Do you care about special features?

[yamiiguy]

Do you care for special features? I don't really, as long as the quality of the film is perfect. I've never really watched the special features on most DVDs, the odd short documentary on an important or controversial film is good but I don't see the point with every single film.

[toonaspie]

I would prefer both actually. Though we all know there's no such thing as the ultimately perfect dvd.

Though in the case of some films that arent really must owns (but I would still buy anyway) it doesnt bother me as much if not all the special features will be on there but I then to hold out for special editions of dvd where there's the possibility of at least a few good special features.

All of people will think I am crazy for having sold off my Beauty and the Beast PE in favor of waiting for the Diamond Edition combo pack. But what can I say I've gotten addicted to these combo packs. (3 out of my 4 blu rays are combo packs). My thing is I dont like owning the same copy of a DVD movie in separate cases. I like having everything pertaining to one movie all stored in one case. I hate how Dreamworks and those other studios will put a bonus feature disc in its own case and then sell that with the movie in a two pack. I actually took the sleeve and disc out of my Kung Fu Panda DVD and placed it in a 2-disc DVD case so I can also put my Furious 5 DVD in the same case. Yes I am very weird like that.

The only real exception of course is gonna be with The Lion King. I still plan to keep my PE and buy the Blu Ray when it comes out.

[buffalobill]

I LOVE special features. The a/v quality of the movie is paramount but I watch all special features with the exception of screen commentaries (I barely have time to watch movies with the dialogue) & enormous volumes of still photos.

[Poody]

Oh totally.... I'm called a "bonus features whore" by some.... After I finish a film, I usually watch almost every bonus feature on the DVD. Unless the movie sucked.... Disney ones I especially watch right away. I've watched TLM and B&TB ones over and over!

[Duckburger]

On average Hollywood blockbusters special features are not a must for me, though I'm not a fan of buying a barebones edition. So I guess, I like to have special features just to make it more worth my money, even though I don't always watch 'em, nor care about most of them. Kinda weird, but in my head it makes perfect sense.

I do like special features on the Disney classics and Pixars a lot. But when I say special features, I don't mean some random hyper-active game which forces you to press your remote control like a crazy person. More like documentaries and commentaries. Or even promotional trailers, teasers and television material. The ones on the Pixar blu-rays are very entertaining, but some of the Platinum editions have really useless ones in my opinion (Peter Pan for example).

Basically I like them on movies I really care about. Or want to know more about, and such...

[Scarred4life]

The quality of the movie is more important to me than the special features. I'll buy a movie because of the restoration, and if it has awsome special features, then that's just a bonus. I wouldn't buy the Alice In Wonderland Un-Anniversary Edition just for the extra bonus features when I already have the ME (just an example).

But, it really annoys me when Disney releases these one disk DVDs... *cough* Princess And The Frog *cough*

[Heil Donald Duck]

No.

[Disney's Divinity]

Yes.

The only time I don't care about special features is if the movie's new and/or I don't have a copy, or if it's The Little Mermaid. That's the only movie I'd buy every release of regardless. They could paint it black and I'd still buy it.

The reason I'm like this is because I know movies get multiple re-releases over the years, and I'm not settling for less. Like Tarzan--the only edition that's worth anything to me is the Collector's Edition.

[blackcauldron85]

As far as DACs go, yes, I love bonus features. For other favorite Disney films (like Newsies and Return to Oz), I wish there were more bonus features; even my other favorite live-action Disney films I'm okay with the minimal bonus features given (except for The Parent Trap, since that has a nice set); I even chose the 1-disc Hannah Montana: The Movie, since the few other bonus features didn't seem worth the price.

As far as non-Disney films, I don't really care too much about bonus features; I never upgraded my Titanic or Grease, for example.

I haven't even explored all the bonus features on my DVDs; I've only ever watched/listened to 2 commentaries (Sleeping Beauty and Newsies, and lately that's been something that I've wanted to do; there's just so much info that I might be missing out on!

[yamiiguy]

One thing I don't like is special features on the first disc, if they used it all for the film usually less compression=more quality. To be honest there is one special feature I've watched more than once out of choice - the Nine Old Men documentary, I like that for some reason. There was also one on the music of Aladdin (Howard Ashman, Tim Rice etc.) that I've watched a few times

[BK]

On average Hollywood blockbusters special features are not a must for me, though I'm not a fan of buying a barebones edition. So I guess, I like to have special features just to make it more worth my money, even though I don't always watch 'em, nor care about most of them. Kinda weird, but in my head it makes perfect sense.

I do like special features on the Disney classics and Pixars a lot. But when I say special features, I don't mean some random hyper-active game which forces you to press your remote control like a crazy person. More like documentaries and commentaries. Or even promotional trailers, teasers and television material. The ones on the Pixar blu-rays are very entertaining, but some of the Platinum editions have really useless ones in my opinion (Peter Pan for example).

Basically I like them on movies I really care about. Or want to know more about, and such...

This.

It's more of a "Well if I'm going to buy something then I might as well get the best product available out there." So as long as I know that there are bonus features worth some value I am missing out on, it's a bit OCD like. Chances are I'll never watch the special features. It's just the what-if that haunts me after.

I have seen both Incredibles and Nemo features though. Actually, no, for Pixar I need the special features. Live action, not so but I want them. Of course if a movie is thought provoking like Seven then I'd like a featurette/commentary/making of or something pertaining to the questions raised. I saw some of Nolan's Memento but the interview was terrible on it.

[IagoZazu]

The movie matters more to me. The only special features I see is documentaries, deleted scenes or songs, and artwork. Other than that, I don't care much for games or other stuff. I would be satisified if the DVD had a good documentary, some artwork, and some deleted scenes. Everything else would be just extra stuff.

[Widdi]

For Disney Movies yes. Usually the first thing I watch is the Backstage Disney section on any given DVD. Other films, unless I was really interested in the film then no. Hell I barely have time these days to watch a movie, let alone bonus features about it.

[miklc]

[quote="Disney's Divinity"]If it's The Little Mermaid. That's the only movie I'd buy every release of regardless. They could paint it black and I'd still buy it.quote]

Same!! I really do enjoy most bonus features particulary on Disney DVDs. However I have NEVER listerned to an Audio Commentary on any of my DVDs, am I missing out on much? One day I plan to watch lsitern to some, but like others have said there's not much time to do that. Which Disney DVDs have the best audio commentaries?

[BK]

Can anyone confirm if the R2 Blu-Ray of Meet the Robinsons has the 5.1 Effects Only Track?

[milojthatch]

Yes and no. My feelings on extras have changed over time. When DVD first came out I had to have the best version of every film I went after period. Being as most films unless re-released came with a second bonus disk anyway, that wasn't so hard to do.

Then around the middle part of the decade I guess the studios started to release bonus features in a separate and more expensive set in a bid to get more money out of their films I guess. At first I started to go after these more expensive versions to fulfill my completest mentality. But being as I'm not made out of money, I found myself buying fewer and fewer DVD's as result.

So I decided that only as select few films would get the two disk treatment. Most of my superhero films got a two disc purchases as well as my Disney and Pixar animated films. Other odds and ends just came down to how much I liked the film.

Then BluRay hit the market and now suddenly a lot of extras are being left off the DVD period and put onto the BluRay. Originally I didn't care, but last night changed all of that.

While I'm not going full into BluRay and in fact right now do not even have a player, I picked up the combo pack for "Princess and the Frog" on BluRay. Two things are what changed my mind on it. The first being the extras on Disney and Pixar films, which frankly are the heart and soul of my movie collection. Second was actually the Original Series BluRay release for "Star Trek." My Star Trek collection being the other side of the heart and soul of my collection. I like how it had BOTH the original AND Remastered versions of the episodes. Without that, I don't think I would have changed my mind.

As a big Disney and Star Trek geek, on those release I do watch every extra, even the audio tracks, so they matter to me. On other films, sometimes I do, sometimes not. So for me what I have decided is that I will for buy Star Trek, new Disney and Pixar releases (I'm not re-buying films I have, so Walt's Classics will only be on DVD in my collection) and possibly nature films like stuff from DisneyNature, Discovery Channel and BBC on BluRay. All other films will get the DVD treatment still with most getting bare bones releases. I don't care about films out side of Trek and Disney/ Piaxr that much. I like them, but not that much.

For me the best extras are original trailers, music videos from the original release (so not the new Disney Channel Circle of Stars crap we get) and then in depth interviews with directors, actors, animators and whoever else on the making. As an animator in training as I still see myself, the animation extras are like school work for me, and the more in-depth they get, the better they are.

But my favorite extras many times are not found on the discs, but rather the tangible things that sometimes comes with the films. The booklets that came with the original DVD releases for "Lion King," "Aladdin," and "Cinderella" had these amazing books and sketch art that I just loved. I was sad that other major releases, if not all Disney Animation DVD's didn't come with things like that.

[Goliath]

Bonus features are very important to me, as a film scholar. I have held off buying some Disney movies because I want to wait for a better release. In some cases, I also want a better picture quality, or even the film in its right aspect ratio. I didn't buy the 2001 Dutch edition of Pocahontas, for instance, because it was just a 1-disc with little features. I get jealous when I read about the US edition. But this really only goes for films I care about. I don't care about the bare-bones Dutch editions of Brother Bear or Atlantis.

What *really* annoys me, is when Disney will rerelease a film on a 1-disc without no bonus features worthy of that name, and then call it 'special edition'. I don't see why it's so hard to put some effort in it. Take Oliver & Company. It's just a repackaging of the old edition. The only bonus is a fluff piece of 5 minutes. How hard would it be to do a (short) making-of? All the animators and voice actors are still alive, so they only have to interview them. I don't ask for an elaborate 2-disc for every release. Dumbo's new SE was just 1 disc and the documentary was short, but all the bonus features were great.

[Goliath]

I haven't even explored all the bonus features on my DVDs; I've only ever watched/listened to 2 commentaries (Sleeping Beauty and Newsies, and lately that's been something that I've wanted to do; there's just so much info that I might be missing out on!

Most audio commentaries for Disney films aren't that interesting. The one for Sleeping Beauty almost put me to sleep, and the one for Jungle Book was very bad, too. That's what comes from having current animators doing the commentaries. They just go "ooooh" and "aaaaw" all the time. Andreas Deja in particular (and I love him) has an annoying tendency only to drop names all the time: "this was animated by...", "this was done by...", "this is from". Few Disney commentaries give a real insight in the making of the film. However, the audiocommentary on Lilo & Stitch was very informative!

However I have NEVER listerned to an Audio Commentary on any of my DVDs, am I missing out on much? One day I plan to watch lsitern to some, but like others have said there's not much time to do that. Which Disney DVDs have the best audio commentaries?

I'd say Lilo & Stitch has the best audiocommentary. Snow White is very informative too, because it has film historian John Canemaker and many excerpts from Walt Disney himself talking about the process of making the film. It was exciting to hear from Walt himself. The audiocommentary on Aladdin and The Little Mermaid are okay, I guess, but a lot of what's being said is already covered in the other bonus features, but that's because those discs were incredibly elaborated.

By all means, skip the commentaries to Sleeping Beauty, Jungle Book and especially Mary Poppins. The last one has Julie Andrews, Dick van Dyke and the Sherman Brothers, so you would think: "this will be fun!". WRONG! If you want to be put to sleep, listen to this. All they do is describe what's on screen.

[tsom]

I LOVE bonus features which is why I get mad when Blu-Ray discs get more features than DVDs since I don't have a Blu-Ray player and won't be getting one any time soon.

[Elladorine]

I enjoy audio commentaries in particular, partially because I like to listen to them while working (which means I don't have to focus on the screen to enjoy what's being said). I don't mind the name-dropping so much, as I find it interesting to know who worked on what scene or character, especially with the older films that don't have specific animators tied to their characters in the credits.

I always enjoyed the segments that covered the voice acting but it seems it's something of less and less importance as time goes on. Behind the scene docs can be great too but they're often a whole lot of fluff.

I used to live for the bonus features, but they've been so disappointing lately. But whatever, as long as I can have a decent copy of the movie I'm good.