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How in the world can you have a discussion about DVD packaging and special features without mentioning the Lord of the Rings trilogy extended edition box sets?

How in the world can you have a discussion about DVD packaging and special features without mentioning the Lord of the Rings trilogy extended edition box sets? Not only did the movies come in beautiful collector’s cases with two DVDs per movie, they were also completely packed with special features, the run time of which exceeded that of the movies themselves. Hours and hours of in-depth making-of documentaries. I used to watch the special features for all the movies in a row when I was home from college during the holidays. Probably because before the advent of streaming, this was the longest, highest-quality content I had access to. But the special features themselves… man. Getting to see the craft of filmmaking and propmaking was one of the biggest inspirations for me in pursuing a career as a maker. That was the first time in my life anyone had pulled back the curtain to that extent on what it took to create something as complex and powerful as Peter Jackson’s LOTR. You could tell the profound love and dedication that went into every inch of that film. To anyone who was involved in creating those special features and deciding to include them in the extended edition box sets, thank you.

navbaker 2y ago
I absolutely consider the EE discs to be the canonical version
- justinator 2y ago
  I consider the books to be canonical, honestly.
  - gjsman-1000 2y ago
    + 1 Here. I can hardly sit through The Two Towers, extended or otherwise, without cringing constantly at nonsensical plot changes. No, Faramir was not a moody nihilistic relativist who changes his entire outlook without any character development. No, there was no alliance, and getting from Lothlorien to Helm's Deep in the span of a few weeks, with a full army, is physically impossible even if the army were already assembled. (This was only in the movie after a last-minute cancelled attempt to turn Arwen into a warrior; seriously.) No, Treebeard didn't spend 2/3s of the book stalling. No, Frodo did not offer a wringwraith the ring, even for a second. And if he did, there's no way he would've survived afterwards. And on, and on...
    - stronglikedan 2y ago
      A movie adaptation of a book is a retelling of a story for a completely different type of audience, so it's an apples to oranges comparison always.
      - hx8 2y ago
        That is how Hollywood does movies. Other film traditions will more accurately adapt the source material. For example, many animes are a shot-for-shot recreation of manga.
        entropicdrifter 2y ago
        >For example, many animes are a shot-for-shot recreation of manga. This is something of a newer phenomenon in the grander history of anime as an artform. Osamu Tezuka, one of the founding fathers of the modern anime industry, notably created the filler-heavy formats of yesteryear that were the dominant form of popular televised anime well into the 21st century. There are notable early outliers like Yu Yu Hakusho and Death Note, but most of the popular anime had their runtimes padded all to hell in order to continually cash in on the unpredictable zeitgeist popularity of their source material. This trend of creating manga-accurate adaptations was largely spawned during the mid-80's OVA boom (wherein many one-shot OVAs were functionally made as high-production-value advertisements for their corresponding manga), but it largely didn't make the leap to TV anime until well after the turn of the century.
        justsomehnguy 2y ago
        > This is something of a newer phenomenon in the grander history of anime as an artform It's hard to argue about 'a newer phenomenon' which is now closer to Astro Boy than our current time. > most of the popular anime had their runtimes padded all to hell in order to continually cash in on the unpredictable zeitgeist popularity of their source material You can't 'faithfully recreate shot-for-shot' an ongoing title, you would be out of the material way earlier than out of the runtime. This is not even diving on the differences between the manga and the manga eiga.
  - navbaker 2y ago
    The article, the OP, and my comment weren’t talking about the books.
  - syndicatedjelly 2y ago
    I considered Canonical to be canonical
robbs 2y ago
If you haven’t already, get yourself to Wellington and take the tours at Weta. You might even recognize a few of the faces that still work there.
Damogran6 2y ago
I think this was the point where they started looking not at ticket sales, but overall lifetime earnings per family...sure, it's the ticket, then the DVD, then the BluRay, then the Extended BlueRay, then the Criterion Edition (with Sting)
ksec 2y ago
I want something that is small, May be Mini-CD size but with TeraByte of storage. That is able to fit that whole LOTR and all the Extra, in 4K Ultra High Quality in one disc. It took a really really long time for Vinyl to make a come back. I hope we could one day innovate enough and bring physical media to the market again.
astrange 2y ago
Most of the people I know who talk about LOTR movies are women who watched them once, but mainly rewatch the making of parts, because they don't care about the story as much as they care about seeing a group of dirty-looking men be friends with each other in ways that sort of look homoerotic but aren't explicitly. Should be familiar if you know any anime fangirls.

navbaker 2y ago

I absolutely consider the EE discs to be the canonical version

justinator 2y ago
I consider the books to be canonical, honestly.
- gjsman-1000 2y ago
  + 1 Here. I can hardly sit through The Two Towers, extended or otherwise, without cringing constantly at nonsensical plot changes. No, Faramir was not a moody nihilistic relativist who changes his entire outlook without any character development. No, there was no alliance, and getting from Lothlorien to Helm's Deep in the span of a few weeks, with a full army, is physically impossible even if the army were already assembled. (This was only in the movie after a last-minute cancelled attempt to turn Arwen into a warrior; seriously.) No, Treebeard didn't spend 2/3s of the book stalling. No, Frodo did not offer a wringwraith the ring, even for a second. And if he did, there's no way he would've survived afterwards. And on, and on...
  - stronglikedan 2y ago
    A movie adaptation of a book is a retelling of a story for a completely different type of audience, so it's an apples to oranges comparison always.
    - hx8 2y ago
      That is how Hollywood does movies. Other film traditions will more accurately adapt the source material. For example, many animes are a shot-for-shot recreation of manga.
      - entropicdrifter 2y ago
        >For example, many animes are a shot-for-shot recreation of manga. This is something of a newer phenomenon in the grander history of anime as an artform. Osamu Tezuka, one of the founding fathers of the modern anime industry, notably created the filler-heavy formats of yesteryear that were the dominant form of popular televised anime well into the 21st century. There are notable early outliers like Yu Yu Hakusho and Death Note, but most of the popular anime had their runtimes padded all to hell in order to continually cash in on the unpredictable zeitgeist popularity of their source material. This trend of creating manga-accurate adaptations was largely spawned during the mid-80's OVA boom (wherein many one-shot OVAs were functionally made as high-production-value advertisements for their corresponding manga), but it largely didn't make the leap to TV anime until well after the turn of the century.
        justsomehnguy 2y ago
        > This is something of a newer phenomenon in the grander history of anime as an artform It's hard to argue about 'a newer phenomenon' which is now closer to Astro Boy than our current time. > most of the popular anime had their runtimes padded all to hell in order to continually cash in on the unpredictable zeitgeist popularity of their source material You can't 'faithfully recreate shot-for-shot' an ongoing title, you would be out of the material way earlier than out of the runtime. This is not even diving on the differences between the manga and the manga eiga.
- navbaker 2y ago
  The article, the OP, and my comment weren’t talking about the books.
- syndicatedjelly 2y ago
  I considered Canonical to be canonical

robbs 2y ago

If you haven’t already, get yourself to Wellington and take the tours at Weta. You might even recognize a few of the faces that still work there.

Damogran6 2y ago

I think this was the point where they started looking not at ticket sales, but overall lifetime earnings per family...sure, it's the ticket, then the DVD, then the BluRay, then the Extended BlueRay, then the Criterion Edition (with Sting)

ksec 2y ago

I want something that is small, May be Mini-CD size but with TeraByte of storage. That is able to fit that whole LOTR and all the Extra, in 4K Ultra High Quality in one disc. It took a really really long time for Vinyl to make a come back. I hope we could one day innovate enough and bring physical media to the market again.

astrange 2y ago

Most of the people I know who talk about LOTR movies are women who watched them once, but mainly rewatch the making of parts, because they don't care about the story as much as they care about seeing a group of dirty-looking men be friends with each other in ways that sort of look homoerotic but aren't explicitly. Should be familiar if you know any anime fangirls.