This brilliant review was written by Fi - thanks a lot hunni.
So, Friday the 11th of April was ‘the big day’. Harry Potter & COS UK DVD release. I for one was at Safeways before school waiting to be the first to buy it! So starting on the DVD appearance itself…
There’s no doubt about it. It is a nicely presented DVD. Once out of the protective sleeve the Box itself opens out into a double spread of the menus for both DVD’s, the film and the extras DVD-ROM. The menus are full colour and picture flow-diagrams and quite honestly look cool! Disc One shows the main poster release picture (Harry, Ron, Hermione and Dobby), whilst Disc Two shows a very cool Dumbledore gazing over a Blue Crystal Ball. Both Of the DVD’s have full animated menus once loaded and are really easy to navigate.
The DVD offers various Language Selections including Subtitles for both English and Arabic. Scene Selections are obviously present and a few special features are included on this disc. These are:
Year One At Hogwarts – This is basically just an extended trailer for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Teaser Trailer
Theatrical Trailer –These are Both Trailers for Chamber of Secrets. A little pointless in my opinion as you’ve obviously now seen the film and bought the DVD!
That’s all there is to the DVD itself. The Dumbledore disc boasts heaps of special features with one major drawback in my opinion; it is a DVD-ROM disc. It won’t run on a DVD player and must be run on a PC with a DVD drive. (Just to note the system requirements are: InterActual Player installed (The disc will automatically install this), running Microsoft Windows 98SE or higher, Microsoft internet Explorer 5.0 or higher, an internet connection, a DVD-ROM drive, Macromedia Shockwave 8.5.1 or higher and a software or hardware DVD player. And it may not work on Apple or Macintosh computers).
So down to the real special features, I’ll give you a run down here with my personal opinions and descriptions:
Game Preview – This is an EA Game demo for Chamber of Secrets. It calls it a demo, but really it’s just a short series of clips from the game similar to those shown on the TV adverts.
Interview with J.K.Rowling and Steve Kloves – I must admit I found this interesting. It was conducted by the guy from Newsround (I seriously can’t remember his name!) and covered quite a few topics about the film in general i.e. problems found e.t.c. It was interesting but quite long and there wasn’t a was you navigate it or skip bits e.t.c.
Interviews with Students, Professors and More – These are quite short including personal interviews with most of the main adult cast and the main younger cast. The adult’s interviews could be viewed separately whilst the younger cast was mixed in together but spilt under several different headings. Again bits of these were interesting but it did start to get a bit dull and repetitive.
Gallery Of Production Sketches – If you are interested in the design process e.t.c then this is defiantly worth a look. It includes literally hundreds of sketches, drawings and paintings of various scenes, characters e.t.c.
Dumbledore’s Office – Here you can Tour the office and get to explore the parts of it not seen in the film. It’s a good idea but frankly not produced well. You are given dialogue describing various parts of the office that you look at but often the speech cuts out halfway though a sentence. It wasn’t the most enjoyable part of the disc for me but if you were younger I’m sure it would be ideal entertainment. Here you can also watch a film about the making and designing of Dumbledore’s office. This again is very interesting if you are interested in the design process.
Additional Scenes – The part everyone wants! Let me just say that they are worth it! Some were obviously pointless and not worth it but others…it gave me the satisfied feeling that was missing during the cinema. When you find they missed your favourite part of the film out. I’m still of the strong belief that these scenes would be better included in the DVD release of the film in their appropriate places but as long as we get them. There are a lot of them here, just watch out for the scrolling bars along the bottom. Scroll in both directions and don’t be mislead into thinking there are only six scenes!
The DVD-ROM trailer is included here but, like the Theatrical trailer it’s a bit pointless. You already own the DVD, you don’t need to try and sell it to us!!!!
Spell caster Knowledge – A very short game seeing whether you can identify ‘what happens next’ in the film. Again it is badly produced as you can’t even hear the spells they are asking you to identify!
Gilderoy Lockhart’s Classroom – Again similar to touring Dumbledore’s Office. More suited to a younger audience I think.
The Chamber Challenge – This sends you running down a corridor trying to reach the girl’s bathroom! On your way you meet several people trying to stop you. Basically answer their factual questions about the film right and on you go (You can’t actually answer them wrong. You just keep selecting answers until you are right!). Once in the bathroom a few more questions face you until you reach the Chamber itself. Here again, like the offices, you can tour it. Here again…it’s badly produced.
The Forbidden Forrest Challenge – To be honest I played this for one minute and gave up. It didn’t seem to do much at all. It was very disappointing as it could have been a good game. Perhaps younger viewers would have more patience!
Colin’s Darkroom – Here you can select your own choice of film photos of cast and film stills to create your own slideshow. Amusing enough for a six year old.
Tour Diagon Alley – Starting to experience deja vu? That’s right. It’s just like the rest of the tours. Quite interesting but, you guessed it, badly produced!
It should be noted here that if you have a working microphone you can navigate your DVD-ROM with it giving you a ‘magical experience’. I didn’t try this as I don’t have a microphone!
So there, that’s my review. It’s a little on the long side so let me sum it up. The DVD does boast many special features but they are in general badly produced. To be honest I’m not encouraged by the fact it wouldn’t run on my computer either even though I have the system requirements. I had to go to my friend’s to watch it. There were some good ideas here but frankly I think I might be purchasing The Prisoner of Azkaban on Video… Decide for yourself though.
Thanks very much to Fi - you're an angel sweetie ^_^