DVDizzy Forum

If the extended editions don't even wove together the deleted scenes into the original movie, this is all not worth to buy. All of the features have been ported over from the DVD; only the one-hour documentary and screen tests are worth buying for. Not even a commentary...unless this "In-Movie Experience" is better than that.

I also agree with putting the theatrical and extended version of the film one disc. If I recall correctly, Lord of the Rings EE allowed us to control whether we wanted the scenes in or out.

Special features include:
* WB Maximum Movie Mode with director David Yates, producers David Heyman and David Barron, and cast members Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and Tom Felton, including Focus Points, picture-in-picture and image galleries (BD exclusive)
* Additional scenes (6'31")
* Close-Up with the Cast and Crew of Harry Potter: hosts Matthew Lewis ("Neville Longbottom") and Alfred Enoch ("Dean Thomas") lead us on an entertaining look at the cast of Harry Potter as they explore their interests away from acting and spend a day on set with the production team (28'30")
* J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life: a fascinating and intimate look into the life of J.K. Rowling over the last year of writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (49'32")
* One-minute Drills: the cast has 60 seconds to describe their character's personality, history, relationships and other traits before time runs out (6'43")
* What's on Your Mind: hosted by Tom Felton, the cast is put on the spot when asked a series of rapid-fire questions on their likes and dislikes. (6'41")
* Universal's "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" Sneak Peek: get an inside look at the amazing world of magic and excitement being created at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida (11'38")
* BD-Live:
o My Commentary
o Live Community Screening
o Introduction to the upcoming Harry Potter Ultimate Editions by Daniel Radcliffe (BD-Live exclusive)
o Facebook Connect

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=3446

SpringHeelJack wrote:This is pretty close to the Batman Anthology treatment, frankly. What was there that you'd want here?

A lot of the material is fluff, most of what was on the first DVD pressing. I expected a lot more extras on the fourth disc, because on paper it doesn't look like much.

And commentaries. No commentaries whatsoever on the DVD sets, and was a staple in the Batman Anthology set (every movie had one).

Oh, Leaky has a back cover scan of the full-screen edition for HBP. No bonus material whatsoever.

So the full specs for the 2-disc DVD edition goes as follows:

Disc One:

- 2.40:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
- English & Spanish DD5.1 Surround
- English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles

Disc Two:

- Additional scenes (6'31")
- Close-Up with the Cast and Crew of Harry Potter: hosts Matthew Lewis ("Neville Longbottom") and Alfred Enoch ("Dean Thomas") lead us on an entertaining look at the cast of Harry Potter as they explore their interests away from acting and spend a day on set with the production team (28'30")
- J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life: a fascinating and intimate look into the life of J.K. Rowling over the last year of writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (49'32")
- One-minute Drills: the cast has 60 seconds to describe their character's personality, history, relationships and other traits before time runs out (6'43")
- What's on Your Mind: hosted by Tom Felton, the cast is put on the spot when asked a series of rapid-fire questions on their likes and dislikes. (6'41")
- Universal's "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" Sneak Peek: get an inside look at the amazing world of magic and excitement being created at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida (11'38")
- Free digital copy compatible with iTunes and/or Windows Media Player

Yahoo has posted a a very nice trailer for the Ultimate Editions, showcasing some of the supplements. It gives further confirmation that each documentary segment will cover all eight films from one perspective and that years 3-7 are on the way. They fact that they say year 7 gives me hope that both parts of Deathly Hallows will given a singular set and title.

Kay so the question now is, do I wait to re-buy all the movies in a crazy expensive boxed set after the 8th movie comes out? Will it just be the previously released ultimate editions repackaged? Or should I get these as there re released? IDK

Are they going to release two together each time? If that's the case, Deathly Hallows will most likely be released seperately. Didn't the Press Release say they would have an 8 hour documentary - one hour per each film. That would lead us to believe that there will be eight DVDs/Blu-Rays, right?

And how long do you think it will be for each release? The first two are this fall, I assume 3-4 are coming out in the spring? And then 5-6 next fall, and DH in two years from now?

It looks like you're right about the eight sets, PeterPanfan. Someone on HomeTheaterForum just linked to this advertisement that shows a mockup of the whole collection (look at the bottom right):




Zooming in, this seems to be the color scheme:

Sorcerer's Stone - Blue
Chamber of Secrets - Red
Prisoner of Azkaban - Burgundy
Goblet of Fire - Purple
Order of the Phoenix - Green
Half-Blood Prince - Aqua
Deathly Hallows Part I - Yellow
Deathly Hallows Part II - Navy Blue

I'm curious as to how they're going to label the spines for the last two. Right now these first two films quite prominently display the school year on them. It'd be awkward seeing 7 and 7.5 or something like that for the end. The advertisement is too small and blurred for me to make out how they're at least tentatively labeled. Hmm...

Hmm. I've had awhile to think about this, and here's my thoughts:

The Good:
Disc Four will contain Trailers AND TV Spots! - I'm a trailer whore, so it's expected for me to be giddy over these. I hope they include some of the foreign versions too.

"Creating the World of Harry Potter" is about ALL the movies - oh yeah, who called it? Now I'm really hoping we'll get a "Trailers" documentary!

Original Bonus Features are intact - while it doesn't mean much for me regarding some of the early sets (honestly, I only ever re-watch "Capturing the Stone" on Sorcerer's Stone and never bothered with the rest after my first viewing of them), it bodes well for Goblet of Fire, which I feel has the strongest supplements of all five films out now. So I'd hate for any of it to be left out of the new sets.

Digital Copy does not count towards the "Four Disc" of the Ultimate Editions - rather, it's an expendable Disc Five that one could easily junk and just insert the soundtrack CD or something.

In-Movie Experience & Maximum Movie Mode - since we can't have straightforward two-hour documentaries for each movie, this is the next best thing. And as someone who is more of a special features fanatic than a technical fanatic, this is a big selling point for anyone who wants to jump to Blu.

The Bad:
Extended Editions are on another disc (for the DVD, at least) - Warner just doesn't like seamless branching, do they? I think beyond the big honkin' boxset for Blade Runner (for the third disc, which features the other 3 versions of the film via branching), they've never really done seamless branching for any of their movies. Off the top of my heads, Warner movies with separate discs (and/or separate releases) for alternate versions of a film: Superman: The Movie, I Am Legend, Strangers on a Train, Alexander, and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. The last one is understandable, though, as a comparison of the two shows that two different source elements are used, so branching would make the film look different every time something was branched out. But still, Warner never really likes to seamless-branch anything. Unlike Fox, who's had successful branching versions for stuff like the Alien Quadrilogy and The Abyss.

ADDITIONAL Deleted Scenes for Sorcerer's Stone - Warner, if you're gonna go all out for the Extended Edition, don't make us watch more deleted scenes on the fourth disc. Just put them back into the film. But if it's an artistic decision by Columbus (maybe he feels the extended-with-seven-minutes edition was enough), then I respect that. But really...that's like adding a 30-second scene to a TV show and calling it "Extended Edition". No...wait, that's Buena Vista Home Entertainment and some of their Touchstone TV season sets.

Original Bonus Features are intact - this is both good and bad because while I'm glad that everything from Goblet of Fire gets carried over, there's really a lot of useless fluff that will be carried over too. For example, "The Hidden Secrets of Harry Potter" from Order of the Phoenix was a joke of a "documentary" (really, just a recap of the books and a "what do you think will happen next?") and I know it has some historical purposes when you consider when it was made, but really, there's a lot more stuff they could do with that 45 minutes of time if that documentary was dropped.

No film-specific documentaries - I know I already said I was glad to have stuff like IME and MMM for the Blu-Rays, but really, can't they throw a bone to the still-faithful-to-DVD crowd by at least repurposing some of that into film-specific documentaries just for the DVD? Heck, the fourth disc for the DVD can be a one-hour documentary about the movie, a one-hour "Creating the World of Harry Potter" documentary, the fluffy HBO First Looks and other mainly-for-publicity TV specials, and the trailers/tv spots. Then on the Blu-Ray, there's already IME and MMM so the one-hour documentary wouldn't be necessary (though maybe it can be an option to watch instead of watching the IME/MMM stuff with the film). Everyone gets something and DVD won't be as deprived as it already is.

albert

Well, Warners sent Leaky lots of high res artwork for the two Ultimate Editions (including the backcover). Warners has added French audio to both theatrical and extended editions of COS but not for PS/SS.

Strange. But now the box sets are chipping away at my resolve, they look so tempting thanks to the trailer.

I'm a big HP fan so these will be a must buy for me. They look lovely and very much like the LotR Extended Editions which I adore.

They proably won't be much like LOTR. Those movies were extended necessarily, while the only two I think would benefit from extensions are Prisoner of Azkaban and Order of the Phoenix.

Considering whether or not they're worth it, I'll buy at least one nonetheless.

Escapay wrote:
No film-specific documentaries - I know I already said I was glad to have stuff like IME and MMM for the Blu-Rays, but really, can't they throw a bone to the still-faithful-to-DVD crowd by at least repurposing some of that into film-specific documentaries just for the DVD?

One commentor on DVD Active pointed out that if the hour-long documentaries are similar to those separate "Shadows of the Bat" features on the Batman Anthology set, then they'll be film-specific and cover a wide range of topics.

These sets are looking better and better each time I look at them. But the lack of commentaries still irks me.

They won't be film specific like the Batman documentaries were. Take a look at what the press release says:

WB wrote:Welcome to the first Harry Potter Ultimate Edition! For the First Time Ever

Uncover the intimate details of the search to cast Harry Potter and his friends • See Daniel, Rupert and Emma’s never-before-seen audition tapes • Be there with stars and filmmakers walking onto the set for the exciting first day of shooting • Learn about Chris Columbus’ critical, step-by-step decisions behind the creation of Harry Potter’s world on screen • Look back on an amazing decade’s worth of movies with Daniel, Rupert and Emma in new and vintage interviews never seen before. Plus: Exclusive Introduction by Daniel Radcliffe.

.....

Welcome to the second Harry Potter Ultimate Edition! A Whole New Realm of Discovery…

Discover the intriguing inside stories of why so many of Britain’s most celebrated stars took roles in the series • See the newly unveiled screen test between Daniel Radcliffe and Evanna Lynch (selected to play Luna out of 15,000 hopefuls!) • Go on the set to see firsthand how each of the directors brought unique strengths to the series • Witness the amazing transformations as Daniel, Rupert and Emma grow with their characters over a decade of unprecedented filmmaking. Plus: Never-Before-Seen Screen Tests of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson

So the Maximum Movie Mode and In-Movie Experience features on the BDs are the closest we'll get to film-specific documentaries. Considering how much scene-by-scene detail we'll get in those (and how most of the focus points will be viewable separately), I'm fine with that.

What's interesting is that we'll probably be getting loads of info on Deathly Hallows through these "Creating the World" documentaries. That's perfect for fans of the books like us, but for those who only follow the films, there's a lot that can be spoiled. Let's see how WB balances that out.

I know this is for the Half Blood Prince, but the BBFC has the focus points classified:

00:03:25:29 THE MILLENNIUM BRIDGE
00:01:57:08 SHOOTING ON LOCATION
00:02:47:10 PROFESSOR SLUGHORN
00:02:04:18 BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
00:02:44:10 DIRECTOR DAVID YAYES RETURNS
00:02:49:03 WOOL'S ORPHANAGE
00:02:06:18 RON AND LAVENDER'S KISS
00:02:55:19 THE BURROW
00:02:03:12 HARRY AND GINNY'S KISS
00:02:57:24 ARAGOG RETURNS
00:02:28:27 CREATING THE CAVE
00:03:40:23 DESIGNING THE VIRTUAL CAVE ENVIRONMENT
00:03:24:29 THE INFERI
00:02:04:06 THE UNDERWATER SEQUENCE

Running to 37m 31s in total.

Somehow, I think these are somewhat lacking compared to the Order of the Phoenix's. Of course, this is supposedly a Maximum Movie Mode (but the back of the case makes it look more like an older Warners IME) so its possible we could have MMM stuff as well as the focus points. If its just an IME with Focus Points (like Warners did with the HD DVD Order of the Phoenix) I will be somewhat disappointed.

The Order of the Pheonix Focus Points were much shorter, though. Like that Hog's Head one.

ajmrowland wrote:The Order of the Pheonix Focus Points were much shorter, though. Like that Hog's Head one.

There was 29 focus points running approx 63 minutes on Order of the Phoenix. Having the 2 disc UK HD DVD I get them in HD (unlike the US single HD DVD) and I get the PiP (missing from the Blu-ray) - which is not included in my calculations as the runtime for the focus points is shown under the Play All option on the menu. It has almost double the content.

Some of them were shorter individually.

Anyway, Here's a small thumbnail of the collection. Looks like there's been at least a whole color scheme confirmed for these editions.

ajmrowland wrote:Some of them were shorter individually.

Anyway, Here's a small thumbnail of the collection. Looks like there's been at least a whole color scheme confirmed for these editions.

Kelving posted it already on this page (8th post down from the top)

albert

Damn, I missed that!