Excellent Reviews

[WOLFie]

I never really looked over the reviews until today after a liitle help and I have to say I am impressed. The lay-out and writting is excellent and only one other site I can think of comes close or does it better that I visit regularly. Its a shame you guys dont review non-Disney movies because the job done on these Disney titles is great and surpasses some bigger sites 2 folds.

Keep it up and dont change it.

[AwallaceUNC]

I totally agree. I just read the Treasure Planet DVD review (edit: again ) today and can't wait to buy it. I like to read the reviews before and after I watch the movie & DVD features.

-Aaron

[Luke]

Thanks for the compliments! A lot of work goes into them, and I think we do a decent job of giving each title its due respect in treating.

Most of the credit should go to Mr. Jack Seiley, who's written a number of the animated classic reviews. We also have a couple of others who have written some, namely 2099net, Jake Lipson, Captain Hook, Disneykid, and disneyfella.

It's great to hear people are reading them, even if they're just finding them for the first time today! I appreciate the feedback!

[yoda_four]

I just like to say, I love the reviews on this site! They make even some of the worse Disney DVDs out there worthy of a purchase! Thank you Disneykid, Jack, Luke, Captain Hook, and disneyfella!

WOLFie, what dvd review sites do you read? I can think of a few sites that present a more organized a thought out presentaion and format then UD (no offense, it's still great for what I've seen). I like the layout a DVD Movie Guide the best, although the new format is only adapted to the more recent reviews. I like how IGN DVD rates the movie, video, audio, and extras all separately and on a scale of 1/10. IGN also has a nice layout and provide great screencaps with some funny writing below them (check out the Cast Away or Triplettes of Belleville review). I've seen others, but these are my main review sites along with UD. Luke, and other reviewers, if you could adopt a nice, straightforward format and presentation to the reviews, I'm sure more and more people would read them.

The perfect scenario I think would be to have the film, video, audio, and extras on a 10 point scale, with the screencaps inbetween, and have some nice text much like Colin's reviews at DVDMG.com.

Not to seem to picky or that I could do better, I think the site would run more efficiently with a sidebar/menu at either the top or side with stuff like FAQs, Animated Classics, Reviews, Upcoming, Cover Art, etc. Almost like the menu that's present at the bottom of most pages, although I've found that that menu changes around each time I go to a different page. You could even have a section for Countdowns or Editor's Choice.

I don't want to seem to critical. The site lovely, I just think it could be even better if it received a few changes. Definitely not a total overhaul, just some adjustments, etc. Think about it please. We could have a vote on it. BTW, I am learning HTML....

[AwallaceUNC]

I think another added plus to the reviews is that we know the people who wrote them, and have some insight on what they look for, etc, from the discussions here. That's something you don't have with other reviews, unless you're a member of their forum. Of course, the reviews are entirely comprehensive and enjoyable standing on their own as well. I was just thinking that is an added plus.

-Aaron

[Luke]

In response to yoda_four's comments, we've had a consistent format/presentation to our reviews for almost a year now and practically unchanged since we really started churning out more at the beginning of the year. If you're seeing something that looks drastically different, it's a year or more older. I've reformatted some of those older reviews, and in time, they all will be reformatted.

As for screencaps, I'd say about 90% of our reviews have them, and most of those have captions too. (Hint: mouse over the images.)

I've thought about using scores, but I've decided against them. For one thing, they tend to undermine everything just written. For another, they set themselves up for completely different discs to be compared to each other. Scales tend to be arbitrary. On a catalogue title, a trailer and a featurette might be the best you can expect for a movie, but not worthy of a 10. You also can't expect Old Yeller to look as good as Miracle, but taking off points because a film looks dated or isn't 5.1 doesn't make sense. In the end, I favor the literate-based reviews because they say more than a score ever could, and a score and writeup just doesn't seem to work.

Thanks for the feedback.