4 Commentary Tracks with Directors, Writers, Cast, Special Effects Crew and Design Team members.
Disc 3 Contents: 5 Documentaries covering JRR Tolkien and the adaption of book-film processes, the origins of Tolkien's Middle Earth, WETA Workshop's efforts to design and build Middle Earth, weapons and costumes. Also a look at how Gollum was created as a CG character.
2 Interactive Maps that show Middle Earth's Atlas and a location comparison of New Zealand and Middle Earth.
Art Galleries with 1,500+ images.
Disc 4 Contents: 8 Documentaries covering the filming of the movie, visual effects, post production, editing, music and sounds created for the movie. Also fight training and choreography.
Interactive sound demo of Helm's Deep.
More picture galleries with 300+ images and Artist commentary.
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The Return Of The King Case Contents:
4 discs and a booklet presented in a Middle Earth map style showing the Special Features disc contents.
Leaflet with a contents list of all 4 discs.
Disc 1 Contents: First half of main movie, presented in Widescreen and with Dolby Digital Surround, DTS Surround, Stereo Sound and English Subtitles.
Also contains 4 Commentary Tracks with Directors, Writers, Cast, Special Effects Crew and Design Team members.
Disc 2 Contents: Second half of main movie, presented in Widescreen and with Dolby Digital Surround, DTS Surround, Stereo Sound and English Subtitles.
Also contains 4 Commentary Tracks with Directors, Writers, Cast, Special Effects Crew and Design Team members.
Disc 3 Contents: 6 Documentaries covering JRR Tolkien and the adaption of book-film processes, WETA Workshop's efforts to design and build Middle Earth, weapons and costumes.
2 Interactive Maps that show Middle Earth's Atlas and a location comparison of New Zealand and Middle Earth.
Art Galleries with 2,000+ images.
Disc 4 Contents: 7 Documentaries covering the filming of the movie, visual effects, post production, editing, music and sounds created for the movie.
Also a tribute to cast and crew involved throughout.
More picture galleries showing Production and behind the scenes photos.
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I've cover a couple of extensive DVDs on here already with Alien 3 Definitive being one of the best for features, but this LOTR Box is by far the biggest.
Combining ever aspect of behind the scenes photography and filming and adding picture galleries and cast and crew notes, interactive maps with commentary and subtitles throughout.
Any fan of LOTR will be extremely happy with this Box and any movie fan who, like me will revel in the longevity of the presentation too.
Highly detailed and very little missed out from the finish product, LOTR Extended Cut Trilogy Box Set is one that every movie lover and DVD lover should own.
I've sat and watched all 3 films throughout with the original soundtrack, and have watched all 3 films each with the 4 various Commentary Tracks too, which equates to 54 hours and 30 minutes of
film alone... and with the rest of the Documentaries and Galleries of near 6,000 images on the second and third discs respectively, I lost track but I would hazard a guess at, near as makes no difference,
100+ hours of LOTR joy.
The Documentaries are also highly informative, they leave nothing out of the commentaries and explain in great detail how certain CG/miniature shots and scenes were pieced together and show great detail from anything in costume design to the casts' character development.
The overall Commentary Tracks on the main films are also packed with little snippets of info and the main cast Commentary is not only informative and interesting, but also funny at times and full of stories and anecdotes of life behind the scenes and life on set.
There's also over 40 people involved in the commentaries.
It's that extensive, it's actually hard to take it all in on the first time round, I've watch a couple of times and am still discovering things I missed last time.
Definitely a buyer.
101% Perfect.